Ardal North West – Dan Clarke grabs hat-trick as Denbigh hit Albion for six

Ardal North West report – August 17, 2022

Denbigh Town 6 Llandudno Albion 2

Report: Iwan Jones

Dan Clarke’s hat-trick was the highlight of a dazzling Denbigh performance which puts them second in the tier 3 Ardal North West.

Owen Cordiner, Paul Fleming and Nathan Brown also made the scoresheet at Central Park in an all-round entertaining game.

Denbigh’s manager Dewi Llion Jones started with the same 11 that had won 2-0 against Flint Mountain last Friday.

Albion came into the game on the back of an impressive 4-1 win at Llangefni – their 250th competitive match – but it was Denbigh who started the better.

The deadlock was broken after eight minutes when right back Sion Jones sent in a cross which Cordiner flicked towards goal at pace to beat keeper William Jones, who was in for a busy night.

Six minutes later Clarke was crudely brought down in the penalty area and referee Gareth Edwards pointed to the spot.

Up stepped Brown, who sent a low drive to Jones’ right-hand side only for the keeper to guess correctly and dive the same way to smother the ball.

Town went two-up on 18 minutes when tenacious midfielder Sean James sent an inch-perfect pass into the run of Clarke, who dribbled around his defender to send a powerful low shot into the corner of the goal

Cordiner thought he had his second of the night when the young striker’s well-struck shot was goal bound only to glance the post and rebound away to safety.

With Denbigh in complete control, they got their third when Clarke picked the ball up on the right wing in the Albion half. He moved inside to unleash a wicked shot which ricocheted off a defender, thus wrong-footing Jones and the ball hit the back of the net.

A score of 3-0 after 27 minutes could well have been four as Cordiner’s header was brilliantly saved from close range by Jones and parried over the crossbar for a corner.

From that flag-kick Brown sent in a ball which found captain Paul Fleming unmarked at the back post and he was able to head home to make it 4-0.

Albion reacted by pulling one back when Calum Jones headed in from a corner, meaning the teams went in at half time with the Town 4-1 up.

With just over the hour played, Clarke got his hat-trick. Craig Rogers did some great work on the left wing to send in a cross for Clarke to head home from the edge of the six yard box.

Brown made it 6-1 after 73 minutes. Cordiner had been in a one on one with keeper Jones, who pressurised him away from goal to the touch line.

The striker turned and laid a neat ball into the path of Brown, who was standing on the six-yard box to slot home comfortably.

As the game petered out Albion pulled one back when record marksman Dave Maddock headed home his third of the season – and 103rd for the club in total – from close range.

TEAMS

Denbigh Town

Christian Wright
Sion Jones (Ben Lockley 63)
Chris Rogers
Billy Holmes (Harry Lockley 63)
Liam Simon
Keiron Roberts (Daniel Parry-Jones 63)
Nathan Brown
Sean James
Owen Cordiner
Paul Fleming (Sam Haddon 45)
Dan Clarke

Llandudno Albion

William Jones
Jack Atherton
Adam Jones (Lee Stokes 46)
Calum Jones
Ryan Vaughan
Daniel McIlvogue (Dean Seager 47)
Ben Jarvis
Dan Evans (Bryan Roberts 47)
Dave Maddock
Joe Carey
Adam Hold