Connah’s Quay Nomads hit top spot while two young stars earn national selection

GENERO ADRAN NORTH REPORT – OCTOBER 22, 2022

Connah’s Quay Nomads 4 (Kural 2, Haynes, Hamer)
Llanfair United 1 (S Ellis)

Report: Adam Angerer

Connah’s Quay Nomads could not be in finer fettle as they prepare for this Sunday’s crunch Welsh Cup tie against Cymru Premier side Aberystwyth Town at Deeside Stadium (kick-off 2 pm).

Jordan Parry’s team sit top of tier 2 Genero Adran North after maintaining their 100 percent record at the weekend with a 4-1 home success over Llanfair United.

The Deesiders have also been boosted by the news that young talents Sienna Strapp and Emily Bentley are selected for the Welsh Colleges squad.

Sunday afternoon saw Nomads hit the summit after goals from the front three of Kirstie Kural, Jennifer Haynes and Tamara Hamer secured a comfortable victory.

The Quay came into this game triumphant in all five matches played this season. Nomads had already defeated Llanfair just a few weeks ago in the FAW Women’s Cup with Kural and Elana Harley both scoring braces.

As for Llanfair, they have had a tough start to their league campaign, having to play both Wrexham and Llandudno which leaves them bottom of the table.

However, they managed to grab their first win of the season last weekend after seeing off Llangefni Town 4-1 in the Adran Trophy.

Nomads manager Parry made a number of changes from last weekend’s 1-0 Adran Trophy win against Llandudno as Grace Murphy started her first league game in goal, replacing the absent Meg Robinson.

Chelsea Bloor, Haynes and Lauren Jones all came back into the starting eleven.

Llanfair had a huge chance to take a shock lead inside the first few minutes after a long ball found Mary Griffiths inside the area, however the forward fired over the crossbar.

Just two minutes later, Kural opened the scoring. Hamer raced down the right and delivered into the box and Kural was there to place her header beyond keeper Ffion Davies.

Haynes was denied by a fine save. but soon after made no mistake, finishing off a rebound after Davies kept out Kural’s attempt to make it 2-0.

The visitors halved the deficit in the 35th minute as Griffiths picked out Sarah Ellis, who placed a powerful shot into the bottom-left corner.

Gemma Jones missed a chance to make it 2-2 at the break.

Ten minutes into the second half, Nomads restored their two-goal cushion as Haynes’ flicked the ball on to Hamer who remained calm, lobbing Davies to score her first of the season.

Kural clattered the bar before Parry made a triple substitution, bringing on three U19 stars in Harley, Polly McGregor and U19 captain Strapp in place of Bloor, Lauren Jones and Haynes.

Moments later, Kural sealed her brace.

McGregor’s corner on the right was headed away at first but a superb first touch from Kural allowed the Nomads captain to steady herself before firing across goal into the bottom corner to make it 4-1 with her 11th goal of the season.