Flashback – 15 years ago: Porthmadog take spoils in Welsh Premier derby at Caernarfon Town

FLASHBACK – 15 YEARS AGO

Caernarfon Town 2 (Bobby Jones 24, Phil Doran 83)
CPD Porthmadog 4 (Gareth Parry 3 & 34, Paul Roberts 69 & 89)

Principality Building Society Welsh Premier – Saturday, December 22, 2007

Fifteen years ago this week Caernarfon Town took on Porthmadog at The Oval in the Welsh Premier League.

Though they had to withstand one or two hairy moments in periods of intense Cofis pressure, Port deserved their victory with another battling performance where they created seven or eight gilt-edged chances and converted four.

On a surface left muddy and sticky after a hard frost followed by heavy rain players found keeping their feet a problem and a passing game proved impossible.

Two goals by Gareth Parry in the first half and two more by sub Paul Roberts in the second secured the points which lifted Porthmadog off the bottom.

Port could have gone ahead very early when Carl Owen was put clean through, but having broken into the box chose to square the ball when a shot might well have been the better option.

This did not prevent the visitors getting off to a flyer for they recovered to put themselves a goal up after only three minutes.

Parry picked up a loose clearance and unhesitatingly fired past stand-in keeper John Rowley from 20 yards.

Paul Addo almost immediately levelled, but his shot was a shade too high.

Twice the speedy and direct Bobby Jones came close for Caernarfon and Barry Evans had to pull off a last-ditch tackle to halt Timmy Ojapah as the home side fought to get back on terms.

With 24 minutes gone, Town did make it 1-1.

Ojapah broke well down the right before feeding Bobby Jones, whose angled shot from 15 yards beat Richard Harvey.

Soon after Marcus Orlik could have restored the Port lead when released by Carl Jones, but Rowley pulled off a good save.

In the 34th minute, Aled Rowlands’ right-wing corner for Port led to a mighty scramble from which Parry finally turned the ball into the net from close range for his second.

Caernarfon had a good opportunity to restore parity, but Mark Thomas headed wide when well placed.

Just before half time, Orlik did find the Caernarfon net but from an offside position.

HALF-TIME: Caernarfon Town 1 Porthmadog 2

Port again threatened at the start of the second period with Rowlands twice shooting just over the bar from a good position.

After Parry had headed over from a corner, Kyle Jacobs broke down the right, squared the ball from the byline and it travelled via Carl Owen to Paul Roberts, who hammered Port 3-1 ahead.

In the middle part of the half the game became increasingly physical and bad tempered. There were several injuries and referee Steve Hames handed out a few yellow cards.

Rowley was again in action, keeping out a Paul Roberts effort.

When Port probably felt the job was done, the Canaries’ Phil Doran struck with a powerful 83rd minute effort from 25 yards which cut the deficit.

However, with a minute of normal time left Paul Roberts struck again, latching on to an Orlik through ball and beating his marker to score from 12 yards. 4-2 and game over.

TEAMS

Caernarfon Town

John Rowley
Mark Harris (Michael Jones 76)
Phil Doran
Lee Bamber
James Glendenning
Layton Maxwell (Khyle Sampson 76)
Mark Thomas
Timmy Opajah
Bobby Jones
Paul Addo
James Thomas (Kevin McGarry 71).

Porthmadog

Richard Harvey
Kyle Jacobs
John G Jones
Rhys Roberts
Barry Evans (Mike Foster 59)
Carl Jones (Paul Roberts 54)
Gareth Parry
Warren Beattie
Aled Rowlands (Richard Smart 79)
Carl Owen
Marcus Orlik

Referee: Steve Hames

Attendance: 259