Great win on the road for depleted Felinheli squad

GENERO ADRAN NORTH

LLANFAIR UNITED 0

CPDM Y FELINHELI 1 (Greenough 5)

A great three points on the road for a Felinheli side which travelled to Powys with the bare minimum of 11 players and some key personnel carrying injuries.

Captain Kelly Jones and the experienced Jordanne Greenough were both nursing hamstring strains and four important regulars were missing, top-scorer Ffion Williams, Katie Midwinter, Shannon Jones and Nel Huws.

The management had to introduce inexperienced under-19 players to make up the starting 11.

Despite this Felin started very brightly playing some good football and pinning their opponents back.

They were rewarded on five minutes when Greenough capitalised on a loose ball to take a shot on target which was deflected away from goalkeeper Ffion Evans and nestled in the bottom corner.

Next 15 minutes was all Felinheli, Greenough again put through on goal but Evans made a great save to keep it 1-0.

Again Greenough was released by Fflur Williams, but it was one too many sprints for her hamstring to take and she went down injured.

With no substitutes on the bench Felin decided to put Greenough in goal and bring Catrin Beech out to play at right back.

Felinheli held out until half time with both teams getting half-chances.

Second half Llanfair started brightly with Gemma Jones their outlet but she could not find the final pass to trouble the injured Greenough in goal with Felinheli keeping their shape and defending brilliantly.

With some tired legs in the Felinheli ranks the inevitable pressure kept building from Llanfair but it was the visitors who created the more significant chances on the break with Fflur Williams having two one-on-ones saved by the impressive Evans.

Llanfair tried to expose Beech, who was playing an unfamiliar role at right back, but the youngster stood up to the challenge and put a Player of the Match performance in – an absolute superstar in the making.

Felinheli’s defence held strong with Llio Henshaw, Kelly Jones and Yasmin Williams sniffing out the Llanfair attacks.

Llanfair played a lovely ball over the top in the final few seconds towards Gemma Jones, but Greenough made a wonderful save right at the death to make sure Felinheli came away with all three points.

Felinheli coach Aaron Jones-Evans said: “A massive shout out to all the players that made the trip down to Llanfair, even though we only had 11 players with 2 injured and a goalkeeper playing as an outfield player.

“The coaching staff couldn’t have asked any more from them as they left every single thing they had on the pitch and they were all out on their feet at the full time whistle.

“For me this is much better than a big win as they all had to be there for each other from minute one through to full time and that is so rewarding as a coach.”