Ffion Thomas shows nerves of steel to convert added time penalty and earn Llangefni fantastic draw

NORTH WALES WOMEN’S FOOTBALL LEAGUE – MARCH 26, 2023

NFA 3 (Alicia Duke 20, Zoe Stopford 45+6, Megan Pursell 81)
Llangefni Town 3 (Jen Cox 21, Catrin George 45+1, Ffion Thomas pen 90+9)

An emotional Llangefni manager Dan Gregg hailed Sunday’s draw at second-place NFA as the team’s best performance yet in his 41 competitive games in charge.

Last season Cefni lost 7-0 and 6-1 in the league to NFA – but at the weekend it was a very different story.

A penalty nine minutes into added time from Ffion Thomas earned the Anglesey side a fantastic result against such formidable opponents.

Cefni became only the second team to earn anything at the Rhyl side’s ground this season, the other being champions Bangor 1876, who won 2-1 there last month.

Sunday’s clash saw Town again travel without regular first-choice goalkeeper Jess Marshall so Alaw Jones stepped in for only her second start with the gloves.

Llangefni had orders to protect the inexperienced keeper from the off and for the first 20 minutes will have felt on top of the game, pinning NFA back and in turn keeping most of the play away from the away goal.

After 20 minutes though, the hosts were awarded a corner and with a wicked delivery from Sade Benjamin, recent signing and player of the match Alicia Duke hit home to send the home team 1-0 up.

Showing massive character, Llangefni hit back within 60 seconds when Hannah Owen released Jen Cox, who finished calmly for a magnificent 20th goal of the season.

With a few injury stoppages ensuring the first half played six minutes over, one goal apiece followed for both sides.

Ffion Thomas delivered a ball over for Ellie Coulson, who bravely got clattered by the on-rushing keeper Courtney Ingram leaving an open goal for Catrin George to cleverly play to the whistle and tap in to make it 2-1.

This time it was NFA’s turn to react brilliantly when the dangerous Benjamin assisted Zoe Stopford to make it 2-2 on the stroke of the interval.

The start of the second half saw NFA gradually start to dominate and pin Llangefni in.

Cefni still looked dangerous on the break and Cox went through on goal and clashed with Ingram. Both players reacted bravely but Cox came off worse and was substituted for young prospect Jess Jones.

In the 78th minute a moment of madness for Llangefni. A ball was played through and goalkeeper Jones lost her bearings and picked up outside of her area and was shown a red card leaving Llangefni with 10 players away from home. Vice-captain Llinos Hughes took the gloves.

It took three minutes for NFA to make the extra player count, Megan Pursell slotting away to make it 3-2 and perhaps the hosts believed it was all over.

Matters got worse for the islanders when ever-present captain Nia Ginnelly was taken off injured.

But this Llangefni side is made of stern stuff this season and with the lengthy stoppage for injuries to Cox, Coulson and Ingram this side still believed they could do what only title-winners 1876 have done this season and take points away from Ffordd Derwen.

The belief paid off on 90+9 minutes, 30 seconds before the final whistle.

Hannah Owen was brought down in the box, Ffion Thomas stepped up to take the penalty and after missing one against Llanystumdwy in the game before showed nerves of steel to slot it away and send Llangefni into raptures.

Visiting manager Gregg said: “That was probably the best performance I’ve ever seen from this team. In a season with some top performances already, the togetherness, spirit and belief they showed was something else.

“We talked before the game about celebrating every tackle and every blocked shot and they did just that and more. Over the past two seasons, NFA have only dropped points 3 times at home to Bangor twice and Rhyl once – the last two league champions – so to be added to that list is a great sign for our team.

“Onto a big derby game on Sunday against Trearddur Bay who will no doubt be hungry to pay us back for a win in Cae Bob Parry a few weeks ago.”

TEAMS

NFA

Courtney Ingram

Jessica Mills

Grace Bamber

Caitlin Hadaway

Sade Benjamin

Amy Webster

Alicia Duke

Megan Pursell (c)

Ruby McGilloway

N/A

Zoe Stopford

SUBS

Chloe Evans

Libby McClelland

Stella Windsor

Rebekah Hansen

LLANGEFNI TOWN

Alaw Jones

Cara Hughes

Marissa George

Nia Ginnelly (c)

Ellie Coulson

Jennifer Cox

Hannah Owen

Catrin George

Megan Summers-Roberts

Ffion Thomas

Llinos Hughes

SUBS

Mared Roberts

Lara Cain

Jess Jones

N/A

Sharlee Owen