North Wales League – manager Sion Parry is overjoyed after Llanystumdwy’s first win in five months

NORTH WALES WOMEN’S FOOTBALL LEAGUE – APRIL 30

Denbigh Town 2 (Gunes 56, Evans 75)
Llanystumdwy 3 (Savage 15, Wellings 27 & 49)

A first win in five months for a Llanystumdwy side which lifted themselves out of the bottom three of the North Wales League.

It was also a first away success of the season for Sion Parry’s team.

Denbigh started the stronger but were unable to create a clear-cut chance as the Llan defence comfortably dealt with anything that came into the final third.

Then 15 minutes in, Llan got a free kick 25-30 yards away from goal.

Heledd Savage stepped up to take it and possibly caught Sophie Bancroft in the Denbigh goal off guard. Savage’s shot looped up over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net.

This goal seemed to give Llan a huge confidence boost as the following 10 minutes saw striker Ellie Williams have three good chances to make it 2-0.

First, some great link up play between Jo Cynan and Williams eventually saw the latter drag a left-footed shot just past the post.

Next a Denbigh defender misjudged a ball over the defence allowing Williams to hit a volley from the edge of the box which was well saved by Bancroft.

The following corner saw Williams flick the ball towards goal at the front post, and this time it was an even better save from Bancroft as she pushed the shot onto the bar and eventually away to safety.

The second goal did come for Llan around the half hour mark – and what a goal it was.

Hana Wellings won the ball in the Denbigh half, skipped past four or five players, and through on goal calmly slotted past the onrushing keeper.

The 10/15 minutes before half time saw Town regain a foothold in the game, but they were unable to score.

Half-time: Denbigh 0 Llanystumdwy 2

A couple of attacking changes were made by Denbigh at the interval as they tried to get back into the game, but it was Llan who got the perfect start to the half.

Left-back Leonie O’Hara challenged for the ball, and played it to Wellings, who despite being deep in her own half had plenty of space ahead of her as Denbigh had pushed forward in search of a goal.

Wellings carried the ball the length of the pitch, and similarly to her first goal, beat a couple of defenders before finding the back of the net for her seventh of the season and second of the day.

Any hopes Llan had of trying to see this game out comfortably were quickly diminished, as five minutes later one of Denbigh’s half time subs, Esra Gunes, pulled a goal back, receiving the ball 20 yards out and striking it over keeper Sara Lacey’s head and into the net.

Minutes later, just as Denbigh had got back into the game, Gunes was shown a red card, when an off-the-ball incident saw the ref give no hesitation in sending off the youngster.

Although down to 10, Denbigh were still looking to get something from the game, and with 20 minutes left they forced Lacey into a save.

In the 75th minute, Eluned Evans pulled another goal back. A Llan defender got caught on the ball and when it fell to Evans 25 yards out on the left-hand side, a powerful first time hit gave Lacey no chance.

This made for a tense final quarter-hour.

Denbigh finished the stronger as they tried to find an equaliser, but Llan held on for the win.

Sion Parry, Llanystumdwy’s manager, said: “I’m absolutely delighted for these girls. It’s not been easy, results have been tough to take.

“After seemingly building a squad before Christmas we’ve lost numerous players for different reasons, injuries and family commitments being the main one, including an injury to our top scorer Grace (Mpuku) who will likely miss the rest of the season.

“We’ve essentially had a squad of 12 in the last few weeks, so when a couple of those aren’t available it leaves us struggling for a team. Luckily when that has happened those that have been unable to play due to family commitments have made special arrangements to help us out.

“For most games we have 11 or 12 players and even played NFA at home with 10 players.

“So it can be demoralising for these girls when results don’t go our way, when we travel far, when we don’t have a squad. So they absolutely deserve this win, they’ve given everything they can and I can’t thank them enough.

“I’ve spoke to the girls before, about having a team that we think should be doing better in the league, but in the games we’d hope to have a decent amount of the ball, for whatever reason we’ve not shown our quality enough, and against Denbigh they’ve gone and shown exactly what they can do.

“For 60 minutes it was the best I’ve ever seen this team play – especially on the ball.

“I thought Jo (Cynan) played a big part in that as even though she was playing out of position she was linking up well between the midfield and attack, which allowed us to keep hold of the ball and sustain attacks.

“Hana and Sian (Morgan-Price) in the middle didn’t stop and the whole back 4 and keeper looked solid, it was the most complete team performance we’ve had.

“For the final 20 minutes especially. I was fearing that the mindset of not having won a game for 5 months was kicking in but they really dug deep to hold on, and a credit to Denbigh who despite going down to 10 kept going to the very end and could have got something out of the game.

“And I just want to give a mention to Jess Williams, Ffion Dunn, Leonie O’Hara, Siriol Clow and Heledd Savage, all 16/17 years old, their first season in senior football for 4 of them, available every single week, struggled and played through injury for us because we’ve struggled to get more than 11 available. And well done Heledd scoring her first goal for the club today.”