North Wales Coast East Division One: Dragons nick late derby win, Amateurs victorious
NORTH WALES COAST EAST DIVISION ONE REPORTS – AUGUST 19
Rhyl All Stars 2 (Maitland-Price 22 & 32 pen)
Rhyl Dragons 3 (Gibbon pens 55 & 77, Cassidy 88)
The All Stars shone at times and the Dragons breathed fire on other occasions, but in the end it was the visitors who snatched the points after recovering from two-down to win 3-2 in a controversial town derby.
From the off, Robert Cunnah’s All Stars pressured the opposition.
The 22nd minute saw the Greens take the lead. After a ball in behind by Lewis Evans was chased by Elliot Maitland-Price and the away keeper, the All Stars man got the all important touch and flicked home for 1-0.
The hosts picked up real momentum from the goal, and continued to push attacks.
On the 32nd minute mark, an All-Stars cross into the box was blocked by a Dragons hand leading to a penalty.
Maitland-Price stepped up and hammered it home for his second of the game.
All Stars pressed for more, but had to be content with a 2-0 half-time lead.
While the hosts kept up the momentum at the start of the second half, Dragons were to score next from a 55th minute penalty by Jack Gibbon.
Dragons won a corner in the 77th minute, a resulting header appearing to be chested off the line by an All-Stars defender, but the referee pointed to the spot.
Another successful spot-kick from Gibbon made it 2-2.
Late on a headed goal from Adam Cassidy won it for the Dragons.
After the game, All Stars manager Cunnah said: “A very tough defeat to take today, a game we dominated for more than two-thirds, but decisions went against us and turned the tide.
“We performed very strongly and without a doubt deserved the win, but unfortunately things just didn’t go our way.”
Cunnah added: “We still need to be a bit more clinical in the final third, as we created a lot of chances, but quite often too much weight was placed on the pass, but you can see it’s coming.
“The team looked very well gelled again today, and it’s very positive going forward, and that’s what we need to build on.”
Glan Conwy 0
Llandudno Amateurs 3 (Rogers 36 & 88, J Jones 71)
Dynamic duo Azz Rogers and Joe Jones combined to deliver maximum points for the visitors at Cae Ffwt.
It was a tough test for the Amateurs. Glan Conwy played well on their small pitch and pushed the away side hard, but Rogers made it 1-0 at half time.
It remained the same until the 71st minute when Jones’ goal gave the Amateurs breathing space and Rogers completed the job with a third after 88.
CPD Caer Clwyd 2 (Lavery 1, Roberts 89)
Betws-y-Coed 2 (Llewellyn 3 & 69)
Tomos Roberts salvaged a point for Clwyd with an 89th minute equaliser.
Craig Lavery put the hosts in front in the first minute, but soon after Elliot Llewellyn levelled for the visitors.
Llewellyn grabbed a second for the visitors on 69 minutes and when Francis Roberts missed a penalty for the home side it looked like it might not be their day.
However, up popped Roberts with that late face-saver.