NWCFA Junior Challenge Cup – Y Glannau pull off heroic victory in quarter-final at Bontnewydd

NWCFA Junior Challenge Cup quarter-final

Bontnewydd 2 (S Jones 18, S Roberts 85)
CPD Y Glannau 4 (H Bellis pen 28, 53, MacGillivray 31, J Fontana 51)

Y Glannau joined fellow North Wales Coast East Division One sides Bow and Llandudno Amateurs in the Junior Cup semi-finals after a fantastic win at unbeaten Coast West Division One leaders Bontnewydd on Saturday afternoon.

Llanystumdwy are the other team through to the last four, the draw for which will be made by the NWCFA in January.

A performance full of passion and heart was enough to see Y Glannau through at Cae Stanley.

Bontnewydd took the lead against the run of play on 18 minutes. They won a free kick just outside the box and the following Rhys Roberts delivery was headed home by Sion Jones.

In the 31st minute, Josh MacGillivray played in Harrison Bellis, who ran through the defence and got to the ball ahead of keeper Mathew Roberts before getting taken out.

Referee Elwyn Parry awarded a penalty and took his time to make the decision on the colour of the card.

Eventually the verdict was yellow, with the ball going away from the striker.

Top marksman Bellis stepped up and smashed home the spot-kick to make it 1-1.

Aaron Dodwell fired over the bar before the visitors took the lead with a fantastic finish at the back post by MacGillivray. He timed his run superbly and was found with a brilliant cross field ball by Jake Reddaway.

Defensively everyone was excellent for the travellers, but just before half time they had a massive let-off when Bont missed a great chance..

HALF-TIME: Bontnewydd 1 Y Glannau 2

The St Asaph based away side knew if they could emerge all guns blazing they could finish this tie off early in the second half – and that’s exactly what they did.

MacGillivray’s corner was met by Joey Fontana, who rifled a header into the top corner to make it 3-1 on 51 minutes.

Two minutes later Fontana picked out Harrison Bellis near the penalty spot, He took one touch then hit a low strike underneath the goalkeeper for 4-1.

Jordan Davies-Jones and Kyle Hedge were winning so many headers at the back as Bontnewydd had to resort to long ball.

Osian Williams and Reddaway were both putting in some shift up and down the wings, causing problems for the Bontnewydd defence and stopping any counter attacks

Bellis then held the ball up well and played in Ash Bamber, who caught his shot nicely but it went agonisingly wide.

Despite heroic efforts from Tawse Cox, keeper Brad Wright and Williams on the line, Bontnewydd did get one back after an almighty scramble in the penalty area resulted with Shaun Roberts tapping home.

Late pressure from Bont brought no further reward with Y Glannau holding out well and doing the North Wales Coast East League hugely proud.