North East Wales Women’s League: Wins for Pwllheli, Llangefni and Denbigh Town

NORTH EAST WALES WOMEN’S FOOTBALL LEAGUE

WEST DIVISION

CPD Pwllheli 2 Trearddur Bay 0

Two penalties from Jini Owen Hughes clinched three points for a Pwllheli side which stayed on course to retain their league title.

As the season winds down through its final few matches, it looks highly likely that the Llangefni Town v Pwllheli clash on May 1 will be a championship decider.

While Pwll maintained their unbeaten record on Sunday, they were given a great battle by the vastly improved Trearddur Bay.

The message delivered to the away team before kick off was that they needed to be organised and disciplined.

Pwllheli are a tidy outfit, well-drilled and their passing and movement is undeniably impressive.

Bay were briefed – track your runners and try to cut out the balls into the channel. Maybe a challenge, given the number of regulars missing for the islanders, but a challenge that was met suberbly.

An improvised first half backline that saw Clare Head partnered with Amelia Roberts at CB, Georgie Wasnidge filling in at RB and Catrin Jones at LB dealt well with any of Pwllheli’s attacks.

Elsewhere, Erin Mulvey was a powerhouse in CM, constantly winning back possession and finding passes to drive the team forward.

Millie Turner fed some superb deliveries and a front two of Jess Woods and Caitlin Cochrane found themselves knocking at the door repeatedly.

Abbie Manning on the left went close with a great volley and some driving runs.

It took a 19th minute penalty, given against Turner for handball, to break the deadlock.

Jini Hughes calmly sent keeper Katie Bolton the wrong way from the spot.

Head commanded the area efficienly, nodding a few corners clear and Freya Davies made two goal-line clearances.

The second half saw Pwllheli earn several more corners, but they never managed any clear cut chances.

Bolton collected anything that came her way and Bay were certain, if they could get the next goal, they had a real chance of an upset, but the opportunities did not quite arise.

The visitors got themselves up the pitch, using the pace of forward players well, but also couldn’t work any definitive openings.

On the hour mark. Saffron Williams replaced Head. A reshuffle saw Williams play RM, dropping Davies to RB and Wasnidge over to CB.

The game remained 1-0 till the 82nd minute.

Wasnidge was adjudged to committed a foul in the box and Hughes once more netted the resulting penalty.

Pwllheli awarded their opposition’s player of the match to Freya Davies, while Bay named Lowri Hughes at CB as their PoM.

Llangefni Town 5 CPD Llanystumdwy 0

Unbeaten leaders Cefni remain eight points clear having played two more games than second-place Pwllheli.

Eleanor Coulson, who reached 50 goals for the club in her last outing, scored twice on Sunday to make it 21 for the current season.

Also on target were Ffion Owen, Hannah Owen and Ffion Thomas.

EAST DIVISION

Airbus UK Broughton 2 Denbigh Town 5

Denbigh fought back from two goals down to clinch an away victory which lifted them up to second place.

Laura Pratt and Grace Kehoe scored on 16 and 18 minutes respectively to put the Wingmakers in seeming command, but Catrin Davies and Lucy Morris hit back to make it 2-2 at the break.

In the second half, Lowri Claybrook edged Denbigh ahead early on before a Jessica Rishworth own goal extended the away lead.

Ceri Purvis converted a penalty on 62 minutes to seal the points for Town.

Berriew P Northop Hall P

Barring a mathematical miracle Berriew will end up 2024-25 champions.

Their game today versus Northop Hall, from which the Rhiewsiders needed just a point to secure the title, was cancelled as the visitors could not raise a team.