Bethesda and Porthmadog meet in league game for first time in over 30 years on Saturday – their last clash was in the 2011-12 Welsh Cup

Saturday’s fixture list includes the first meeting for 14 years between two of North Wales football’s most illustrious names.
Bethesda Athletic will host Porthmadog in a Tier 3 Ardal North West fixture, kick off 2.30 pm at Parc Meurig.
The last time these two met in a league was probably 1989-90 in the old Welsh Alliance, a season where Port were crowned champions and went on to become founder members of the new Cymru Alliance.
Port went on to spend 30 consecutive seasons in either the Tier 1 Welsh Premier or Tier 2 Cymru Alliance before being relegated to Tier 3 in 2021-22. Over that long period, there is no record of a league meeting between the Traeth men and Pesda.
The two teams missed each other in 2010-11, after Port had been relegated to the Cymru Alliance, where Bethesda had just campaigned, but unluckily lost their Tier 2 status at the end of 2009-10 after a restructuring of the Welsh pyramid.
So, the last time Saturday’s protagonists met was in the 2011-12 Welsh Cup – a round one tie on October 1, 2011, which Port won 3-1.

Here’s what happened that day………….

Porthmadog 3 (Craig Roberts, Steve Kehoe, Darren Thomas)
Bethesda Athletic 1 (Jonathan Newell)
Welsh Cup, October 1, 2011

Report: www.porthmadogfc.com

It took a good second half showing and three quality goals to compensate for an out of sorts first half performance as Port fought back from 1-0 to beat underdogs Bethesda.
Athletic had taken a first half lead and then set about making life difficult for Port, defending well, denying the hosts time and space to develop their passing game and backing this up with collective protests at almost every decision given against them.
The referee eventually lost patience early in the second half, issuing a red card to reduce Bethesda to 10 men after 51 minutes and following this up with 3 yellows which restored some order to a game that was in danger of getting out of hand.
After nine minutes Craig Roberts tested Pesda keeper Liam Shanahan with a shot on the turn and soon the visiting stopper pulled off a good save from Jamie McDaid and later an even better one from the same player diving at his near post.
On a rare sortie up field after 22 minutes Bethesda turned the game on its head. Winning a free kick out on the left central defender Jonathan Newell capitalised, when Richard Harvey failed to gather Darren Gowans’ powerfully struck free kick coming at him through a crowded box. Newell tapped into the net from close range.
Port continued to enjoy plenty of possession but struggled to threaten the away goal.

Half-time 0-1

From the start of the second period Port upped their game and Rhys Roberts, who had been switched to give more height up front, soon found himself in on goal thanks to a perfectly-weighted Ryan Davies through ball. But just as he was about to pull the trigger he was scythed to the ground by central defender Michael Lewis-Williams.
Referee M W Roberts was immediately surrounded by protesting Bethesda players but his patience was exhausted and the culprit received a straight red card with former Port defender Darren Jones seeing yellow, soon followed by two more cautions.
Gradually calm was restored and though Shanahan saved Darren Thomas ensuing free kick the hosts did not have long to wait before the scores were level.
Bethesda were hit on the break when a Ryan Davies pass opened them up putting danger man Darren Thomas in behind the visitors defence. He looked up and squared the ball for Craig Roberts to tap in from close range.
In the 66th minute, following a short corner on the left, Darren Thomas found Steve Kehoe in space on the edge of the box and the midfielder delivered the deflected thunderbolt that made it 2-1.
With 12 minutes left, Darren Thomas cut inside his marker on the left and fired a cracking low shot from 16 yards which found the net just inside the near post. Tie over.

Porthmadog: Richard Harvey, Phil Williams, Chris Williams, Steve Kehoe, Ryan Davies, Grahame Austin (Gareth Parry 80), Darren Thomas, Rhys Roberts, Jamie McDaid (Dan McCormack 83), Craig Roberts, Gareth Jones Evans (Mike Foster 60).

Bethesda: Liam Shanahan, Ian Owen (Lee Dixon 74), Darren Jones (Neil Hughes 79), Michael Lewis-Williams, Jonathan Newell, Ian Burgess, Kevin G Roberts, Nigel Barry, Gareth Davies, Darren Gowans, Kevin Lloyd Roberts.

Referee: M W Roberts (Llangefni). Attendance: 112.