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Match
Report by Huwsi
Goalkeeping
errors once again United's downfall …
What an embarrassing experience Wednesday night's outing
to Nefyn turn out to be, with shambolic mistakes by United
keeper Luke Hughes once again costing United a game, which
the battlers from Llanrug should have easily won as they
were by far the better team, who played very attractive
football and scored three wonderful goals, but despite
a barrage on the Nefyn goal in the final minutes United
left Nefyn as laughing stocks, and an old cliché
comes to mind 'the better team lost'!
Back
into the starting line-up came Andrew Williams with Gavin
Edwards on the bench as Aled Owen kept faith with the
strike force that were available on Monday at Glan Conwy,
who were cruelly robbed of a point thanks to a dubiously
late penalty!
With
the ongoing road works on the way to Nefyn we had just
arrived as the teams were lining up for kick-off, and
by the time I was paying at the gate they were shouts
of laughter, as apparently the Penwaigs had taken the
lead, against a light breeze Ian Aikman, Nefyn's keeper
cleared his area with a long strike which Luke Hughes
came out to claim, but once again misjudged and the ball
bounced in front of him and into the net. The same thing
that happened against Glan Conwy in the Cookson Cup and
against Bethesda in the Barritt Cup and now he's completed
his hat-trick with a league cock-up as well!
From
the resumption United were by far the better team, advancing
up-field at every opportunity with Carl Griffiths and
Mathew Phillips linking up well on a number of occasions,
but Mathew's reluctance to shoot with his right foot gave
Nefyn time to regroup and shut things down. Dan Pyrs was
also putting himself about and got a shot on target (don't
know what's going on there!!) after 11 minutes but was
easy for Aikman. A corner after 17 minutes was delivered
just outside the area by David Noel Williams to Andy Williams
but his effort across the ground lacked venom.
Twenty
minutes in and Nefyn were awarded a free-kick some 25
yards out when Dan Pyrs was adjudged by the worse referee
in the country to have fouled. I can't believe what I
heard next, Dan was ordered by Chris Joyce not to argue
and complain with the referee - what next?! The free-kick
was the second effort Nefyn had on target, but Luke saved
low but failed to hold on and fumbled but luckily for
United it was cleared for a corner which came to nothing.
United's
reply came in the 37th minute, a fine worked attack when
David Noel released Andy into the area on the right side,
and he easily went passed a defender to the touchline
a delivered a fine low driven cross into the six yard
box and Carl Griffiths made no mistake from around four
yards out. One - one but it wasn't long before Nefyn regained
the lead, within five minutes Carl Wayne delivered a heavyish
back pass from around 30 yards to Luke Hughes who was
on his 18 yard line, and instead of controlling the ball
he attempted to shoot back up field but completely missed,
and the ball was in the back of the net. Whilst all the
Nefyn players and support were nearly on their knees with
laughter, this was an all too familiar sight for the Llanrug
faithful, who were questioned at half time as to where
was our usual keeper. Once the Nefyn players had stopped
laughing they got some encouragement from Luke's mistakes
and blasted a couple of efforts at an obvious dodgy keeper,
but both were well over. The referee saw a couple of Nefyn
handballs and actually played advantage when the only
advantage was to Nefyn as they had the ball! Half time
and the score was 2 - 1 with Luke vastly becoming Nefyn's
Man of the Match!
The
resumption of the match saw Gavin Edwards being introduced
in place of Andrew Williams, and he had an immediate impact.
Within a couple of minutes it was 2 - 2, Gavin some 25
yards out directly in front of goal controlled well, turned
and unleashed an unstoppable strike to the top right corner.
Within three minutes Gavin had a golden opportunity to
give United the lead, Gareth Eifion delivered a sweeping
pass from the right wing to Gavin's feet on the 18 yard
line, he advanced into the area and with only the keeper
to beat his effort to beat Aikman's left side was tame
and more like a back pass - pity Luke wasn't in Nefyn's
goal!
Once
again parity didn't last long, a Nefyn free-kick in the
52nd minute was headed on and then hooked into the area
by Dylan Jones and somehow found the back of the net,
3- 2. From the resumption United delivered a high ball
and two Nefyn defenders jumped to head the ball but flicked
back which Mathew Phillips pounced on and found Gavin
Edwards on the 18 yard line but the Assistant Referee
flagged for offside. When questioned as to why, the referee
replied that the two Nefyn defenders didn't intend to
head the ball! What game was he watching, and what rule
book does this idiot have?
Within
five minutes United had the chance to level things off
once again, but Gavin Edwards went for glory on the right
side with his left foot, when he should have crossed into
the area where both Mathew Phillips and Gareth Eifion
were free in space. Two minutes later and Luke was saved
from another embarrassment, a Nefyn corner and Luke advanced
to his near post leaving the goal exposed, thankfully
Joyce was at hand to clear off the line (we all know that
Joyce doesn't like to be exposed - a good job too!!).
Luke's embarrassment didn't escape the limelight too long,
within a minute it was 4 - 2, a lob from around 10 yards
out on the left side by Mathew Hardy saw Luke get both
hands on the ball but couldn't stop it from creeping in
high, but not all Luke's fault this time, Gethin Phillips
should have stayed on his feet but instead dived-in and
missed which gave the shooting opportunity.
David
Noel made it 4 - 3 after 64 minutes with a nicely worked
move which saw Dan Pyrs find Gareth Eifion who in turn
found David Noel in the right side of the area and he
coolly finished on the right side near post. From there
on it was all United, the wind had picked up which added
to the problems but it didn't stop a barrage of attempts
towards Nefyn's goal for United to once again claim something
from a match that should have seen them claim all three
points. The referee once again had a nightmare, but what
else could we expect as we all know he should have long
hung up his boots, Dan Pyrs was fouled on the half way
line - advantage - again fouled within a couple of yards
- advantage - same again, fouled but got clear on goal
and the referee brings the game back to the initial foul,
how the hell can you compete with decisions like this?
There
was a flurry of activity in the Nefyn area from this point
on, with what seemed like all the players got in on the
action, but the increasing wind made it difficult to drive
balls into the area, and although United came close on
a number of occasions the score line remained at 4 - 3
and very, very flattering to Nefyn.
There
should be a mention in the Bruce Grobbelaar and David
James Hall of goalkeeping fame for 'Calamity Luke'. Someone
commented why there is never a video camera there when
things like this happen, it might be a great idea to boost
club funds, there have been enough incidents to earn a
fortune on 'You've Been Framed' this season so far!
Next
up United travel to Halkyn Utd for what should be three
points in the bag, but who knows when things like this
happen and there getting a minibus, they've never won
when a bus has been laid on, as it tends to be a boys
jolly, and by the way we'll play some football for fun
as well!!
LLANRUG
UNITED:
Luke Hughes, Gethin Phillips, Chris Joyce, Carl Wayne
Jones, Eifion Williams (Capt), Andrew Williams (Gavin
Edwards - 45 mins), Dan Pyrs, David Noel Williams, Carl
Griffiths, Gareth Eifion Jones (Aled Owen - 84 mins),
Mathew Phillips.
SUBS
(Not Used): Gavin
Rogerson, Keith Williams.
MAN
OF THE MATCH : Carl Griffiths
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2008/2009 