Newcastle Emlyn and Lampeter Town, two of the teams fancied by many to win the J.Emrys Morgan Cup were both surprisingly knocked at the first hurdle.
The reds who were missing a couple of players including their regular keeper Ian Hamilton were poor in the first half and there were few scoring chances but the deadlock was eventually broken when visiting striker Peter Almond let fly from long range to score. It was Llanilar though who looked the more hungry of the sides and they won the majority of the loose balls in the middle of the park and they were rewarded for their hard work with two late goals from Guto Roberts and Clive Morgan to seal the win.
Joint manager Owain Thomas who was given his marching orders after coming on as a sub along with his opposite number said that his team hadn’t really turned up and added:” It was a very poor game from our own perspective and we were just not good enough.
“I changed the team around a lot to give some boys a chance to play for places in next week’s crunch match with Llandysul and we had no goalkeeper so we had to play midfielder Oliver Evans in goal so we ended up with only one centre midfielder available.
“Not much happened for us especially in the first half with both teams cancelling each other out on a pitch which was difficult to play football on.
“We’ll regroup this week and hopefully get a reaction from everyone on Friday night.”
Lampeter got off to a disastrous start away at Berriew when stand in right back Robert Slawkowski gifted the home side a goal when he got caught dribbling out of defence and striker Josh Gethin slotted home. The visitors gradually grew into the game and equalised when Luke Lovell curled an effort from 30 yards which hit the underside of bar and bounced off the line and Gethin Hunter was on hand to tap it in to make it 1-1.
Within five minutes Lovell went on a mazy run and picked out Christy Gale who squared for Scott Davies to make it 1-2 in favour of the visitors. However Berriew equalised with ten minutes to go with a mistake at the back costing them again when they lost possession around the edge of their box and the ball was whipped into the danger area and into the net by Gethin. That was about the last chance that Berriew had for the rest of the game and throughout extra time, as Lampeter dominated proceedings but chance after chance went begging.
The home keeper made some fantastic saves to deny Gethin Hunter, Luke Lovell and Gethin Davies and there were also two clearances off the line as Berriew hung on successfully for penalties.
Youngsters Scott Davies and Szymon Konwiak unfortunately missed their penalties and Lampeter crashed out but it was a very entertaining game.
Crannog coasted to victory over Bargod Rangers with goals from Dylan Davies who bagged a brace, George Colven, Mike Glover and a bizarre own goal when a Rangers defender inexplicably rifled the ball into the top corner of his own net from the edge of the box!
Crannog manager Dylan Vaughan Evans said that he feared for Bargod and their short term future and commented:” It’s one thing to complain that players have left the club and ofcourse that is the main reason why they are struggling, but you need to fight for everything, and Saturday was just too easy for us.
It was so easy in fact that we should have got to double figures but we were sloppy in front of goal, it was so one sided but Bargod need to show some more fight .”
Cilgerran Rovers were 11-0 up at half time against SDUC before they took their foot off the gas in the second half. Dan Bellis helped himself to four goals, Louis Harding grabbed his second hat trick of the season and there were two goals each for Aaron Williams and Tom George. Others to cash in were Michael Williams, Marcus Castle and John Williams as the Rovers completed an easy 14-0 success against a team that will surely fold by Christmas unless they can find some players.
Young keeper Dafydd Nicolls didn’t have one save to make throughout the game and the only time he touched the ball was for a goal kick and dealing with a back pass.
St Dogmaels enjoyed a 3-0 win over New Quay in a game where man of the match Chris Morgan claimed two very good goals.
The Saints dominated most of the match and should have scored a few more but a goal eventually arrived and it was well worth waiting for with some excellent passing from the back that resulted in player manager Chris Thomas setting up former magpie Morgan and he slotted the ball home confidently.
Substitute Johnny James made it 2-0 when he was set up by Adam Williams on the edge of the box and he let fly with the outside of his boot but the best of the lot came midway through the second half when a pin point cross from Craig Williams was met by Morgan and he headed powerfully into the back of the net to make it 3-0 and game over.
Maesglas were unlucky to come away from Presteigne with nothing to show for their efforts as they created some decent chances with the game at 1-1 following a Nathan Jones strike and they hit the woodwork twice through Kyle Rowland and Dan Jones but a fluke of goal late on sent the hosts into the next round.
Pencader enjoyed a successful trip to Builth Wells as they came home with a 5-0 win.Kevin Evans and his men made a bright start and created loads of chances and finally made the breakthrough when Rhodri Rees netted. Owen Broom increased the visitors lead and further goals through Craig Gordon, Liam Gordan and Jordan Buchanan completed a 5-0 victory.
Five goals from Ffostrasol striker Dion Phillips helped seal an easy win for the Wanderers against Aberdyfi by 11-0. Aled Rumble also made the most of some poor defending to claim a hat trick and there were singles for Carwyn Morgan, Dion Davies and Marc Bowen.
Felinfach faced tough opposition in the form of Bow Street Reserves but they proved to be up to the task as they dug deep to ensure that extra-time was not needed with a late winner from Lee Forrester.
Kieron Boyes opened the scoring for the hosts with a smart finish from the edge of the box rewarding some good early pressure from the home side but Bow Street came to life after the goal and carved out an opening for themselves as Felin failed to clear the ball and the scores were level. Felinfach though regained the lead as Boyes doubled his tally to send the home side in at the break with a well deserved one goal lead.
The Street equalised midway through the second half with an easy tap in following a misunderstanding between a defender and the keeper but the home side hit back once again through a Forrester penalty and the milkmen looked to have secured their passage into round three but there was further drama when the visitors equalised for the third time.
And just as the game appeared to be heading for extra time captain Forrester came to the rescue with a superb volley to send his side through to the next round.
