Spar mid Wales League
Important win for Aberaeron but Bow Street miss out at Llanfair.
Division 1
Aberaeron 2 Knighton Town 1
A late winner from Aberaeron striker Mattie Davies secured a hard fought win for the seagulls and three more valuable points.
Davies fired home with a trademark finish from just inside the penalty box and this result, coupled with the 3-1 win against Kerry the previous weekend has pushed the black and ambers away from the relegation zone.
The blustery windy conditions made life very difficult for all the players and there were very few chances in the opening half although it was Aberaeron who created the best of these but it remained scoreless at the break.
The deadlock was broken on the hour when roving defender Sion Clarke let fly with his left foot from close range following excellent work from the impressive Liam Jacques but Aberaeron went a man down shortly after this when keeper Barry Edwards was shown a red card for handling outside his penalty box. This forced manager Jason Jones to make a few changes and he handed the keepers jersey to front runner Ryan Jones.
Aberaeron had a few more chances to put the game to bed with Mike Gornall going very close but Knighton hit back and levelled matters when Gareth Mansell netted with a fine strike after the ball had come back off the woodwork. The seagulls then pressed hard and they were rewarded when Davies turned sharply in the box and picked his spot to put his team ahead at 2-1.
The visitors threw everything at their opponents in the closing stages but Aberaeron held on for the win they deserved and manager Jones was delighted with the three points: ”Knighton are a decent side and to be honest we knew it was going to be a big test for us and we are very pleased as the result as it is massive for us,
“The most pleasing thing though was the way we have played overall against tough opposition and I was impressed with our work rate and energy.
“I thought we were very good at times especially when going down to ten men and even then we always looked more likely to score.
I thought the boys took their goals really well and hopefully we can build on this and become more consistent and push on up the league table to where we would like to be”.
This weekend Aberaeron take on Churchstoke.
Llanfair United 2 Bow Street 1
Llanfair United were narrow winners of a cracking contest against Bow Street in a match that could so easily have gone the other way. It was the hosts though who got off to a flier on a very sticky pitch and they came close when Andrew Hughes raced through only to put his effort wide of the post. Bow Street then piled on the pressure and Llanfair were forced to scramble the ball away on several occasions to keep the Magpies out.
The stalemate was eventually broken when a good team move saw Paul Griffiths slip the ball through to Andrew Hughes down the left wing who then crossed low into the box for his cousin Phil Hughes to tap in at the back post.
Bow Street though rallied and reacted well and were soon level when Tomos Evans scored from a corner to make it all square at the interval.
In the second half, Llanfair started brightly once again and took the lead when a free kick from right wing Paul Griffiths found Andrew Hughes at the back post and he slotted the ball home for 2-1.
Llanfair saw the game out well although Bow Street came very close to snatching an equaliser late on when a shot deflected onto the cross bar.
Bow Street will have a chance to make amends this weekend as they entertain the same opposition at Cae Piod in the league with a 2.00pm kick off.
Pics by Ian Francis.
