South Wales Hockey League
Division 1
Llandysul 2 Rhondda 0:
A succession of outstanding saves from Llandysul goal keeper Lleucu Ifans and two super goals from Tracey Davies ensured the Ceredigion Ladies continued with their winning run of 2020.
The Teifisiders welcomed the Rhondda first team to Ysgol Bro Teifi for a match sponsored by TGM Engineering and it promised to be an interesting game following a high scoring 4-4 draw earlier in the season and with both teams sitting 3rd and 4th in the league.
The very experienced visiting team started the match well putting the hosts under early pressure by the Llandysul defence managed to keep them out with good support work from the midfield. The pace of the Llandysul attack was also causing problems for Rhondda as they played a high defensive line giving Tracey Davies, Michelle Davies and Crisial Gwenllian room to run in behind them.
The opening quarter of the game was very tactical with both teams testing each other but the first goal came for Llandysul following excellent work by Crisial Gwenllian down the right wing. She wove her way along the backline, past two defenders and crossed the ball to the centre of the circle to Tracey Davies who timed her run perfectly to get the better of the defender to score an excellent goal. Rhondda continued to attack, forcing Llandysul keeper, Lleucu Ifans into make a string of fine saves to keep them out. The Llandysul midfield of Emma Jac Davies, Rhiannon Farr, Ffion Davies and Mererid Davies also worked hard to re-gain possession and to create opportunities for the attack.
Llandysul’s second goal came just before half-time when a strike by Gwyneth Ayers out of defence put Tracey Davies into space and she got the better of Rhondda’s high defensive line for a one on one with the keeper and the pace of the Llandysul hot shot was too much for the custodian and she scored another great goal to make it 2-0 at half-time.The home side knew from their previous enocunter that Rhondda would keep going and sure enough the team from the valleys made the Llandysul defence work hard in the second half but Gwenan Evans, Kelly Davies and Elen Williams kept them out for the rest of the half with player of the match Lleucu Ifans again making some good saves.
The Ceredigion ladies had opportunities to score again to put the game to bed but their experienced hosts worked hard to keep them out and the game ended at 2-0 and probably a fair result in what was a really competitive fixture between the teams.
This result puts Llandysul up into joint second place in division 1 of the South Wales league.
Many thanks to TGM Engineering for sponsoring
