MORRISTON TOWN  3 - 3  GARDEN VILLAGE

Welsh Football League Division 2
Saturday November 18th, 2006

Garden Village left it late to secure a dramatic point against rivals Morriston Town at the Dingle on Saturday.

The visitors found themselves 3-0 down with 50 minutes on the clock but pulled it back to 3-3 in a dramatic last quarter of an hour to this derby contest.

Morriston, managed by former Village reserve team coach Paul Lewis, had former Swan Jonathan Coates in their line-up as well as Village old boys Dale Hulland and Leighton Connor but brothers Derrick and Jack Jenkins were not involved.

Bob Lloyd handed a debut to former Goytre midfielder Sam Brown while Steven Evans returned to the side after scoring a hat-trick for the reserve team the previous week. There was also a place on the bench for striker Lee Rastatter after a long absence from the first-team.

Village started strong but conceded an early goal against the run of play. A simple cross from the right on four minutes looked as if it would be dealt with by Stuart Lloyd but the ‘keeper dropped it in the path of a Morriston player and was converted to make it 1-0.

Dale Hulland was in fine form for Morrison and on eight minutes pushed an Ashley Stevenson header over the top while at the other end Stuart Lloyd made a fine acrobatic save to deny the hosts a second on 14 minutes.

The match should have been levelled with six minutes remaining of the half; Ashley Stevenson beat the offside trap to race through on goal, he tried to raise it over the top of Hulland but the stopper managed to get a hand to it.

Morriston handed their visitors the killer blow with a minute to go until the break with a shot across the face of goal and into the bottom corner.

The second-half started the same as how the first-half ended, Morriston scoring. They looked to have put the match beyond their Swansea neighbours with a strike from close-range on 50 minutes which then prompted Bob Lloyd into making two changes, replacing Steven Evans and Derek James with Scott Evans and Lee Rastatter.

It wasn’t long until Rastatter had his first effort on goal with a header but it was easily dealt with by Hulland. The big striker was again involved soon afterwards, linking up well with Phil John who shot just wide.

With 13 minutes remaining Garden Village were awarded a penalty – Steve Devonald was ajudged to have been impeded by the Morriston defence and Haverfordwest official Jonathan Twigg pointed to the spot. David Rimmer sent his unstoppable spot-kick to the right of Hulland to give Village what many people expected to be a consolation.

But the Garden Village players had other ideas. With four minutes of the 90 remaining, Phil John embarked on an inspiring run down the left-hand side, beating a couple of players, before sending his by-line cross to the far post where Lee Rastatter was waiting to head a first-team goal for the first time since April 2004. Game on.

Village pushed for a dramatic equaliser as both Ashley Stevenson and Chris Morgan came close in the dying minutes but did manage to get themselves a third and final goal in injury-time. Chris Morgan’s right-sided free-kick was flicked on by Jamie Mansell to the feet of David Rimmer who lashed home the equaliser.

Village: Stuart Lloyd; Jamie Mansell, Chris Morgan, David Rimmer; Cameron Hopkins, Steven Evans (Scott Evans, 51’), Phil John, Sam Brown, Steve Devonald (David Evans, 87’); Derek James (Lee Rastatter, 51’), Ashley Stevenson.

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