Garden Village  2
Ben Brown (31') & Steven Evans (90')

Ammanford  0

Welsh League Division 2
Tuesday August 16th, 2005

A first-half strike from the impressive Ben Brown and a late tap-in by Steven Evans ensured Village of their first points of the new season in a very hot-tempered match at Stafford Common on Tuesday night. The visitors had nearly every player in their side booked and on 57 minutes had a man sent off. On top of that an Ammanford substitute was also sent off by controversial referee Jonathan Twigg after over reacting to his sides red card.

Village were without Neil Lloyd and Phil John so Lee Waite and Chris Thomas got their first taste of competitive action this season. Summer signing from Bryntirion Athletic, Richard Uffendelle, also played his first part of the season coming on as a late substitute.

Pembrokeshire referee Jonathan Twigg was put in charge of the match and to be fair he was pretty poor for both sides, so poor that it forced Club President Jack Thomas to shout: "Go back down to Haverfordwest to watch the dolphins!"

The home side piled on the pressure right from the start and had their first chance when Ben Brown sent a weak shot at former Village stopper Rob Thomas. Ammanford did look a little lively at the start and 11 minutes in ex-Gorseinon forward Nicky Dawson struck his shot just over the top. Ben Brown came close again on 14 minutes when he forced Thomas into saving low to his left after beating a ton of players and breaking into the box.

Marc Lloyd really impressed on the night with a number of excellent balls into the box. He put a free-kick onto the head of Ashley Richards on 17 minutes which he headed wide, and 3 minutes later he crossed to the unmarked Paul Bromage who put his low header wide of the target.

Matthew Martin was forced into making a good save mid-way through the half but shortly afterwards the deadlock was finally broken by Ben Brown, the ever-impressive striker rolling the ball under his former team-mate to make it 1-0. Lee Waite came close to making it two just a couple of minutes later but his header from Marc Lloyd's corner was cleared off the line.

The second-half started in similar fashion to which the first ended, with Garden Village on the attack - nine minutes in and Marc Lloyd clipped the top of the crossbar from a free-kick on the left. Things started to get nasty soon after when Ammanford were reduced to 10-men in bizarre fashion; their player went to the side of the pitch after receiving treatment, they had a throw-in which Mr. Twigg waved to be taken, but the player who went off thought that he was being called back onto the field of play.

When he emerged onto the pitch, he was given a yellow card for entering the field of play without permission and unfortunately for the player it was his second yellow of the game! The Ammanford bench went mental on the Haverfordwest official, one substitute went a bit too far and got himself sent off aswell.

Play resumed but as the game went on the Ammanford players started committing fouls in front of the referee and behind his back every other minute, by the end about 7, 8 or 9 Ammanford players went in the book.

Ashley Richards had an overhead kick saved and Ben Brown missed an absolute sitter with his head (it was harder to miss than score) but we were unable to find that killer second goal. Dayle Selvage then beat a man on the right-hand side of the box and forced Rob Thomas into making a save, but still there was no second goal.

We had to wait until the very last minute to get our second; a by-line cross from substitute Richard Uffendelle found Steven Evans inside the 6-yard box and he tapped-in through the legs of Thomas to score his first goal since returning to the club from Skewen.

Should be an interesting match at Rice Road next Wednesday (kick-off 6.45pm) when the two sides meet for the return match!