Welsh League Division 2 Saturday September 17th,
2005
Garden Village missed out on the
chance to move up into the top-3 after losing 2-1 against an ENTO Aberaman side
who had two players dismissed in this fiery affair at Stafford Common.
Dayle Selvage had put the home side
in the lead with his first senior goal but ENTO were back on level terms soon
afterwards through a Leighton Price penalty. The Cynon Valley side both Stephen
Pugh and Ian French sent off in the space of 3 minutes at the start of the
second-half but they didn't back down and struck for a second time with 25
minutes remaining through full-back Craig Hewings.
Village welcomed back the suspended
pair of David Rimmer and Steven Evans, David Evans and Paul Bromage for the
visit of Aberaman, while midfielder Christopher Myles was handed his debut after
coming on as a second-half substitute. Jamie Mansell made his first appearance
at home in a Village shirt but last seasons top-scorer, Ben Brown, will be
missing for quite some time.
The home side dominated a lot of the
first-half possession but it was ENTO Aberaman who were to strike first when
Craig Hewings struck the post after only 4 minutes.
Craig Blake and David Evans both had
great chances to score with headers before Blake again curled one just past the
post. With 27 minutes on the watch Ashley Richards had a chance cleared off the
line by David Pugh after he had beaten the goalkeeper, but the deadlock was to
be broken just 1 minute later by the impressive Dayle Selvage. The
16-year-old had been putting decent balls into the box right from the start but,
once he had the chance to strike at goal himself, he took and from close-range
bagged his first goal in senior football.
Village could even have scored a
second 60 seconds later but Ashley Richards' ambitious strike from 25-yards was
held comfortably by the former Pontypridd shot-stopper Neil Collins.
Aberaman were handed a life-line in
the 32nd minute when Jamie Mansell handled the ball inside the area and left
Llandeilo official Hugh Towns with little choice to award the penalty.
Leighton Price, the brother of ex-Swansea City midfielder Jason, stepped-up
and placed the ball in the bottom left-hand corner.
David Evans came close to restoring
Village's lead a minute later with a header from Dayle Selvage's corner, and a
minute into stoppage-time Ashley Richards chose to strike at goal which was
saved by the 'keeper, but had the unmarked Steven Evans available to his left
for support. It remained 1-1 as the two sides went in at the break.
With just 8 minutes gone in the
second-half, Aberaman were reduced to 10-men after the dismissal of striker
Stephen Pugh. Originally, Village's Chris Thomas had put in a nasty challenge on
Pugh and in retaliation, the visiting striker threw his arm in the face of
Thomas. Pugh saw red while Thomas was cautioned for his challenge.
Three minutes later and Ian French
became the second Aberaman player of the afternoon to be given his marching
orders for a challenge on Steven Evans. Visiting coach Pip Edwards was also sent
from the sidelines by the referee.
To be fair, the 9-men of Aberaman played
better than they did with eleven and took a surprise lead on 65 minutes when
Craig Hewings was put through on goal and neatly chipped the ball over Mark
Snell. David Blackstock came close to scoring a third 5 minutes later with a
thunderous strike from close-range but Snell did well to make the save low down
to his left and push the ball 'round the post.
Both sides started to try all sorts of
things and shoot from anywhere to either get back into the contest or kill it
off. Stephen Powell, who was on target at Stafford Common for Pontypridd a
couple of months ago, forced Snell into making another fine save from his
acrobatic effort on 82 minutes, and a minute later Steven Evans beat Neil
Collins with a lob from the edge of the box but it dipped just the wrong side of
the crossbar.
Substitute Paul Bromage shot wide just
before the end and deep into injury-time David Rimmer shot straight at the
goalkeeper.
This was another poor result for Village
and it was all going well up until half-time. We could have gone two or three up
before Aberaman struck from the spot but we just couldn't convert our pressure
and chances into goals. We face a Barry Town side in the League Cup next
Saturday who have dropped down to second from bottom in Division 1 after their
latest defeat (2-5 vs Bryntirion).
I'd like to wish our good friends from
Aberaman all the best and hope they have a successful season, apart from when we
play you at Aberaman Park on January 28th!
Village: Mark Snell; Jamie
Mansell, David Rimmer, David Evans (Michael Hughes 90'); Dayle Selvage, Carl
Alfei (Christopher Myles 54'), Chris Thomas, Steven Evans, Nicholas Romanello
(Paul Bromage 72'); Craig Blake, Ashley Richards.
ENTO: Neil Collins; Craig
Hewings, Lee Williams, Ian French, David Pugh, Martin Edwards, Leighton Price,
David Blackstock, Stephen Pugh, Stephen Powell, Will Davies.
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