ENTO Aberaman  1
David Blackstock (71')

Garden Village  1
Paul Bromage (54')

Welsh League Division 2
Wednesday May 3rd, 2006

Garden Village held promotion-chasers ENTO Aberaman to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday after a spirited performance at Aberaman Park.

The visitors took the lead early on in the second-half when a Marc Lloyd free-kick met the head of Paul Bromage, but ENTO were back on level terms 17 minutes later when David Blackstock lifted the ball over the head of Village 'keeper Mark Snell. ENTO were reduced to 10-men 3 minutes before the end of normal time, the experienced Ian French picking up a second yellow card from Ton Pentre official Nigel Jones.

The match kicked-off 15 minutes later than the scheduled time of 6.30pm as the team bus was caught up in the heavy traffic after the accident on the M4 between Penllergaer and Hendy.

Village were denied a proper warm-up prior to the beginning of the match but started brightly. The game, though, had to wait until the half-hour mark for its first proper attempt on goal when ENTO striker Lee Brewer headed just wide, and Lee French brought a save out of Mark Snell shortly afterwards.

The visitors' first real chance on goal came 9 minutes before the break when Paul Bromage's goalbound half-volley was deflected over the bar, and a minute into stoppage-time Paul Dickie shot just wide after some good build up play down the left-hand side.

We didn't have to wait long for an opening goal after the match re-commenced for the second-half; Marc Lloyd struck a free-kick over the top of the defence and into the heart of the ENTO penalty area where Paul Bromage was at hand to head past Neil Collins for his first goal of the season. Ashley Richards came close to adding a second two minutes later but he shot straight at Collins.

That lead was to last until 19 minutes from the end when a rather fortunate David Blackstock, once on the books at Kilmarnock, stuck his foot out to meet a cross from the left-hand side and deflected the ball over over the head of Mark Snell into the top corner of the net.

ENTO had a new lease of life after getting themselves back into the game, but they could easily have found themselves behind once again had Steven Evans converted two glorious chances. The first, on 75 minutes, saw Craig Smith play an excellent ball down the right-hand side and, after a mistake by the defender, Steven Evans raced through on goal only to send it over the top. Evans could have capitalised on another defensive error two minutes later when 'keeper Neil Collins dropped Marc Lloyd's ball into the box, it fell to the feet of Evans 8-yards out but he shot over the bar.

Ian French was red carded after a tackle on Chris Thomas 3 minutes from time and with time running out Garden Village should have wrapped things up when the head of Ashley Richards met a cross from substitute Nigel Rogers, it beat Collins but the former Scunthorpe trainee was saved by the crossbar.

Village: Mark Snell; Craig Smith, Steve Bater, David Rimmer; Owen Williams (Nigel Rogers 74'), Paul Bromage, Chris Thomas, Steven Evans, Marc Lloyd; Paul Dickie, Ashley Richards.

Not Used: Oliver Dugdale, Josh Davies.