Nantlle Vale 1 Porthmadog 3

Ardal North West

PORTHMADOG kept their promotion hopes alive with a solid and deserved win at neighbours Nantlle Vale courtesy of a disciplined performance and another hat-trick for that ‘fox in the box’ Tom Hilditch, writes Treflyn Jones.

With regard to the second half in particular, Port should have scored many more but were foiled on countless occasions by an inspired display by Nantlle`s goalkeeper Oliver Rhys Jones.

During a fairly even opening few minutes, Hilditch came close to opening the visitors` account when he turned well to volley goalwards but Jones saved at the near post at the expense of a corner kick.

On 10 minutes, however, that man Hilditch put the visitors ahead.

Jamie Jones` deep cross from the right wing was tapped across the face of goal by Shaun Cavanagh into the path of Hilditch who simply could not miss from a yard out with the easiest tap-in of his own.

Then, on 20 minutes, the Nantlle custodian showed timing and bravery to smother a low cross into the six yard area by Cavanagh as a couple of Port attackers were waiting to shoot at goal.

A couple of minutes later, Nantlle`s danger-man Llion Griffiths fired a warning shot which was very well saved by Ollie Farebrother low down to his left.

Then, shortly after the half-hour mark, Cavanagh`s close range volley was again well-blocked by Jones.

A minute later, Nantlle drew level to the delight of the Maes Dulyn faithful and a cracking goal it was too.

A Nantlle attacker did well to evade a couple of Port defenders before setting Llion Griffiths through on goal and the striker made no mistake this time with a very well-judged shot into the corner of the net.

Nantlle now had their tails up and both goalkeepers had to pull off a fine save apiece before the half ended all square.

Port had the slight advantage of playing down the slope in the second period and immediately showed their determination in stamping their authority on proceedings. Indeed, on 52 minutes, the visitors went ahead for the second time with a goal which was virtually a carbon copy of the first.

Cai Jones did well to get to the by-line on the left flank and his low cross just evaded Jones` grasp to set up another tap-in for the grateful Hilditch.

Port were now dominating the match and it was little surprise when they increased their lead a few minutes later.

A terrific strike by Shaun Cavanagh from 20 yards thundered against the crossbar and when the ball was pumped back into the danger zone, the referee blew up for an infringement by a defender and a penalty to Port.

Up stepped Hilditch to send Jones the wrong way and heartiest congratulations to him on his third hat-trick of the season.

It was now 1-3 in the visitors` favour and they were hell-bent on not conceding another.

Port could (and should) have added to their tally but Cavanagh, on a swift counter-attack was just a tad selfish in not squaring the ball to Hilditch for another tap-in.

Nantlle, however, kept plugging away and and a tremendous effort by Matthew Jones perhaps deserved a better fate as his shot completely wrong-footed Farebrother but failed to beat the post and the ball bounced away to safety

.A similar fate befell Port`s sub John Littlemore in the closing minutes as his shot from a tight angle at last had the beating of Jones before coming off the far post.