St Asaph City 0 Porthmadog 5

Ardal North West

PORT ended an alarming run of three consecutive defeats with a convincing win against St Asaph at the picturesque Roe Plas Meadows on Saturday, writes Treflyn Jones.

An early bath for the hosts` goalkeeper was perhaps a factor in the scoreline but Port were by far the better team over the 90 minutes, playing with discipline and patience and creating many chances.

Port were quickly on to the front foot. With barely five minutes on the clock, the pacy Danny Brookwell beat the offside trap and raced towards goal until he was brought down 30 yards out by an untidy challenge from young goalkeeper Hughie Foulkes and the Since Brooky was clearly the `last referee brandished a red card.

From the resultant free kick, Tom Hilditch saw his splendid swerving attempt crashing against the crossbar.

Next, a great run by the marauding Sion Wyn Williams ended with a convincing shot which was well saved by reserve keeper Luke Jones.

By now, Port were dominant but found the home defence a rather hard nut to crack.

Shaun Cavanagh then came close but Jones saved, and Cai Jones headed over from a useful cross by Hilditch.

Port continued to attack at speed, especially down the left flank where Sion Wyn Williams was very effective.

Finally, on 34 minutes Port got a deserved opener when Cavanagh latched on to a great through ball by Cai Jones before calmly rounding the keeper and tapping home to the delight of the travelling faithful.

On the stroke of half-time, Port doubled their account when Cai Jones took advantage of a good flick by Hilditch on the edge of the box.

The keeper got a hand to his shot but it was too hot to handle and the ball trickled over the line.

Five minutes after the re-start, Josh Banks made the game safe.

A left-footed in-swinging corner kick by Brookwell evaded everyone until Banks stole in at the far post to tap home on the half volley.

A fairly good chance then arrived at the feet of Caio Evans but Jones saved well.

Danny Brookwell made it 0-4 when another dangerous in-swinging corner travelled all the way into the net this time at the far post.

St Asaph enjoyed an all too brief period of pressure on the Port goal mid-way through the half, and Ollie Farebrother pulled off an excellent save low down as he palmed away a very impressive downward header by Luke Walker.

From there to the final whistle it was all Port and it was left to Elis Puw, a 75th minute substitute, to put the icing on the cake.

Latching on to a telling pass by Jack Rimmer, he controlled well before slotting the ball under Jones` dive into the far corner of the net.

This was a morale-boosting victory for Port as the team played with enthusiasm and confidence. Jamie Jones and Elis Puw played so well and it was a huge relief to see Tom Hilditch playing a long-awaited game in the starting line-up after a lengthy lay-off with injury.

The only blot on the copybook was when Brookwell was given his marching orders after picking up a second caution.

Next Saturday, Port welcome near-neighbours Felinheli to Y Traeth for a League Cup tussle with a 2.30pm kick off.