Porthmadog 0 Airbus UK 2

JD Welsh Cup

IT may be one of the oldest cliches in the beautiful game, but for me, it is tough to beat the ‘Magic of the Cup’ and today was no different, as the JD Welsh Cup roadshow arrived at Y Traeth, albeit with an incredibly tough assignment for the home side against Cymru North leaders, Airbus UK Broughton, writes Rhydian Morgan.

The opening 10 minutes seemed to show that we were in for a tighter game than the gap between the sides suggested.

The first chance fell to the home side as Sion Williams won the ball back in the 18 yard box with a great tackle and his near-post strike from a tight angle was saved by Keighan Jones.

With 20 minutes on the clock, a golden opportunity came Port’s way as the ball was played into the six yard box and put on a plate with a knife and fork for Rhys Alun to put the lower ranked side into the lead.

However, he somehow put his effort wide and you were left to wonder if Port were going to rue such a missed opportunity?

It took 27 minutes for the JD Cymru North leaders to manufacture their first real sight of goal, as a cross from deep found SamBaker, whose outstretched leg got to the ball first, but his attempt cleared the bar.

This was followed a few minutes later by another cross and another Airbus chance, as a header went harmlessly past the post.

Airbus began to take control towards the end of the opening half. However, despite Port captain Cai Jones needing treatment on three separate occasions, Port survived until the break.

Jones was replaced by Caio Evans at half time and the visitors took control with an early chance that flew inches past the post.

Despite Airbus’ growing pressure, further shown by another strong save by Ollie Farebrother from a free kick by captain Joe Palmer.

Port nearly pounced on a rare chance when some stellar work by the ever impressive Danny Brookwell led to a thumping effort striking the crossbar.

With 15 minutes left, a corner was won by the visitors and disaster struck for Port.

Farebrother came to collect but was beaten by Airbus fullback Tyler McManus whose header found the back of the net to finally break the deadlock.

The game was put to bed in the final minutes of normal time, as further slack defending led to a surge down the wing and some brilliant trickery from the Airbus winger led to a cross only being partially cleared and James Davies was there to bundle to ball home from close range to give the scoreline a more positive outlook from the visiting side’s point of view.

Credit goes to their fans, who were quick to point that Port had certainly given them a few frights and were certainly worthy of being in the game for as long as they were.

In stoppage time, Airbus were thwarted twice in their quest to add further gloss to the scoreline as a quick counter attack led to a one-on-one opportunity for the Airbus attacker, but Farebrother stood tall to make the first save, before a second chance at goal was blocked brilliantly by a Port defender and the match finished 2-0 to the JD Cymru North leaders.

Port’s adventures in the JD Welsh Cup are over for another season – but, having been drawn the toughest assignment outside the Cymru Premier, the performance was very promising and confidence can be taken into Saturday’ crunch league encounter against Rhyl 1879.