The border side’s five week stint at the top of the table came to an end as Morda picked up a win to move back to the head of the table, establishing a two point lead with two games in hand over Llanymynech as well. Llany are now locked in a four way battle for second place and will need to be at their best as the season draws to a close with tough fixtures and the memory of Saturday’s performance to overcome.

Nathan Bartram made four changes from the side which knocked Llangedwyn out of the Consolation Cup last Saturday as Luke Jones, Josh Hayward, Lee Rogers and Mike Edwards all returned to the starting line up. Jones was in goal, with a back three of Hayward, Jamie Phillips and Simon Botley in front of him. Sam Roberts and Luke Andrew continued in the wing back positions, with Rogers partnered in midfield by Matt Jones. Grant Jones was the attacking midfielder with Callum Whyte and Edwards up front.

In very windy conditions it was immediately apparent that it wasn’t going to be a game filled with good football, as both teams spent the opening exchanges trying to get used to the flight of the ball. The home side were by far the quicker to adapt though and could have opened up a big early lead if it wasn’t for Jones in the Llany goal. First he threw himself across his goal to keep out a free kick from 30 yards which was sailing in. Then he got down low to tip a drive from the Forden left back around the post for a corner, before once again showing excellent reflexes to tip another well struck long range effort over the crossbar.

There was nothing that he could do when a corner was swung in and the home side got on the end of it to take the lead. The ball was affected by the wind and would have dropped into the goal without anybody getting a touch on it, but as it was the Forden striker jumped against Roberts and the ball bounced over the line off his back.

Llany reacted well to going behind and Matt Jones had three efforts before the half time whistle to find an equaliser, but was unfortunate with all three. The first came when the Forden goalkeeper had sent a loose ball into the middle of midfield, which Jones pounced upon and sent the ball back where it came from, from 40 yards out, narrowly missing the target with the goalkeeper stranded. Seconds after that he was slipped through on the left edge of the penalty area, but missed the near post with his lunging effort, before finally curling his third effort a matter of millimetres over the crossbar after a good move down the right wing.

Llany suffered a disastrous start to the second half when they conceded a penalty which put them 2-0 down within minutes of the restart. Botley gave the ball away on the half way line which allowed Forden to counter attack and play the ball into the right back position which had been vacated by Roberts who had been looking to support the attack. This meant that Phillips was dragged out of position to cover their striker and could only bring him down when he cut inside onto his right foot, leading the referee to point to the spot and hand out the first of the game’s many yellow cards. The Forden player coolly despatched the spot kick into the top corner, just inches above Jones’ despairing dive.

Llany upped the tempo following this set back and finally started to produce some fluent football for the first time in the game. Botley won a header in the box which was touched around the post by a defender and Grant Jones saw his header from the resulting corner cleared off the line by a Forden man.

Botley and Whyte were replaced by Jack Roberts and George Jones and Jack hit a free kick which failed to trouble the goalkeeper, whilst at the other end Forden were still posing a threat whenever they were in range, flashing a couple of efforts narrowly wide of Jones’ goal.

The game’s most controversial moment came when Edwards latched onto a through ball. The goalkeeper had raced out of his goal to try and win the foot race with Edwards, but misjudged his challenge and brought down Llany’s striker when he had touched the ball past him and would have had an open goal from a slight angle to aim for. The referee opted against the red card and produced only a yellow and Llany were once again unable to capitalise from the free kick.

Tempers began to get frayed as more and more nasty tackles flew in, with the game threatening to get out of the control of the referee, despite his continued brandishing of yellow cards. Edwards shot a yard over with his left foot after Phillips’ through ball had set him free in some space, whilst Grant Jones also flashed an effort wide of the far post.

Llany did finally drag themselves back in to the game to set up a tense finale when George Jones sprinted clear down the right wing. After taking his time to assess his options he cut the ball back for Matt Jones, who scuffed his effort across the goal where Grant Jones was on hand to stab it across the line from close range.

Llany piled on the pressure late on, but couldn’t make it tell as they wasted a number of corners and weren’t able to carve out a really clear cut chance. As they left themselves exposed at the back they needed man of the match Hayward to be on hand to make a number of important blocks and interceptions as Forden attempted to seal the game with a third and final goal.

Llanymynech Football Club

Match details

Match date

Kickoff

Meet time

Competition

Team Sponsors

Login