This week saw us welcome Airbus to the riverside for our welsh cup round 1 tie. This was a very tough draw for us as Airbus had won 10 out of 10 in the league and were scoring goals for fun. There was no pressure from the management on the players to go out and perform, it was a case of enjoy the game and give 100% effort and commitment, test yourselves against a very good side and see where we are in terms of becoming a good side. The game started with airbus quickly settling down and passing the ball around trying to open us up to create chances, a couple of balls made it through but we dealt with the threat. Our plan was to sit in and try and counter attack Airbus, the first chance fell to Airbus when a neat 1-2 allowed the striker to get off a shot which
Matt Griffiths saved. On 18 mins we won possession just inside our half and
Alex Rowlands played a great pass down the Channel for
Austin Owen to run on to, Austin's pace got him there before the defender, he took a touch but fired wide of the goal. This gave our players a bit of confidence and we looked to play forward when we could, another ball over the top caused problems and the airbus keeper came rushing out of his box,
Austin Owen managed to get to the ball first and tried to lob it over the keeper, the ball hit the keepers hands and the referee blew for a free kick. With a lot of debating going on and the referee consulting his linesman, he decided to take no action against the keeper and just awarded a free kick(on another day, a red card could have been given). From the resulting free kick
Alex Rowlands fired over the bar. On 40 mins Airbus finally managed to break us down with some good interplay which freed the striker, his shot went in off the post. 1-0. This deflated our players and it affected our next 5 mins as airbus pushed for a 2nd goal, we managed to hold on to keep it 1-0 at half time. We had nothing but praise for the players at half time, each one was putting a shift in and we had caused Airbus some problems. 5 mins into the 2nd half we lost possession just outside our box and the airbus player hit a powerful shot which flew past matt in goal for 2-0. Airbus were now beginning to demonstrate why they were top of the Cymru alliance, passing the ball about and waiting for the time to open us up. On 63 mins it was 3-0 when we never dealt with a corner and a shot took a deflection and went into the corner giving
matt griffiths no chance. Pride was at steak now and we didn't want a heavy score, the lads rallied and kept going and looking for a consolation goal to reward there performance, Airbus hit us on the break and scored a 4th and final goal with 5 mins left. Ft 0-4. The lads can hold there heads high after a performance like that, we matched airbus at times and had we took our chances it might have been different, but airbus showed there quality and punished us when we made mistakes. A great experience for the players and we know that we can go to Llangefni next week and put on a performance to give us a chance of winning.
