Penycae Football Club C.I.C.

This weekend’s round of fixtures threw up an away derby against Rhos Aelwyd, who have, like us started strong and will be challenging come the end of the season so it was a good test to see where our young side was in terms of performance. With 10 of the starting XI having represented our youth sides and with an average age of 17 ½ it was going to be a good measure for our young side of our ability against an experienced Rhos side.

The game started off with a quick pace with the home side setting the early pressure, but the back four of Josh Mazzaralla, Aaron Jones, Dyf Smith & Kyle Davies prevented the pressure turning into any chances. After the opening pressure from Rhos it was us who took the lead with a counter attack as Kian Davies played a defence splitting ball for Tom Edwards who found himself out wide on the left up against the full back, who he went past before flashing a cross along the six yard box for the on rushing Ruben Monterio to convert from close range. After that we settled and moved the ball quicker and started to create some half chances, and it took an excellent save from the Rhos keeper to deny Kian Davies our second. The remaining 20 minutes of the first half was played from 18 yard box to 18 yard box as both defences held strong to nullify the opposition attack, although we went in 1-0 up after Ben Darlington pulled off an excellent save to deny the Rhos striker as his shot was destined for the top corner.

Second half we never really got going as Rhos put us under pressure but without really threating our goal. We had a few half chances as Aaron Jones seen his close range shot blocked. The yellow cards where racking up for Rhos and it wasn’t long before one of their players saw red as Tom Edwards was upended as we looked to launch a counter attack. The last 5 minutes Rhos threw everything at us and as a ball flashed through a box full of players before coming back of the post, their striker turned the ball back into the box and it was bundled into the net from close range.

It’s always hard when you lead for so long and conceded a goal of that nature but Rhos threw everything at us and we held strong. The home side would have felt hard done by if they hadn’t got anything from the game, but we keep our unbeaten run going for the season and look forward to welcoming Overton to the Riverside next weekend.