March 2008 Archives

COLWYN BAY'S fading play-off hopes took a further knock as lady luck deserted them in a 2-0 defeat at Sheffield on Monday night.
On a heavily sanded pitch, they went behind on 27 minutes when a free kick by Sheffield's Paul Smith hit a post and rebounded into the net off the back of goalkeeper Jamie Speare's head.
The Seagulls had no such luck when they finished the half strongly, with Mark Quayle beating two defenders only to see his fierce shot rebound to safety off the cross bar.
Then after Black had a shot well saved by Sheffield keeper Daniel Haysted, Black turned well in the area and his goalbound shot was deflected over the bar off a defender.
From the resulting corner Paul Williams had a great chance to equalise but shot wide from six yards out.
Quayle had another shot tipped round the post by Haysted in the second half, but with Colwyn Bay pressing for an equaliser in the last five minutes, they were caught out by a long ball from the back and a mix-up between Speare and defender John Walker allowed Jamie Smith to score a second Sheffield goal.
Colwyn Bay: Speare, Callaghan, P Williams, Rowland, Walker, R Williams, Fowler, Olsen (Wade 75), Black, Quayle, Lawless. Subs not used: Wynne, Finley.

COLWYN BAY and LLANDUDNO have both had their matches today (Saturday) postponed due to waterlogged pitches.
Colwyn Bay should have been at home to Belper Town, which has now been re-arranged for Thursday April 24th - meaning they will play four games in eight days to complete their league programme.
Llandudno were to have played at Buckley Town in the Cymru Alliance.

COLWYN BAY manager Gary Finley has bolstered his injury-hit squad by making three new signings prior to the transfer deadline on Thursday night.
Stuart Whittaker, 33, is an experieced midfielder who is a former Liverpool trainee and his previous clubs include Bolton Wanderers, Wigan Athletic, Southport, Chester and Leigh RMI.
Tough tackling midfielder Anton Lally is returning for a second spell at Colwyn Bay and has also played for Marine, Vauxhaull Motors, Witton Albion and more recenlty with Harrogate Town in the Blue Square Conference North.
James Denver is a central defender whose previous clubs include Marine and Prescot Cables.
Colwyn Bay are at home to Belper Town on Saturday (3pm).

LLANDUDNO Reserves extended their lead at the top of Division Two in the Clwyd League to 12 points with a 5-1 home win over Llannefydd on Wednesday night.
Todd Davies scored twice, with Shaeen Ahmed, Anthony Tierney and Josh Jones also scoring.
Connah's Quay Nomads Reserves in second place and third-placed Llandudno Junction Reserves both have five games in hand.

WITH their squad decimated by a flu virus, Colwyn Bay but up a brave fight with a makeshift side and no substitutes before losing 2-1 at fourth-placed Grantham on Easter Monday.
And in the end they were unlucky not to come home with a point.
With six of the squad unavailable due to injury and illness, manager Gary Finley had to play himself in defence and brought in John Walker as an 11th hour stand-in to make up a bare starting 11.
They defended well in the early stages, played in a snow blizzard, but conceded two goals in the space of 16 minutes as Brendan McDaid scored with a looping header and then got on the end of a driven cross to stab in a second goal at the far post.
Colwyn Bay, however, were back in the game before half-time when good inter-play set up the chance for skipper James Olsen to burst into the box and score with a crisp finish.
Colwyn Bay were the better side for much of the second half and were twice denied a deserved equaliser when home keeper Mario Ziccardi made a tremendous reflex save to keep out a close range header by Mark Quayle from a Neil Black cross, and then Joe Fowler had a goalbound shot cleared off the line.
Colwyn Bay's tale of woe was completed in the closing minutes when John Lawless was red carded as players from both sides got involved in a melee following a foul on Lewis Callaghan.
Colwyn Bay: Speare, Callaghan, Wade, Walker, Finley, R Williams, Fowler, Olsen, Black, Quayle, Lawless. No subsitutes.

In the Welsh Alliance LLANRWST UNITED won 2-1 at GLAN CONWY with two goals from Aaron Jones, while top of the table Bethesda were 8-3 winners over Nantlle Vale.

RESULTS went Llandudno's way in the race for second place in the Cymru Alliance on Easter Saturday, with Holyhead Hotspur beating main rivals Bala 2-1 and Flint Town United unexpectedly dropping two home points in a 2-2 draw against Buckley.
Bala remain four points behind Llandudno with now only two games in hand, and their next match is against fifth-placed Flint
Holyhead move above Bala into third place and are are two points behind Llandudno from the same number of games, while Flint are eight points behind with two games in hand.
Llandudno's next match is away to Buckley next Saturday.

MIXED news for Colwyn Bay in the chase for Unibond play-off places after their Good Friday win over Cammell Laird. Stocksbridge Park Steels suffered a shock 3-0 defeat at Warrington on Saturday, so Colwyn Bay stay one point ahead of them from the same number of games.
Goole Town, in fifth place, won 6-2 to move four points ahead of Colwyn Bay having played one game more.
Colwyn Bay have a big game on Monday at Grantham, who are seven points ahead of the Seagulls, but have played four games more.

GLAN CONWY stayed in the title chase in the Welsh Alliance with a 3-0 win over Nefyn, although rivals Bethesda were 6-0 winners against Holywell.
CONWY UN ITED stay third after a 7-0 goal romp at Amlwch Town and they are now two points ahead of Rhyl, who drew 1-1 at LLANRWST UNITED, having played one game more|.

NEIL BLACK netted his third hat-trick of the season to give Colwyn Bay a hugely important 3-1 victory over second-placed Cammell Laird on Friday.
And manager Gary Finley praised his side's battling performance after the midweek setback against Stocksbridge.
"I thought we showed a lot of character. It would have been easy to make excuses after the Tuesday defeat that the ref was against us and just gone through the motions today, but the lads have bounced back and shown a really great attitude.
"We've had five wins and just one defeat in our last seven games and if we are still in the mix for the play-offs in the final week of the season I'll be happy."
Colwyn Bay, despite being without John Lawless after his pregnant wife was rushed into hospital, got the boost of an early goal when Black seized on a slip by Cammell Laird defender Anthony Sheenhen to chip keeper Paul Whitfield for an opportunist goal.
The Seagulls then battled superbly against the strong wind to hold that lead to half-time.
Jamie Speare, who had a fine game in the Colwyn Bay goal, made a great save to tip a John Collins header over the bar before a long ball from the back caught out the Cammell Laird defence and Black won a race for the ball with the keeper to nick it past him and sidefoot into an unguarded net on 55 minutes.
Cammell Laird were given a lifeline on 59 minutes when a driven shot unluckily struck Lewis Callaghan's arm as he dived in to block it and Alex Hay scored from the resulting penalty.
The introduction of Wayne Rooney's brother, Graham, increased Cammell Laird's attacking momentum, but Colwyn Bay secured the points with Black's third goal on 87 minutes.
Cammell Laird cleared a free kick, but Callaghan played the ball back in and as Laird's defenders pushed out, Black timed his run perfectly to beat the offside trap and slip the ball past the stranded Whitfield for his 28th goal of the season.
Chris Taylor and Steve Rowland were outstanding at the back for Colwyn Bay and Robbie Williams worked tirelessly in midfield.
Colwyn Bay: Speare, Callaghan, P Williams, Rowland, Taylor, R Williams, Spike, Olsen, Black, Wright (Wade) 83mins, Fowler. Subs not used: Quayle and Finley.
Cammell Laird: Whitfield, Sheenhen, Lynch, Bigland (Rendell 52), Atherton (Melia 69), Collins, Jebb (G Rooney 77), Reed, T Rooney, Hay, Adamson.

LLANDUDNO cruised intro the final of the North Wales Coast FA Challenge Cup for the first time in 13 years with a 7-1 demolition of Welsh Alliance leaders Bethesda Athletic at Conwy on Wednesday night.
They were 4-0 up at half-time with Chris Johnson scoring with a deflected free kick from 20 yards and Neil Coverley converting a penalty, for a foul on Danny Hughes, which sandwiched two excellently-taken goals by Gwyn Peters, who also hit a post.
Bethesda had their best spell of the game early in the second half when Richie Owen scored with a header from a Dave Roberts cross and Craig Roberts was denied by a fine save from Llandudno keeper Sean Pearson.
But gradually Llandudno regained control and they added three more goals in the last 13 minutes, with two by substitute Bryn Jenkins after good runs by Ben Dews, and one by Grant Montgomery from a Darren Jones cross.
Llandudno will now play Flint Town United in the final.

COLWYN BAY suffered a blow to their play-off hopes with a 3-1 home defeat on Tuesday night against Stocksbirdge Park Steels, who now go above the Seagulls in the table.
And the game turned on a controversial refereeing decision midway through the second half.
John Lawless missed a golden chance to put Colwyn Bay in front in the first minute, but Stocksbridge were the better team after that, chasing and harrying the home side into mistakes and taking the lead on 17 minutes when Mark Ward's free kick was turned onto a post by Jamie Speare and Dean Sidebottom followed up to score from the rebound.
Colwyn Bay started the second half much brighter and equalised on 48 minutes when Joe Fowler turned well in the box to curl a shot into the far corner of the corner.
The Seagulls were well on top for the next 15 minutes but were unable to get a second goal and were then undone by referee Andrew Hutchinson.
He refused Colwyn Bay what seemed a clear free kick for a foul on Neil Black on the edge of the Stocksbridge area, and from the clearance the official then immediately gave Stocksbridge a free kick at the other end for a foul by Paul Williams.
Colwyn Bay were still complaining to the referee when the free kick was played in and Alvin Riley was left unmarked to smash a shot past Speare to put the Yorkshire side back in front.
Colwyn Bay pushed men forward as they frantically chased an equaliser but Stocksbridge remained strong and well organised at the back and they sewed up the points with an opportunist goal in the third minute of added time when Speare came out of his area to clear, but the ball went straight to Riley who fired a first time shot back into the net from 40 yards.
Compounding a bad night for the Bay was news that Nantwich and Sheffield both won.
Colwyn Bay: Speare, Wynne (Callaghan 40, Quayle 90), P Williams, Rowland, Taylor, Wade (Wright 80), Fowler, Olsen, Black, Spike, Lawless.

GLAN CONWY won 5-0 at Holywell Town in the Welsh Alliance with a hat-trick from Ashkley Smith and Aled Stapleton and Gaz Davies also on target.

TWO goals from Neil Black gave Colwyn Bay the points in a 2-0 win at Quorn in an excellent team performance.
The Seagulls played some of their best passing football of the season on an excellent playing surface and were in front at half-time when Black picked up a long kick from Jamie Speare, ansd took a couple of touches before drilling a shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Speare made a fine save to turn a near post header from Neil Turner round the post just before the interval, and Neil Black doubled Bay's lead six minutes into the seocnd half when he burst into the box and tucked his shot past keeper Sean Bowles after good play by Steve Wynne and Lee Spike had set up the opening.
Bowles made good saves to denyt Spike, half-time subsitute John Lawless and Robbie Williams, while Quorn's only threat was a late effort from substitute James Pelier which clipped the top of the bar.
Colwyn Bay moved up to eighth place in the Unibond Divison One South table, and with Goole, Belper, Carlton, Gresley and Sheffield all dropping points, seven points separates third placed Grantham and eighth placed Colwyn Bay - with the Seagulls having games in hand on four of the other five clubs in that pack.
Colwyn Bay: Speare, Wynne, P Williams, Rowland, Taylor, R Williams, Spike, Oisen, Black, Wright (Lawless 45mins), Fowler (Wade 80mins) Sub not used: Callaghan.

LLANDUDNO suffered a second half meltdown as they lost 3-2 after leading 2-0 at half-time in the Cymru Alliance.
Two goals in two minutes, with a penalty from Neil Coverley, after Gwyn Peters was brought down in the box, followed by a fine finish by Peters after being played in by Ben Dews, put the Maesdu men in charge, and Mynydd Isa looked to have missed their chance to get back in the game when Llandudno keeper Sean Pearson saved a penalty from Chris Boulton followingr a trip by Steve Warburton.
Chris Hogg hit the bar and Jody Hamilton shot wide from a couple of good chances, before Llandudno saw the game taken away from them by three goals in the space of 13 minutes.
Boulton scored with a header from a corner, Paul Connelly forced in the second after Pearson failed to hold onto a long range free kick from Stuart Wood, and Nathan Jones rammed in the matchwinner after he'd been played in on the right.
Llandudno never threatened after that and had Joe Morgan sent off and Hamilton lucky to only get a yellow after both shamefully lost their discipline.
Only consolation for Llandudno was that their main rivals for second place, Bala and Holyhead, also suffered surprise defeats at Lex and Ruthin.

In the Welsh Alliance LLANDUDNO JUNCTION beat injury-hit CONWY UNITED 4-3, and have taken five points out of six in their two games against Mussselmen in the past few weeks.
LLANRWST UNITED beat Halkyn 3-0 to move up to seventh place, while GLAN CONWY had their game at Amlwch postponed.

PENMAENMAWR PHOENIX continued their title challenge in the Clwyd League with a 5-1 win at Aston Park Rangers, and are 11 points behind joint leaders Prestatyn Reserves and Abergele Rovers, with four games in hand.
Abergele won 1-0 at Mochdre Sports with a 78th minute goal from Danny Campbell.
Division Two leaders Llandudno Reserves lost 4-3 at Shotton Steel, while Rhos United won 2-1 at Bro Cernyw with goals from Paul Cornwall and Nick Hughes, Penrhyn United lost 3-2 at Mostyn Dragons and Betw-yn-Rhos drew 1-1 ar Cerrigydrudion in Division One.
More news on these games in Thursday's Weekly News.