Colwyn Bay toil after Aspinall injury

COLWYN BAY paraded all their new signings but failed to provide the expected win against bottom of the table Salford in a 1-1 draw on Monday night (Oct 6).
They never really recovered from losing influential midfielder Steve Aspinall with a hamstring injury after 27 minutes and were taken by surprise by a Salford side who played the ball around well at pace and looked anything but a bottom of the table side in what was a high-paced entertaining game.
They stunned the home crowd by taking the lead on 11 minutes when Dave Challinor inexplicably allowed a cross from the right to go past him to present a gift chance for Stephen Brackenridge to score.
But Colwyn were level six minutes later when Neil Black won the ball from defender Adrian Bellamy and pulled it back for Rob Hopley to score.
The injury to Aspinall then forced a reshuffle and the Bay never really functioned in centre midfield after that, although Black had a great chance to play in Hopley for an almost certain goal, but tried to go on his own and lost possession.
He showed glimpses of what the Bay have been missing without him, but missed out on two three scoring chances.
Luke O'Mahoney and Dean Canning did well down the flanks, but although the Bay got in plenty of crosses, most of them were comfortably dealt with by keeper Martin Cambell and his defence.
In the end Salford might even have snatched their first league win of the season when only a fine save from Matt Parry denied Brackenridge a second goal, and a slip by Neil Coverley let in substitute Lesley Bancroft only for him to shoot badly wide.
Manager Neil Young was very disappointed with the performance.
"We weren't at the races tonight and that was disappointing," he said afterwards, "The new players need a few games to get use to each other, but I still expected much better that that.
"The injury to Aspinall was a blow and meant we had to shuffle the side around. It showed that we are lacking cover in midfield, and that is something I am trying to address this week."
Colwyn Bay: Parry, Coverley, Branch, Taylor (Wood 65mins), Challinor, Hughes, Aspinall (Lycett 27mins), Canning (Edwards 80mins), Hopley, Black, O'Mahoney.