A thrilling cup victory via penalties over this evening over our near neighbours.
It wasn’t plain sailing. We should have been out of sight well before having to go to penalties – although our players came through that challenge with flying colours.
The particulars: we played 4-2-3-1 – Evan Watts; Sam Parker, Kai Ludvigsen, Filip Lissah (captain) (sub Harry Jones 90m+), Kian Jenkins; Mitchell Bates, Ben Lloyd (sub Joe Thomas 67m); Cameron Congreve, Liam Smith, Kaliq Cadogan; Kyrell Wilson (sub Kristian Fletcher 67m).
Unused subs: Zane Myers, Ben Hughes, Ruben Davies, Dan Watts.
We started confidently, lots of neat inter passing, with Lloyd, Smith and Congreve heavily involved. No real clear chances. Cardiff weathered a lot of domination and broke through right back Daley-Campbell who hammered a ball scarily across the face of our goal on 20 minutes.
We got the opener on 24 minutes when Ben Lloyd seized on a loose ball in midfield to put Maliq Cadogan to carry into the box and finish. Congreve had a free kick pushed around the post, there was a decent penalty appeal a minute later, then left back Beecher sliced a clearance past his own goal. Parker ballooned a well worked Congreve corner over the bar. It seemed only a matter of time before we scored another.
Kenniford foolishly lunged at Wilson on half-time and – having already been booked – saw red.
Cardiff were plucky and insistent. They really didn’t figure much in the first half, were stubborn without being particularly creative, but came into their own when a man down.
They reorganised, stuck in, often playing 4-3-2 and always looked a threat on the break.
We’d attempted to make capital from the numbers advantage – floating balls out to Cadogan and Congreve to stretch the Cardiff defence. We missed a multitude of opportunities. We made a couple of substitutions which changed our formation and, while we were reorganising, Cardiff pounced.
A quick passing move cut through our defence on 71 minutes to allow Evans to cleanly equalise. For all of our wastefulness, you couldn’t really say it wasn’t on the cards.
In fairness, new boy Fletcher had a great flying headed goal disallowed almost immediately for offside. Although we crafted further chances, we didn’t look quite the same and it wouldn’t have been a surprise if Cardiff had broken again to clinch the tie.
Great credit to our penalty takers – Cam Congreve, Sam Parker, Maliq Cadogan, Kian Jenkins and Kristian Fletcher all showed great nerve to convert convincingly. Evan Watts saved from substitute Johnson on 2 and we got through 5-4.
What went well for us? Well, I felt Filip Lissah and Kian Jenkins had excellent games. Filip in particular dealt with the otherwise quite bustling James Crole quite forcefully. We created loads of chances and played an admirable style. Less well, playing a right sided winger on the left and a left sided winger on the right doesn’t really work – any decent full back can work that out. The substitutions also weakened us – Ben Lloyd and Kyrell Wilson should never have left the pitch. A couple of our players also went missing in the last 10 minutes or so.
For Cardiff, Joel Colwill was quiet, spending much of the 2nd half looking a little disgruntled and limping until replaced in added time after finally being booked for another mistimed challenge. Cian Ashford, who looked really good in last season’s games, was outstanding this evening (this time in a left sided role), as was central attacking midfielder Kieron Evans. They were unlucky to be on the losing side this evening. This is a team, remember, managed by Darren Purse.
A word for our audience at the stadium tonight: loads of noisy, boisterous kids present – many of whom were giddy on far too much coca cola and must have been a pleasant handful for their parents or carers. It creates a great presence and must be a great audible encouragement to our players.
It was a great watch.
Overall, our boys deserved the win. Bring on the next round. The New Saints, perhaps?
Feature Image Credit: Lewis Mitchell/FAW