A comfortable 5-0 win for our U21s in this Nathaniel MG Cup 2nd round tie against Afan Lido, held at Goytre United’s picturesque Glenhafod Park due to Lido’s own ground undergoing necessary improvement work.
We started 3-4-3 and rotated to 4-3-3 after half-time, maintaining this shape for the rest of the game. Both styles worked well.
Line-up: Jakub Nowak; Ben Phillips (s – Carter Heywood 75m), Iestyn Jones (s – Callum Deacon 56m), Blair McKenzie; Tom Searle (s – Zac Jeanes 56m), Josh Pescatore, Jacob Cook, Dan Watts (captain); Ramon Rees-Siso (s – Harlan Perry 75m), Morgan Bates (s – Josiah Kallicharan 37m); Kai Rhodes.
Unused substitutes: Tom Wright (g/k), Alfie Jones.
Tuesday’s friendly at Llanelli saw our opponents adopt a resolute 5-4-1 formation not dissimilar to the setup that Baglan Dragons deployed to beat our U21s over penalties in last season’s MG Cup competition. Although Lido were quite limited in their approach tonight, they didn’t adopt quite such a conservative approach. Having said that, it took our youngsters a fair while to turn domination of the ball into clear chances. 1st year scholar Kai Rhodes continued the good left wing work he displayed at Stebonheath with some clever footwork to frequently open up the Lido defence. Opportunities came the way of Searle, McKenzie, Pescatore and Rhodes before the Swans were presented with a penalty on 33 minutes when a Lido player handled in the area. There was some delay while Morgan Bates received treatment for what appeared to be a twisted knee, which resulted in him leaving the pitch. Josh Pescatore stepped up to take the spot kick only to see 20 year old Lido keeper Ben Haines get 2 full hands to push the shot away. Any sense of respite for Lido was lost within a couple of minutes when Rhodes collected a pass, worked his way inside and struck a sweet drive into the far corner of the goal to put the Swans ahead.
This opener gave the team some relief in which to further operate and it was no surprise when 7 minutes after the interval Dan Watts cleanly converted inside the area after Rhodes again drew players to him and released the Swans skipper in space. On 58 minutes substitute centre forward Josiah Kallicharan undid a poorly laid Lido offside trap to be gifted a clear strike on goal to put the Swans 3 up with a calm finish. Kai Rhodes deservedly got on the scoresheet to get the 4th when a precise pass from Callum Deacon put him clear.
At this point, Lido looked quite crestfallen and leggy as the Swans midfield of Cook, Watts and now Perry stroked the ball around to keep the home defence stretched. Former Swans academy striker Lewis Reed contributed a single tame free kick effort comfortably collected by Swans keeper Jakub Nowak, but that was the sum total of Lido’s attacking output.
The final goal was the product of a thunderous but perfectly fair challenge by Harlan Perry that resulted in a Lido defender slicing the resulting ricochet into his own net. The match was held up for 15 minutes while a Lido player received treatment and fortunately the match resumed and concluded without any acrimony.
The players showed this evening that they have the patience and the wherewithal to break down resilient Welsh League opposition. Jacob Cook and Dan Watts kept the motor running throughout and there were notable contributions from Iestyn Jones, Blair McKenzie and Kai Rhodes.
There was a reported crowd of 503 at Glenhafod, although I’m not sure where they were hiding!
Scoring: Kai Rhodes (0-1 38m); Dan Watts (0-2 52m); Josiah Kallicharan (0-3 58m); Kai Rhodes (0-4 74m); Jak Carson o/g (0-5 89m).