Welsh League, Division One

Haverfordwest County 1

Caerau Ely 1

A DRAW was probably the right result for a fast and furious game which was never really pretty but which contained bags of incident and many mistakes, but plenty of skill, spirit and commitment on both sides, writes Robert Nisbet.

The corners and free kicks of new signing Kieran Howard were a feature of the game and it was one of them which set the Blues on the right track in the 4th minute, when his curling inswinger from the left corner flag was met by Dale Griffiths’ firm and accurate header for the first goal.

For the rest of the half Caerau Ely had rather more of the play territorially but the Blues mounted a few crisp attacks and Greg Walters had a few sharp shots well saved by the visitors’ very good keeper Scott James.

The game suddenly erupted into high drama in the 54th minute when a free kick was given against Declan Carroll, and in the brisk exchanges directly afterwards the visitors’ Andrew Smith was shown a red card. Then, as the game re-started, Tyrrell Webbe’s free kick was parried by the defence to Lloyd Toghill who cracked in a crisp 20-yarder.

For the next quarter of an hour the Cardiff side seemed to be carried on a surge of adrenalin and Craig Morris and his defence were subjected to a real aerial bombardment.

But the County defence can hold out well against pressure and it is a curious feature of the match statistics that, although Caerau were attacking for more of the game, it was the Bluebirds who sent in twice as many shots on goal.

In the last ten minutes they played some of their best passing football of the game. They threatened when Sean Pemberton blazed a chance from another Howard free kick over the bar and they came very close to the win when, after another neat passing move, Luke Borelli’s shot whistled just past the post.

The programme sponsors were The Western Telegraph, and the match ball sponsors were Bisley H. Munt, Jewellers.

On Boxing Day the Blues travel to Taff’s Well before they entertain Pontardawe on the Bridge Meadow on Saturday, January 3, kick-off 2.30pm.

Haverfordwest County: Craig Morris; Ricky Watts; Antonio Facciuto; Sean Pemberton; Dale Griffiths; Kieran Howard; Greg Walters; Nicky Palmer; Steffan Davies; Jordan Follows; Declan Carroll (Luke Borelli, 56).

Sub not used: Spencer Williams, Mark Davies; Dan Evans (g/k).