Cwpan Ceredigion - Llanilar 2 v 1 Aberystwyth University Reserves

Llanilar progressed to the second round of the Cwpan Ceredigion following a narrow 2-1 home victory over a well organized Aber Uni Reserves.
Aber Uni come out of the blocks flying and were in complete control for the first 20 minutes and came within inches of taking the lead, heading narrowly wide from a corner after 10 minutes.

The front two for Aber were constantly causing problems and on 15 minutes they broke following a Llanilar corner, combining well to beat the static defence and round the Llanilar keeper to slot home comfortably.

This seemed to spur the home side into action and slowly they began to win back control with Alun Roberts and the effervescent Martin Davies linking up well on Llanilar’s left throughout the game.

Llanilar frontman Gary Williams slowly started to get involved and after 25 minutes he was fouled on the edge of the Uni’s box. He dusted himself down to take the free kick and deceived the Uni keeper with a curling effort just under the crossbar.

Llanilar won the ball back straight from the restart and an excellent cross from Rhys Morgan was met by the head of Davies who looked odds on to score but the Uni keeper produced the save of the match and somehow kept it out.
Just before half time the Llanilar keeper was then called into action diverting a curling shot wide to keep the scores level going into the break.

The second half was mostly contested in the midfield area, but it was Llanilar who looked the more likely to score. Dylan Evans beat the Uni defence to go 1 on 1 with the keeper but blazed wide and Wyre Jones was then foiled by the Uni keeper in an identical situation.

After 65 minutes Llanilar made an inspired substitution bringing on Richard Pugh and with his first touch of the game he latched onto a flick on to slot home from 12 yards. The last quarter was a scrappy affair with only long range efforts, none of which troubled either keeper. However, with only seconds left of the game the Uni centre forward broke into the Llanilar box, the colossal Carwyn Henson made a challenge and the striker went down, the referee ignored the vociferous appeals deciding that there was no contact made and Llanilar then hung on to progress to the next round where they play Bont on Castle Field.

Thanks to Nathan Bennett of Llanilar for the report.