Presteigne St Andrews are still on the hunt for their first league point of the Spar Mid Wales League first division season, but they will be wondering how on earth they didn’t get anything from the home match against Llansantffraid Village.
The visitors left Llanandras Park with a 3-1 victory, but it could have been so different – Presteigne’s Connor Bird struck the frame of the goal twice in the first ten minutes while the home side enjoyed a lengthy spell of pressure in the half under which the visitors were definitely wobbling.
As if Barry Williams and his side needed any further proof that when you are at the bottom nothing ever runs for you, this was firmly underlined when Llansantffraid’s centre-back was back-peddling and got his head to the ball, only for it land on top of the cross bar and then drop behind for a corner.
Llansantffraid then predictably netted a second when a striker nipped in to head the ball past Luke Brimfield only for Joel Layton to reduce arrears a minute later when his deflected shot beat the visiting keeper.
Presteigne kept up the momentum and threw players forward looking for the equaliser, only for visitors to break away and net a last-minute third.
Make no bones about it, there have been times when Presteigne St Andrews have been totally outclassed this season – Berriew springs to mind – but not today. They can consider themselves very unlucky not to have taken anything from this game and – while he was bitterly disappointed – manager Barry Williams should take heart from what was a genuinely decent performance.
Meanwhile, the Reserves slipped to their second league defeat of the season as they crashed 5-1 at Newcastle in what was reportedly a stormy game in south Shropshire.
Andy Crowe’s side was 4-0 down after 20 minutes of this one, but rallied in the second half to produce a much better performance as the sides traded goals in that second period.
Overall, though, this was a disappointing showing in which Adam Strangwood was sent off – no complaints over that decision in the view of some of his team-mates with whom I spoke briefly in the clubhouse afterwards – but the general view was the referee didn’t have his finest hour (and-a-half) in this one.
Full reports on both games will appear on the site over the next couple of days – just as soon as I have caught up with ‘Crowie’ and as soon as he has calmed down a bit, I suspect….