On Saturday in a re-arranged friendly we played Swansea League side Ynystawe. We ran out 6-3 winners with both sides scoring some excellent goals. Patrick Finneral should have scored after 8 minutes, he beat a couple of players as he got into the box but could only shoot straight at the keeper. We took the lead on 14 minutes when a quality move down the right saw Patrick Finneral cross for Noah Daley to score at the second attempt, the keeper having saved his initial effort. Rory McCreesh saved a certain goal diving to his right to save a goalbound effort. Then on 40 minutes we went two up, a great ball from Kieran Parsons found Patrick Finneral on the right, he brought the ball under control and fired a shot from the edge of the area past the keeper. 5 minutes later Patrick was fouled just outside the area and Adam Llewellyn scored with a left footed free kick. A great strike from all of 30 yards by Llewellyn made it 4-0 on 47 minutes. Patrick Finneral then added his second before a defensive error allowed a response from Ynystawe. Youngster Morgan Gardner turned a hit a left footer from the edge of the area to make it 6-1 with 20 minutes to go. Ynystawe replied from the kick off to make it 6-2 before Cai Owens netted deep into stoppage time tom make it 6-3

The Reserves plus a number of first year youth played at Croeserw in their first warm up match. Jamie Jones and Richard Cooling scored the goals in a 2-0 win and it was encouraging that half a dozen first year youth boys got a run out and acquitted themselves well.

Welsh Premier league bound Penybont won 4-0 last night. It was 1-0 at the interval with Luke Borrelli scoring. Curtis Hutson made it 2 early in the second half with further goals coming amongst the glut of substitutions. A good run out against last season’s undefeated champions.

We were two down at half time after Goytre scored on 18 and 27 minutes. It looked as if we were heading for a big defeat when Goytre scored a third on 47 minutes. However the players responded and Noah Daley reduced the arrears on 65 minutes but we were unable to get the second until the 86th minute when Morgan Freeman scored. We secured a draw with a Sean Hanbury goal in the 90th minute.

Noah Daley scored twice in the first half but Bridgend Street came back to draw the game. Next Saturday we visit Goytre Gwent in the next friendly

Sean Hanbury on his return from Carmarthen netted a hat trick in our 5-1 win at Penrhyncoch. Pat Finneral and Noah Daley were also on target.

A second successive 4-4 draw this time away at Cwmbran Celtic. After weathering early Celtic pressure Mark Jones should have given us the lead on 8 minutes but he headed a corner over the bar. We then grew into the game and the Celtic keeper made a good save off Noah Daley. We took the lead on 11 minutes when Neil Thomas was on the end of a right wing cross. The keeper saved his first effort but Neil forced home the rebound. We were two up on twenty minutes when Noah Daley converted a right wing cross. Celtic hit a post with a free kick and Mark Jones netted a penalty on 326 minutes to put us firmly in the driving seat. There was still time for Celtic to miss a 1 on 1 with Rory McCreesh but we went in with a healthy three goal advantage.

That advantage was blown away within 9 minutes of the restart, The first goal was scored on 50 minutes and then Rory McCreesh needlessly conceded a penalty on 54 minutes and in Celtic’s next attack it was 3-3. The way this game went either side could have scored almost at will, Mark Jones hit the post and it was a surprise that the next goal didn’t come until the 79th minute. Now we were looking to respond and we equalised on 84 minutes with another Mark Jones penalty after Toby Link-Jones was fouled in the area. Both sides had further chances to win the game but we had to settle for a share of the points.

Rory McCreesh  2 Kieran Parsons  3 James Parry  4 Alex Gammond  5 Toby Link-Jones

6 Neil Thomas  7 Patrick Finneral  8 Kieran Howells  9 Mark Jones 10 Noah Daley

11 Sacha Walters

Subs  12 Jack Fleming  – 14 Paul Evans