Ahead of kick off, a minutes silence was impeccabily observed for long time supporter Bert Hughes who recently passed away. With a couple of changes to the starting 11 with Myles Hart and Morgan Murray starting in place of Mike Pearson and the suspended Jake Cooke, the Wellmen were the better of the two sides for the opening exchanges with the majority of the play in the opponents half, but the Wellmen were unable to test their ex goalkeeper Keighan Jones. The first real chance of the half fell to the Wellmen, good play down the left by Morgan Murray, he got his cross in to the box but Danny Andrews overhead kick was a little too high and flew over the crossbar.
Midway through the half, the best chance of the game so far fell to Jamie Breese. A long kick up field saw Breese on the chase, he managed to beat his marker and was through on goal, but his shot was blocked by Jones and the chance was gone. Moments later, Airbus had their first chance on goal, good play in the middle of the park found the ball thread through for Danny Warren, his attempt was parried by the onrushing Shaun Pearson, and the loose ball fell to an airbus player and again, at the edge of his area, Pearson made another excellent block to prevent the visitiors taking the lead.
Moments later, a ball out to Danny Andrews and his low cross jowards Jamie Breese see’s Joe Palmer having to kick the ball out over the crossbar for a corner. Brady McGilloway’s corner was picked up by a Airbus defender who kicked it upfield and Kaiden Cooke was on to it and was able to beat the advancing Pearson to slot the ball home to give the Visitors the lead. The goal was hard on the Wellmen after having the majority of the play for the half so far.
The Wellmen tried to get back into the game, but the goal had lifted the visitors and they were able to deal with everything thrown at them and the sides went off at the half time break with the visitors a goal to the good.
The second half got underway and with a couple of minutes of the half played, Andrews burst forward and got to the byline and his cut back found Breese but his shot is blocked for a corner which came to nothing. Breese didn’t have to wait too long for his next chance and made it count this time by drawing the sides level, a great ball by Danny Sullivan saw Breese in space and he fired the ball past the advancing Jones.
The equaliser lifted the Wellmen and they were the much better of the two sides, and a few minutes after Breese had equalised, Town very nearly took the lead. Andrews with good work and his low cross found Beau Cornish but his shot was brilliantly saved by Keighan Jones. With a little over an hour on the clock, Town won a free kick and the Andrews lofted the ball towards the far post and it was just a little to fast for Murray who was arriving at the far post, where any touch would have seen the ball hit the back of the net.
Town grabbed a deserved second on 72 minutes. A corner from the left was partially cleared and the ball fell to Brady McGilloway, he controlled and got past his marker and delivered a great ball into the box and Danny Sullivan rose well to head the ball home, much to the delight of all the Holywell Town supporters in the ground. With the supporters still celebrating, Town very nearly grabbed an instant 3rd goal, a ball put through to Breese and his touch across goal beat Jones but unfortunately dribbled inches past the post.
Airbus piled on the pressure looking for the equaliser and with 10 minutes to go, the Wellmen were grateful for Shaun Pearson who pulled off a great save off George Peers fierce drive. With the game in injury time, the ball fell kindly to Jack Baines-Hughes but he was unable to get any power on his shot and Jones gathered easily. The visitors put the Wellmen under a bit of pressure in the 5 minutes of injury time but didn’t create anything to test the Wellmen and the referee blew for full time and the Wellmen had picked up the points against the league leaders and put last weeks disappointment to bed and all eyes now focused on next weekends’ Cup game at Penrhyncoch. The Majority of the 327 crowd went home happy and that victory was in memory for Bert.
Picture: Sam Eaden