Holywell Town 3-2 Newtown

Holywell Town 3-2 Newtown AFC
Welsh Cup Round 4
Saturday 22nd February 2014

This Welsh Cup Round 4 tie finally went ahead on the 4th time of asking and Town produced a historic performance to book themselves a place in the Quarter Finals of the Welsh Cup.

The match referee delayed the kick off for 15 minutes to enable members of Town’s committee to do last minute work on a couple of bad bits on the pitch. Buoyed by a good crowd, Town were first out of the blocks and Sam Jones brought out a good save out of Newtown Keeper Mike Platt. From the resulting corner, Tom McElmeel saw his effort deflected onto the crossbar by a visiting defender before the ball was cleared, but only as far as Sam Jones and his shot was saved by Platt.

Newtown’s Zach Evans was then booked as he attempted to win a penalty and was shown the yellow card by referee Iwan Griffith. A few minutes later, Paul Williams put the Wellmen ahead. Phil Lloyd broke clear and beat his defender and as he got into the box, he looked up and crossed the ball across the area to Paul Williams who slotted the ball home at the far post. A few minutes later, Town won a free kick in a dangerous position, and up stepped Sam Jones and his low shot flew into the net with keeper Platt beaten.

Town were worthy of the two goal lead and Newtown then had a chance to reduce the arrears. The visitors won a free kick on the edge of the box and the resulting kick flew over the bar before Sean Evans had a shot go wide of Danny Stanton’s goal. Another corner saw Newtown go close but Mark Orme was on hand to clear the ball off the line, and the resulting clearance saw Lloyd once again beat his marker on the right. He crossed the ball in field to Tony Roebuck who controlled the ball well and advanced on to the Newtown goal. Roebuck tried to beat the keeper by going round him but his attempt was blocked by the keepers legs and out to safety.
Newtown then won another free kick on the edge of the box and Craig Williams’ effort flew over the bar and up the other end, Steve Thomas had a great shot which keeper Platt did well to parry away. Thomas didn’t have to wait too long for a goal, as on the stroke of half time, his long range effort was dropped by Platt and he attempted to recover the ball but the Assistant Referee had flagged to say the ball had crossed the line. So at 3-0, Town went into the break with a healthy and deserved advantage, and Newtown could not have complained if the score was 5-0 given the efforts we had on goal.

After the second half, Newtown piled on the pressure on us from the off, with Matthew Hearsey having a shot which had beaten Stanton but Orme was on hand to clear it off the line. Newtown however pulled one back a few minutes, when Tom Goodwin nodded home a Zach Evans cross to give the visitors a glimmer of hope. Luke Boundford then had an effort cleared once again by Orme after Stanton had saved the initial shot.

Town then lost Dafydd Griffith, who had been solid at the back, to a nasty face injury, after a high boot off a Newtown attacker caught him full in the face as he attempted to clear the ball and his substitute Barry Calder was sent on to replace him. A few minutes later, Orme was on hand again to clear a Sean Evans shot then Evans again had a goal bound shot deflected wide. A few minutes later though, Newtown were back in it. Matthew Hearsey picked up the ball on the left, and his cross come shot seem to move in the wind and ended up in the back of the net via the side netting with Stanton unfortunately beaten. Going into the final 10 minutes, Kieran Mills-Evans had a shot saved well by Stanton before Newtown had another shot deflected out for a corner.

Town had a chance to clinch it right at the end as the Newtown back line had pushed up in search of the equaliser, and the ball broke to Graham Boylan who switched the ball over to Sam to chase, and before he was challenged by the last defender, his attempted lob goal wards fell wide of Platt’s goal, before Steve Thomas broke and his attempted cheeky chip over Platt fell just over the bar.

Newtown threw everything at Town during the final few minutes, but the Wellmen held out and when the referee blew for full time, Halkyn Road erupted into applause and the players were given a standing ovation for their performance and all eyes now turn to next Saturday’s Quarter Final against Porthmadog.