Holywell Town 0 - 4 Denbigh Town

Holywell Town 0-4 Denbigh Town

In one of the biggest games of the season for both teams, the visitors took the honours at a wind swept Halkyn Road in a disappointing result for the Wellmen.

The first chance of the evening fell to Denbigh’s Andy Swarbrick who blazed over when through on Danny Stanton’s goal and a few minutes later, Steve Thomas saw his free kick from the edge of teh area fly past Jamie Hulse’s post for a goal kick. On the half hour mark, the visitors took the lead as Andy Swarbrick had a free header inside the box after Mike Lundstram had crossed the ball from the left hand side. Less than 10 minutes later, the visitors extended their lead as Swarbrick once again got on the scoresheet as he picked the ball up on the edge of the box and picked out his shot which ended up in the bottom corner to give the Visitors a 2-0 half time lead.

The teams came out for the second half and Holywell’s hopes of a comeback were cruelly dashed a couple of minutes into the half as Denbigh scored a third to seal the tie. Holywell’s Mark Orme was bundled over on the edge of the box but the referee waved play on and the loose ball fell to Denbigh’s Liam Jones to fire home past Stanton.
As the terrible windy conditions continued, Town never gave up and tried to get a goal back on the visitors. This we thought we had done on the hour mark as Graham Boylan tapped the ball home after Sam Jones’ initial shot was blocked by Danny Jelicoe in the heart of the Denbigh defence, and the ball fell kindly to Boylan to tap home but the Assistant Referee had his flag up for offside so the goal didn’t count. Town were putting Denbigh under a bit of pressure by now, and a good run by Ian Griffiths saw him get a good save out of Hulse and Sam Jones saw his follow up shot saved again by Hulse.

Denbigh got a 4th on 63 minutes as a cross from Holywell’s left hand side found Simon Smith, who was able to control the ball before firing the ball across goal and it ended up in the bottom corner. Holywell’s night got even worse on 68 minutes as tempers frayed and Holywell’s Paul Williams received two yellow cards and was sent off. With Town’s players still reeling from the first red card seconds earlier, they couldn’t believe their luck as the Assistant Referee waved his flag to get the Referee’s attention, and he consequently sent Sub Tom Carney off for something he allegedly said to the linesman.

This was a big blow for the Wellmen, but the Wellmen continued to press for a goal, and Griffiths was only inches too low at the far post from connecting with a great cross in by Steve Thomas. Danny Stanton was then called upon and pulled off a couple of excellent saves to deny Denbigh adding to their lead. In the final 10 minutes, Stanton again saved well from Mark Roberts before Sam Jones again nearly added a late consolation for the hosts but his shot went wide of Hulse’s goal before the referee blew to signal the end of the game and Denbigh were worthy winners of the 3 points.

The result was a big blow in Town’s hopes of winning the league and the only real winner this evening was the strong wind which no doubt spoilt the game for any neutrals who were watching. Town now have a bigger mountain to climb between now and the end of the season but there’s still plenty of football to be played yet, and we must pick ourselves up and get back to winning ways on Saturday at Llanberis.