West End 2-0 Llantwit Major – Division Two strugglers stun promotion hopefuls Major
West End put a dent in Llantwit Major’s promotion chances after defeating Karl Lewis’ men by two goals to nil at Pryderi Park on a mild Wednesday Night at Townhill.
West End who started the game 14th we’re looking to move on up the table and bounce back from a disappointing loss to Pontypridd in their last game. On the flip side, Llantwit Major had won their last 4 games and were in good form coming into this Division 2 clash.
Llantwit Major started off the better side, with some attacking play mostly involving target man Sam Snaith. The first chance came to the Vale of Glamorgan side, down the right-hand side, a good cross was put in but a good take by Lewis Gibbs kept the game scoreless after the first 5 minutes. More pressure kept on coming from Major but only half chances we’re being created.
They came attacking again after 10 minutes, with some more good passing football, they decided to mix it up a bit and lump it forward. West End tried to appeal for offside, but nothing was given. Anthony Rawlings came into the box for Major and tried to create an opportunity, but the ball was cleared by the West End defence.On the 19th minute, West End got the ball inside their own half, and lump it forward trying to cause some problems for the Major defence.
This proved an effective strategy as the Major defence made a huge mistake. The ball fell to Elliot Gowan who was one-on-one with the Llantwit Major goalkeeper, and he neatly slotted home through the goal keeper’s legs and made it 1-0 to West End.
On the 24th minute, West End had a free kick inside their own half, yet again they lumped the ball forward, West End won the flick on, they passed the ball to the right-hand side and it neatly delivered in, and finished yet again by the prolific Elliot Gowan, 2-0 West End!
The next 10 minutes was all Llantwit Major but Lewis Gibbs in the West End goal pulled off a few saves and looked very comfortable with set pieces from Major. Few 50-50 chances from both sides ended the half and it was 2-0 at the break.
Coming into the 2nd half, it was the hosts who started the better, with attacking right fullback, Darryl Hughes running down the wing and causing Major problems. He won himself an early corner for his team, but nothing came of it as it was defended well, but you could see the intent early in the half.
Five minutes later, however, Major got the ball on the right-hand side of the pitch, good ball in from the outside of the foot, and it fell to striker Ben Cripps, but he didn’t expect such a good ball and couldn’t react quickly enough, and the ball went out for a goal kick for West End.
The next 5 minutes pretty much ended to end with both sides trying to play some nice football, but the pitch was becoming an issue and due to no floodlights at the ground, it was getting quite dark and you could tell this was becoming a real issue for both teams.
West End did get a free kick on the 55th minute for a push on Gowan, the ball was punted forward with no real conviction, but it caught the keeper off guard and he was forced to tip it over the bar. From the resulting corner, it was easily headed away by the Major defence, another cross was attempted by West End but no success as they were caught offside, but West End were certainly taking a grip of this game.
The game had a lot of heated tackles in the second half and this came to a head in the final 10 minutes. A free kick was given to Llantwit Major. Just after the free kick was given, a late challenge by Connor Goldsworthy on Elliot Gowan, caused a confrontation between Gowan and Major player Connor Goldsworthy with them coming face to face. Both players were shown the yellow card.
There were half chances for both sides, coming into the final 5 minutes of the contest, but the big chance came for Major when they lumped the ball into the West End Box, and it appeared to come off a hand but was waved away by the referee.
