John James was the hero when his injury-time winner sealed a late victory at Cae Piod in the Ardal North East.
The first half began tepidly and it look until a quarter of an hour of play to see the opening opportunity of the match when Llanfair’s Max McLaughlin found Nyasha Mwamuka but the midfielder saw his effort take a deflection for a corner. The resulting kick was then blazed over the crossbar by McLaughlin as the visitors looked to open the deadlock.
Bow Street had chances themselves with Tomos Roberts’ seeing his chance blocked after some good play in midfield prior to Steffan Richards’ great cross picking our Steffan Davies but he curled the ball over the bar from the edge of the box.
With 20 minutes on the clock, United almost took the lead when a spell of pressure led to Karl Seliaerts rattling the base of the left post.
Matthew Bumford made a brilliant tackle to deny Bow’s Osian Burrell who was running clear at goal before a home freekick taken from 25 yards out was punched away by Danny Foulkes minutes later.
Llanfair felt aggrieved in the 32 minutes when Joshua Astley was tumbled in the box but the referee waved the penalty shout away in a moment of controversy in the first period.
Sion Ewart was fouled three minutes before the interval which awarded a freekick 25 yards out that Steffan Davies fired at the far upright with the rebound strike blazed over the crossbar for the home side.
Late pressure saw Bow Street break once more with Ewart placing his chance wide of the right post after a brilliant passage of play.
A feisty, action-packed second half followed as play cranked up a notch with the game all to play for.
The hosts came out well in the early stages with a shot from distance sliding under Foulkes’ stomach and trickling narrowly wide for a corner kick.
Llyr Davies saw his effort collected with ease from 20 yards before Davies broke on the counter to go clear through on goal but he lacked composure which allowed the Llanfair defence to retreat and clear the danger.
On the hour the deadlock was finally broken. Substitute John James’ shot from around 10 yards snuck under Foulkes’ body hitting the post and crept over the line to give the hosts the lead.
Going behind seemed to kickstart Llanfair who looked to immediately hit back with a chance that was probably easier to score than miss!
An unmarked Matthew Spence got on to the end of a cracking cross from the left-wing but hooked the ball over the bar from three yards out in front of a gaping empty net.
However, Llanfair was dealt a blow on 68 minutes when forward Astley was sent off for a clumsy challenge which the referee deemed as being reckless.
This didn’t knock Llanfair as it gave them fresh impetuous. They almost made play level when a superb ball from Nathan Hughes was not dealt with by Bow Street, which saw Seliaert swing his foot through the ball for Ferreira to block on the goalline.
With 15 minutes left, Llanfair were awarded a penalty when McLaughlin was brought down in the area. Karl Seliaert stepped up and cooly brought playback to 1-1.
The play opened up as both teams upped the tempo and pressure in the final stages that could swing the game either way.
A Bow Street delivery into the area deflected off of Paul Griffiths’ head for Foulkes to acrobatically tip the ball over the bar before down the other end McLaughlin was brought down in the area and seeing his penalty claims waved away.
There was to be late drama as in the 91st minute a fantastic cross came from Davies on the left-wing which was powerfully headed home by John James who notched his second of the afternoon to seal the win for the home outfit.
An eventful afternoon at Cae Piod which was most definitely a tale of two halves – a very tame first half but an improved effort by both sides in the second period.
Bow Street: 1. Ben Willis, 2. Steffan Richards, 4. Ryan Evans, 5. Joshua Ferreira, 6. Tomos Roberts, 7. Callum Ferreira, 8. Steffan Davies, 9. Sion Ewart (15. John James 55’), 10. Osian Burrell, 11. Llyr Davies, 12. Liam Berner
Subs not used: 3. Owen Roberts-Young, 14. Joseff Williams, 16. Peter Evans, 17. Llyr Hughes
Yellows: Osian Burrell 74’.
Goals: John James 61’ & 90+1’.
Llanfair United: 1. Danny Foulkes, 2. Jamie McVeagh, 3. Matthew Bumford (15. Thomas Gregory 53’), 4. Owain James (16. Paul Griffiths 72’), 5. Matthew Spencer, 6. Richard Astley, 7. Nyasha Mwamuka, 8. Ben Llifon Jones, 9. Joshua Astley, 10. Karl Seliaerts, 11. Max McLaughlin
Subs not used: 12. Nathan Hughes, 14. Owain Jones, 17. Oliver Roberts
Yellows: 5. Matthew Spencer 92’, 11. Max McLaughlin 88’, 16. Paul Griffiths 87’.
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