Halkyn Town United progressed to the second round of the Premier Cup on Saturday afternoon with a 3-2 win over Mold Town United. Despite trailing 2-1 at half time, Halkyn came back to claim victory in the 95th minute with a goal from Ryan Anderson.
The game was a meeting between two North East Wales League sides, with Halkyn United currently second in the league after a strong start whilst Mold Town United sit ninth with four wins, two draws and three losses.
Yet all was even at Halkyn’s ground on Saturday afternoon with both teams vying for a place in the Premier Cup second round, the equivalent league cup of the North East Wales League.
Halkyn started a side including debutant Leon Pickford who signed from Greenfield during the week, whilst Mold Town United announced a line up with the likes of Dean Griffiths and Aaron North.
With play underway both teams went for goal, with Mold Town goalkeeper Martin Farr making some good stops to keep out a pacy Halkyn outfit. Mold’s Aaron North made two good runs into the Halkyn area, being brought down in one incident when a penalty appeal was waved away.
Near the 2oth minute Halkyn opened the scoring via Sean Wilkes who rose up to head a Joe Foster corner into the top of the Mold goal. This lead was held for the best part of 10 minutes until Ste Wilson connected with a cutting square ball from around seven yards to equalise for Mold.
By this point it was the visitors who were in control, with the edge of possession and more attacking flair on display. This paid off for Mold, who went in at half time 2-1 thanks to a penalty converted by Darrel Rees.
The opening period of the second half saw more of the same from Mold, who used their physical and direct game to maintain their hold of the game.
Yet with 30 minutes to play this began to change with Halkyn United coming back into the game using skill from players such as Jon Edmonds and Sean Wilkes who helped drive the side forward.
Halkyn manager Jay Manseri then introduced Ryan Anderson to the game, who would go onto to play a significant role in securing the win for his side.
With 10 minutes to play Halkyn got their sought after equaliser through an own goal, when in an attempt to clear pressure from the hosts, the Mold defence bungled the ball past goalkeeper Farr and into the back of the net.
Although Farr had been beaten by one of his own men, he produced two fine saves against Leon Pickford and Mike Radcliffe as Halkyn United upped the tempo, with Jack Griffiths also hitting the post.
The cup tie looked set to be extended to extra time with the score 2-2 after four of the five minutes of injury time given by referee Scott Campbell, but Halkyn’s Ryan Anderson stepped up to win the game at the death.
Jon Edmonds made a great run down the left wing to square the ball to substitute Anderson, who simply struck the ball in from yards out to win the game.
Halkyn deservedly celebrated at full time, having looked subdued by Mold for a large part of the game before turning it around to book their place in the Premier Cup second round.
After the game Clwb Pel Droed caught up with Halkyn manager Jay Manseri on his side’s emphatic win.
“Being a Mold lad myself I knew exactly what to expect this afternoon, as Mold are the type of team who will fight for everything. The lads couldn’t get going in the first half and rightly Mold led going into half time, second half the lads finally started to play their passing game and started to create more chances.
Manseri reveals his thinking behind a tactical change midway through the game, which proved to pay off for Halkyn.
I switched from a 4-3-3 to a 3-4-3 and that extra presence up top told in the end! Mold began to sit a lot deeper and tiredness played a big part in the last 20 minutes. Once we got the equaliser you still felt that we were going to create one last chance, and thankfully that came with the last attack of the game!
There’s no better way to finish the game then that!
Halkyn await the draw on Sunday evening.
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