ABERYSTWYTH TOWN 5 LLANDUDNO FC 4 (on penalties)
LLANDUDNO came close to pulling off a major cup shock at the weekend away to Welsh Premier League opponents Aberystwyth Town before losing out on penalties.
The Seasiders more than matched their West Wales hosts, and took a deserved lead through Lee Jones’ precision free-kick, but the influential midfielder’s departure midway through the second half turned the tie in Aber’s favour, who equalised through substitute Alex Samuel.
Tudno held out to take the match to penalties, and despite losing out 5-4 in the shoot-out, manager Deiniol Graham said his players had “done the town proud.”
“It’s not a nice way to lose,” he said. “We came away from there buzzing.
“About five minutes after the final whistle they were very down, but then they realised that they’d done so well.
“I told them that they had drawn the game, not lost.
“We set up to play the same way as we did against Rhyl and it worked.
“We went one up and we created some really good chances, probably better ones than they had, but around 65 minutes we had an injury and we had to change things, and we were put under the cosh a little bit.
“I’m very proud of them, they’ve done the club and the town proud.”
Graham also had words of encouragement for 18 year old Julian Roberts, whose spot kick was denied by a superb save from Aber keeper Steve Cann, while paying tribute to his hard working squad of locally-based players.
“He’s got 20 to 25 more years playing the game, and he’ll have ups and downs. I told him that we’ve all been there, and we play again tomorrow night and he’ll be back involved then.”
“13 of the 15 lads that I had were from the area, and they’ve given their all for me in the last two games. I’ve said that if they do the business for me I’ll stay loyal to them, so I don’t think there’ll be too many changes.”
Jones put Llandudno ahead on 27 minutes with a beautifully struck free-kick past Cann, and Robbie Knowles almost added a second five minutes from the break as Tudno more than held their own.
The goalscorers departure forced a change in shape for Llandudno, and though Aber cranked up the pressure in the latter stages, Graham’s men held firm to take the tie into penalties.
In the shoot-out, Lee Thomas, Anthony Tierney and Brian Roberts all netted their penalties before Williams was denied.