ST ASAPH manager Daniel Brewerton was left rueing a poor start in their 3-1 JD Welsh Cup home loss to Llanberis.

The Saints were unable to reach the first-round proper after giving themselves too much to do in the second half of the contest, and they will be hoping for better knockout fortunes this Saturday when they make the tricky trip to Greenfield in the Lock Stock Cookson Cup.

Brewerton, said: “It was a tough result to take. We got off to a terrible start after conceding a penalty inside ten minutes and it was a similar situation to when we played them last month in the league.

“They are very good at slowing the game down which make it difficult to build momentum. Overall we saw plenty of the ball and created some good chances and on another day it could have been a different story, but their keeper pulled off some decent saves and we were wasteful on several occasions.

“It’s disappointing to go out of the Welsh Cup at this stage as we really wanted to be in the hat for the next draw, but we have to turn our attentions to next weekend now as we travel to Greenfield in the first round of the Cookson Cup.”

Things got off to a poor start for the home side, who fell behind on ten minutes when Gethin Wakeham successfully converted from the penalty spot to open the scoring.

Further goals after the break from Nidian Huws and Tomos Saynor ensured the Saints’ exited the competition at the second qualifying round stage, with a home effort through a Paul Fleming penalty unable to affect the overall outcome.