The First Month Part Two.
Caernarfon’s first victory of the season, at Denbigh, must have been a huge relief for Iwan Williams and the players, not to mention the supporters, and in addition to giving us all a real boost I hope it proved to the manager that the style of football he wants the team to play can work.
Caernarfon’s first victory of the season, at Denbigh, must have been a huge relief for Iwan Williams and the players, not to mention the supporters, and in addition to giving us all a real boost I hope it proved to the manager that the style of football he wants the team to play can work.
The first three matches had all
been against sides that play a much more direct style than the Canaries and,
whilst Holywell and Prestatyn had given the team problems with their
physicality, I think the players got to grips with this side of the game much
more at Denbigh and got their just rewards. They certainly matched the hosts’
physically whilst the playmakers in Town’s line-up gave us the edge, a pattern
I believe, and hope, we’ll be seeing plenty of this season.
Conwy Borough visited the Oval
five days later and provided another stiff test, although the match was not the
most entertaining I’ve seen. Again, Conwy set up solidly, looking to keep
things tight whilst playing mostly on the break. However, unlike the previous
home match against Prestatyn, the Canaries showed much more patience going
forward and although the free-flowing football of pre-season was only
fleetingly seen, I thought the players did well. Jay Gibbs and Nathan Craig just about edged
the midfield battle, although Conwy’s Rob Jones had an excellent evening and
was a real nuisance throughout. He was Conwy’s best player on the night and
must have impressed Iwan, as he has since brought him to the Oval.
For Caernarfon, special mention must be made of the defence on the night as, despite needing to re-shuffle after an early injury to Chris Williams, they gave Conwy little change and Gareth Edwards in particular dealt confidently with the aerial threat posed by the visitors.
Gareth Edwards dealt well with Conwy's aerial threat. |
For Caernarfon, special mention must be made of the defence on the night as, despite needing to re-shuffle after an early injury to Chris Williams, they gave Conwy little change and Gareth Edwards in particular dealt confidently with the aerial threat posed by the visitors.
Ellis Healing in action against his former club, Conwy. |
Town’s winner came from Ellis
Healing, who scored from the penalty spot against his former club. I was not
too far away from the action when he was brought down just inside the area and
thought the referee got it right, although Conwy’s management team were less
than happy about the decision. That is to be expected of course, but I had to
laugh when I read the match report on Conwy’s
official site the following day, where it proclaimed Caernarfon had been
awarded a ‘dubious’ penalty. Really? How
many times do we hear people call penalties ‘dubious’ whenever it’s one against
their own team? Seeing this on the club’s site suggested a touch of sour grapes
from the author and whilst I know only too well how hard it is to try and be
impartial when writing match reports, this type of thing never looks good.
We were on our travels again a
few days later and my usual away day companion, Bob, didn’t fancy the trip so I
was on my own. I’ve been watching football with Bob for well over thirty years
and the last five seasons have seen us miss just a handful of away matches so it’s
always odd when I’m travelling solo. To be fair, I couldn’t really blame him
for giving it a miss as even I have to force my way up the A55 when we’re
playing up the coast. I put this down to my fellow Caernarfon Town committee
member Kevin ‘Becks’ who apparently has something to do with putting cones down
the lanes at ridiculously regular intervals!
A very quiet welcome at Cae y Castell. |
I arrived at the free car park in
plenty of time and it was so quiet that began thinking the match had been
called off for some reason. This might have been something to do with a
previous visit to Cae y Castell two years ago when we arrived at the venue only
to be told that the match had been postponed, just twenty minutes before
kick-off! Thankfully there was no such call this time and my mind was put at
ease when I saw John Watkins perusing his match programme the other side of the
turnstile.
The match itself was a much more entertaining
affair than the one at the Oval in midweek although it very much followed the
now customary pattern of the Canaries dominating
possession and spending most
of the match looking for ways to unlock a resolute defence. The team played
really well and deserved the three points and whilst we won courtesy of an own
goal, it may as well have been credited to Jamie Breese because he created the
problem for the Flint defence out of nothing and did everything but find the
net himself. When Jamie signed during the Summer I thought he would be in the
team to put away chances in the box, a 'goal poacher' in the mould of someone like Gary
Lineker, but how wrong was I? Yes, Jamie is a great finisher but he is so much
more than that and I can honestly say that I can’t remember a striker at
Caernarfon who ever worked as hard as he does over the course of a match. Iwan’s system of using so many
flair players in the team means that Jamie has periods in matches where he
ploughs a lone furrow up front and he works his socks off doing it. He’s already
proved a favourite with the supporters in his short time at the club and I imagine he will be a key figure for us in the future.
Jamie Breese. |
A rare cameo from Iwan. |
If there was
one negative aspect from the afternoon it was seeing Kevin Roberts walking off the
pitch injured. I can only assume that he must have either kicked a rock or tackled
himself, as no other footballer could possibly have given him a knock in a
tackle! Iwan made a rare appearance as a replacement in the final minutes and
found enough time to get in two bone shakers of his own in midfield, which shows that he, too, loves a tackle!
Kev Roberts with his bag of ice...... |
So, another
tough match, and a third successive victory for the Cofis, who again proved
that they can ‘win ugly’ when needed. I think we were all still waiting
to see the free flowing football we'd been hoping for but I’d much rather see the
team grinding out wins than playing pretty football and losing. With the players
Iwan has in his squad I am convinced it is just a matter of time before the
team starts putting on the style and winning matches by more than the odd goal.
For once, the
A55 was clear on the way home and there was the prospect of a very interesting
match against our greatest rivals, Bangor City, on the horizon….
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