Monday, 21 September 2015

Jamie Breese, Kev Roberts and Dubious Penalties?

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.
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.
Gareth Edwards dealt well with Conwy's aerial threat.
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.
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
Jamie Breese.
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.
A rare cameo from Iwan.
There was a decent sized Cofi Army in attendance and the players’ celebrations with some of them after the goal was worth the entrance fee alone. Iwan often talks of being one club, and everyone pulling together in the same direction, and I think the celebration was a great way of proving that players and supporters have already got a great rapport.
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......
Before setting off home I saw Kevin emerging from the dressing room with a slight limp and a bag of ice cubes. Having got over the shock of what I was seeing I managed to take a photo as proof that my eyes were not deceiving me and Kev assured me he’d be back to full fitness in no time, which was no surprise!
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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