The match between Ton Pentre and Bryntirion Athletic at Ynys Park was an enthralling encounter but the Rhondda Bulldogs will be downbeat after letting victory slip from their grasp despite their visitors being reduced to ten men.
Tomos Wellington was shown a second half red card following his protest to Wayne Stephens after the match Referee had awarded the Bulldogs a penalty when Ian Gearie fouled Jordan Branch in the box. Branch scored from the spot to give the Rhondda Bulldogs a comfortable 4-2 lead and Ton should have cruised to success but sloppy defending gifted Bryntirion a route back into the match.
The Rhondda Bulldogs had started this Welsh League Division One encounter with an intelligent and delightful vigour electing for a pass and move ethos rather than the hit and hope of a long ball strategy.
Such play helped Ton to win an early corner from which striker Chris Jones beat a defender to the ball in the 18-yard box. Having connected well with the ball he saw his header inch just over Adam Caswell’s crossbar.
The Bulldogs were playing well and after Shane Brewer had distributed the ball to the left wing for Phil Clarke to take forward, Bryntirion soon found themselves in imminent danger. Clarke released Dominic Broad into the penalty area from where the midfielder struck the ball on the half volley to score a stunning goal giving Ton a deserved lead.
Bryntirion are a determined team and appeared fully convinced that they could get themselves level.
As they applied pressure in the Ton half of the pitch Ton’s Adam Lewis conceded a free kick outside the box. New Bryntirion signing, Anthony Rawlings, smashed the ball low and hard at goal. On its way into the box the ball took a defection off a Ton defender to beat Richard Jeffries in the Bulldogs goal.
Bryntirion took the lead before half time as the result of a goalkeeping blunder when the Ton defence left the ball following a call from Jeffries. Rawlings managed to get his head on the ball before the Ton keeper could catch it leaving Ryan Morgan scrambling to hit it off the line. The Ton Captain failed in his attempts to do so and the visitors celebrated taking a 2-1 lead.
An outstanding individual display of skill from Leon Young inside the first minute of the second half saw him dribble past several defenders in the Bryntirion area before slotting a wonderful shot into the net for 2-2.
Again Ton appeared to be the more dominant force and could have taken the lead through several corner kicks with Morgan coming the closest after seeing his header hit the top of the crossbar.
It wasn’t long before the Rhondda team took the lead when Young tried his luck from 25 yards. Caswell was unable to get anywhere near his spectacular effort as Young notched up his second goal of the match that will certainly be an early contender for goal of the season.
Ton appeared to be strolling towards victory soon after when Bryntirion were reduced to 10 men with the Bulldogs taking a 4-2 lead from the spot but the visitors were gifted two goals with which they drew level.
The first of Ton’s self inflicted wounds came from Young’s terrible decision to pass the ball back towards his defence, which allowed Bryntition to snatch possession and grab a goal that provided belief.
Ton allowed themselves to be put under pressure and as a result they cracked just minutes before the full time whistle when Lewis’s attempt to clear the ball resulted in the defender conceding a penalty.
Rawlings took the spot kick and Jeffries blocked the ball but in making his save he punched the it back towards the penalty taker who made no mistake with his follow-up effort.
Despite throwing victory away Ton will feel buoyed by the skilful football that they played but will look to iron out the defensive frailties ahead of their match with Afan Lido at Ynys Park on Wednesday, 19th August 2009. Kick off for this match is at 7.15pm.
Ton Pentre: 1. Richard Jeffries; 2. Jordan Branch; 3. Phil Clarke; 4. Adam Lewis; 5. Ryan Morgan (Captain);
6. Andrew Hughes; 7. Leon Young; 8. Gavin Rodgers; 9. Chris Jones; 10. Shane Brewer; 11. Dominic Broad
Subs: 12. Dan Morris for 11 on 88 mins; 14. Jamie Thomas for 8 on 79 mins; 15. P-Gi Pasquale.
Goals: Broad 14; Young 46, 65; Branch 75 (Pen)
Booked: Branch 52; Rodgers 55
Referee: Wayne Stephens (Llanelli)
Match report © Ton Pentre AFC Press
