CAERWYS 1
LLANRHAEADR 0
ON a night of Summer League shocks, this was probably the biggest of the lot.
A single Arwyn Davies strike in the closing 15 minutes did the trick to hand Caerwys only their second victory of a tricky campaign.
“It was the story of our last two weeks, I think,” said Llanrhaeadr’s Bryn Evans.
“The other team wanted it more than us.
“I think we are just going through the motions now.”
Joint-Caerwys boss John Owens admitted that the result “put to rest the nightmares” of a 10-0 defeat at Llanrhaeadr earlier in the season, plus a heavy Shield semi-final loss to Llan some 12 months ago.
“It was one of those nights that nothing really went right for Ian Evans,” said Owens.
“It was all through the side and it was a cracking performance, really.”
Nick Voyle was an outstanding figure in Caerwys colours, forming part of a superb midfield performance that included man of the match Dylan Thomas and the impressive Tom Rogers.
Llanrhaeadr saw plenty of the ball on the night, but uncharacteristically, they offered very little in the final third and they were only able to create a handful of opportunities.
Not too many chances fell the way of Caerwys either, although they went close to registering when Voyle’s fine shot from outside the penalty area crashed against the Llan woodwork.
The vital breakthrough came late on when Arwyn Davies won a 50-50 challenge with the visiting goalkeeper and then diverted the ball into the net from 15 yards out.
For the closing 10 minutes, Llanrhaeadr did turn up the heat with some free kicks and corners, but Dyfan Davies stood firm to preserve his clean sheet for the hosts.
Graeme Howard was one of Llanrhaeadr’s main performers on the night, while Mark Musgrave also played well for the visitors.
For Caerwys, Jake “Yog” Spencer was outstanding at the back, while there was also an impressive display from 16-year-old Tom Duprez.