Cwmbran Celtic vs Ammanford

On a beautiful sunny bank holiday Monday in late August Cwmbran Celtic hosted Ammanford at the Avondale Motor Park Arena, in a game between two teams who both had only one victory from their first five games of the season. Simon Berry made a whopping six changes to his starting lineup from the 2-1 last minute defeat to Taffs Well on Friday evening.

The game began with both teams looking full of energy as they both looked to break the deadlock early but strokes of luck for both defenses plus some good saves kept the game 0-0 after the first half hour but then the first major incident came as Ammanford after surviving a period of Cwmbran pressure played the ball nicely out of defense and they had three attackers running at a solitary Celtic defender and unluckily for the visitors Tristan Jenkins picked up an Injury which looked like a pulled hamstring as he looked certain to score as he approached the penalty box.

Nine minutes later and Cwmbran made the most of that extraordinary piece of luck when a Thomas Meechan corner found Cole Doolan’s head at the near post and the ball went into the back of the net to give the hosts a one-nil lead in the thirty-ninth minute.

Celtic seemed to be heading for a lead going into halftime but needed one more stroke of luck as another Ammanford attack led to a shot on goal which had the defence beaten but absolutely walloped the crossbar and went out of play to ensure the hosts did indeed go into the break with a one-nil lead but it could very easily have been the other way around for the visitors.

The second half began with Ammanford attempting to equalise early on but after a few half chances the game slowed down and became a bit more scrappy with both sides picking up a yellow card a piece in the first ten minutes of the second half Meaney collecting one for Cwmbran and Morgan Clarke being given a booking for Ammanford.

Just before the hour mark Celtic managed to double their lead when Mario Van Dieren played the ball to Dom Connor on the left hand side of the box and reminiscent of Yusuf Dikec from the Olympics he rifled the ball on right on target into the top right corner of the net for what is an early contender for goal of the season in this reporters mind.

That second goal gave Celtic a lot more confidence and they started dominating the play and looked more likely to score next. In the 72nd minute Tom Meechan increased Celtic’s lead when he latched on to a pass from Jude Bull, shrugged off two challenges and slid the ball under the advancing ‘keeper

In the eighty seventh minute Thomas Meechan scored his second of the game and this was one that was unforgettable and will live long in the memory of everyone in the crowd as Meechan took a corner from the left hand side and his inswinging corner went over everybody and straight into the back of the net which I believe surprised Meechan as much as anybody else in the ground. That made the score four (FOUR) nil to Cwmbran Celtic.

For the most part that was the end of the drama for the game apart from Jordan Meaney being sent off after getting a second yellow card for a foul just outside the Cwmbran penalty area. The resultant free kick came to nothing to ensure the game did indeed finish four-nil to Cwmbran Celtic.