Cwmbran Celtic vs Penybont

The Magic of the Welsh Cup came rolling into Cwmbran as last year’s Semi Finalists and the 21/22 runners up Premier League Penybont arrived at the Motor Park Arena for the second round of this year’s competition. On a crisp early Autumn afternoon there was certainly the feel of a big game in the air as the Motor Park filled up earlier than this reporter has seen it as there was hope of a famous Cup upset.

Celtic made three changes from the 4-1 victory away to Abertillery Bluebirds as Kian Bodenham, Josh Rippon (who had made an early return from his America adventure) and Lewis Illes came in for Shaun Moss (suspended), Harrison Lewis and Tom Meechan (both injured).

Kick off came after all the pageantry of a cup tie which included both sides being walked onto the pitch by mascots from the Celtic junior teams. After all that the game started with both teams showing all the energy needed to contest a one-off knockout game and in fact Celtic made the better of the early stages and won the first corner of the match but failed to make anything of it.

Not long after and the nerves of the hosts maybe started to show as there was a mix up between Watkins and the defence forced the ball to be cleared for a corner which almost saw the deadlock broken early when the inswinging corner took not one but two headers before going just over the bar.

Penybont then started to show their class as they continued attacking and looked dangerous as they had a great chance after having a move down the right where the visitors found space and played a long pass into the box where the Penybont striker tries to grab the ball but slipped before he could tap the ball home and Cwmbran managed to clear the ball.

The hosts then went behind in the seventeenth minute under controversial circumstances, when Gabriel Kircough headed a left sided corner towards goal but Watkins believed he had saved on the line. However the referee disagreed and decided the ball had crossed the line, Watkins’ vocal disagreement with the officials earned the keeper a yellow card.

There was much confusion in the ground as to who exactly had scored the opening goal and in fact by the time the scorer had been identified the ball was back in the net again just six minutes later and in fact this reporter was updating his notes with the first scorers name so I missed that second goal sorry people but I do know that the scorer was the impressive Keyon Reffell.

Those two goals coming in quick succession seemed to suck the air out of the ground the team as Celtic started to misplace more passes and despite a few half chances towards the end of the half the break came with the visitors two-nil ahead and looking comfortable.

To show how comfortable the Premier League side were feeling, at the start of the second half they replaced their top scorer Chris Venables with a player half his age, Lewys Morgan.

Celtic had the best chance of the early stages of the second half when fifty-four minutes into the game Sam Powell got himself forward on the right side and had a decent mid range shot but to sum up Celtic’s day it went harmlessly wide.

Three minutes later and the game was all but over when Daniel Jefferies got on a deep cross and headed the ball past the unfortunate Lewis Watkins.

Celtic had one decent chance in the last half hour as Penybont looked to be happy with a three goal victory and took their foot off the gas, The Celtic chance came from the substitute Thomas Meechan got into the Penybont area down the right and nutmegged the visiting keeper Alex Harris but the ball just went wide of the net to ensure the game finished three nil to Penybont.

The game had an unsurprising result however it could have been different had the decision for the first goal gone the other way as the game was still an even affair at that point. However, the gulf in class between the two sides did tell and hopefully one day Celtic can be at the level of Penybont.