Cwmbran Celtic vs Taffs Well

On a late September afternoon under overcast skies, Cwmbran Celtic and Taff’s Well played out a 1-1 draw that in many ways reflected the weather above the Avondale Motor Park Arena.
This was the second meeting between the sides after Taff’s won the previous encounter on penalties in the Nathaniel MG cup after a 2-2 draw.Celtic were unchanged from last week’s 2-1 victory over Trefelin, as they came out the brighter of the two sides from the kick off and should have taken the lead after just two minutes when a Lewis Illes header from a left sided cross looked to be hitting the back of the net. However, Edward King in the Taff’s net pulled off a really good save to deny Lewis his fifth of the season.After that early chance the momentum swung to the visitors, as the tactics of both sides became clear. Taffs wanted to keep the ball on the ground and pass it around, whilst the hosts wanted to play long ball as plan A B and C. Taffs plan to pass the ball around led to their first chance in the ninth minute, as their move down the left wing ended in the first corner for the visitors but it was dealt with easily by the Celtic defence.The following period of play had this reporter getting a sense of what it would be like to watch the tennis at Wimbledon, as the ball went very quickly between both penalty areas for a good few minutes. Taffs then got their foot on the ball down their left wing and their striker Sage ran into the Cwmbran area and nutmegged a home defender, before sliding the ball under Hooper to give Taff’s Well a very much deserved 1-0l lead after just seventeen minutes of play.The game continued after the goal much the same as it was before, as the visitors looked much more energetic and up for the fight as they won the majority of the second balls. Whenever they did lose the ball, they didn’t have to do too much defending as Celtic failed to string two passes together, which led to a lot of long balls but the Taff’s high defensive line kept catching the Cwmbran attack offside with ease.

The next major moment of note came in the thirty-first minute, when Cwmbran could have gone two behind but for Well’s cross just missing their striker’s head when it looked like any contact would have resulted in a goal.

Celtic seemed to spring back into life and had a decent run down the left hand side which resulted in a poor pass but luckily it ended up with Thomas Meechan, who hit a half volley from miles away but his effort only just went over the visitors goal.

That was how the first half ended as Taffs looked the more comfortable team and had much more possession, which led to the crowd growing quiet as the frustration with the fruitless long ball tactics from Celtic became evident.

The second half began in much the same manner, as Cwmbran kept pumping the ball forward like an old school Wimbledon performance but this time it almost led to an early second half equaliser, when a Celtic corner ended up with the ball in the net from a good header However, it was disallowed for offside before anyone in the crowd could get excited.

The Taffs number two Harvey Sing had his side’s first chance of the second half when he had a long shot from outside the box, which went over the bar in the fiftieth minute. Celtic persisted with the route one tactics but it provided slightly better results. As the half carried on, the hosts were the better side in the second half but still didn’t create that many chances to equalise.

Taff’s went down to ten men in the seventy fourth minute when Jak Carson threw a punch towards a Cwmbran player. Cwmbran still failed to make any inroads into the Taffs lead and in fact the game went quiet until injury time, when Taffs could have secured the victory with a long shot from miles away, which looked to be heading towards the goal but went just wide.

The hosts had a lucky escape there and Alex Bonthron made the most of it when he got on the end of a scramble in the area from a Josh Hinwood corner, to poke the ball home to give Celtic a very fortuitous and undeserved equaliser.

A minute later and the good fortune almost doubled for the hosts as they could have stolen the win, when Bonthron had a header in acres of space but he sent it wide which meant the game finished 1-1.