12th November 2019
On a clear, cold night the Wellmen travelled to Glanhafod Park Stadium in Goytre, northwest of Port Talbot. A month to the day had passed since the last league game and with both teams looking towards the wrong end of the table, the points tonight were important.
As has been the case with Taffs Well games over the past couple of seasons, a poor start cost them dear. Goytre Utd took the lead early on through a penalty coolly slotted away by Goytre captain, Josef Hopkins. Taffs Well responded by hitting the bar via Sam O'Sullivan and a goalmouth scramble, but Goytre immediately reacted with a smart counter attack, exposing the Wellmen's defence. Joshua Jones finished the move slotting the ball in the left hand corner. Within another 5 minutes Goytre extended the lead to 3-0. Callum Saunders stepped up on the right-hand side of the pitch and curled a beautiful left foot free-kick over the head of the Taffs Well goalkeeper.
Going down another goal and staring at a heavy defeat, the Wellmen rebounded. The ball entered the Goytre box on many occasions via corners, free kicks and crosses, but couldn't find the killer instinct to pull the trigger. Both sides had chances but the first half finished 3-0.
Goytre United strengthened their lead with a penalty within the first 5 minutes of the second half. This spurred the Taffs Well boys on to respond immediately. Crisp passing between O'Sullivan and French resulted in Sani taking advantage of a defensive error and putting the ball into the left hand corner. Taffs Well kept up the pressure with more corners and free kicks, resulting in a goal-line header and good defensive work from Goytre. United were not resting on their laurels and counter-attacked srtongly on occasion, with Aiden Smith just pulling a particularly good shot wide.
Just as the Wellmen thought they could find a way to salvage something from the match, a corner from Goytre bounced around the six yard box and ended up going over the line. From here both teams had strong chances but failed to make them count. Richard French won a penalty following a late tackle in the area, which Jordan Carey professionally put away, but then the damage had been done and the game was lost.
Ultimately a frustrating night for the young Taffs Well team. Credit goes to Goytre United for taking their chances, but the lads will be travelling home thinking on another day this could have been a much better result. We go again, on to Cwmbran on Saturday!
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