A beautiful spring day utterly ruined by an
inept, lacklustre performance that would have barely reached Cymru
Alliance status let alone the Super 12 spot this was supposed to
be vital points for before the extremely difficult run-in against the
three teams above them & in-form Bangor. Yet again The 'Bus failed to
raise their game against inferior opposition, in this case a very poor
'Port side, resigned to relegation long ago. If that place in the new
league slips away the sole reason will be their infuriating inability
to dispatch teams like this.
Across to the west in The Clwydians at Ruthin the reserves
were producing a fantastic (& evidently motivated) performance to beat
Lex XI to reach the NEWFA Cup Final; they should have switched teams &
sent this lot there instead.
Although Porthmadog took the game to Airbus straight away, winning a
corner immediately, The Wingmen had early chances to wrap things up,
Carl Owen being tripped as he was about to shoot & Marc Lloyd-Williams
tapping tamely at Harvey, easily saved. A looping header from Port's
Chris Jones almost caught out Chris Doran, ambling back after getting
caught in two minds and following a weak Sudlow clearance. Suds himself
powered a header over after Josh Johnson had won a couple of corners
with some lost trickery he sadly only shows flashes of. Half time
arrived with another weak Jiws effort, cleared off the line by John
Keegan. It wasn't very good. Ominously so.
After a low-key start to a similarly lacklustre second period Danny
Desormeaux missed a sitter when he only had to tap in a cross straight
to him. Then Porthmadog scored. A two on two attack exposed some
clueless defending and the Reds' number seven lashed the ball past
Doran into the top corner. Ten minutes later Airbus had equalised, Carl
Owen sending a Josh Johnson cross clattering onto the bar, down & out,
the ref deciding it had gone in. It was a temporary reprieve as
incredibly Porthmadog scored an identical goal to their first past a
lame & lax defence. With a too-little-too-late burst Airbus tried to
rely on their late goal expertise but that only works when you play
well, subs Paul McManus taking the ball through but finishing poorly,
allowing the save and Tom Rowlands clipping the top of the bar with a
rising drive.
Do this again on Tuesday night at Farrar Road & it will be another
savage beating to bring back to Broughton.
Airbus UK Broughton
Chris Doran,
Josh Johnson, Ryan Edwards, Matthew Woodward,
Mark
Allen, Gareth Sudlow (Jack Rowlands 65'),
Jack
Abraham, Danny Desormeaux, James McIntosh (Tom
Rowlands 61'),
Marc Lloyd-Williams (Paul
McManus
75'), Carl Owen.
Yellow
Cards:
Lloyd-Williams 68'
Attendance: 157
