We reached the final of the Shamrock Travel (Welsh League) League Cup with a hard earned win over
second division Tredegar Town.  Goals from Liam McCreesh and Craig Jones saw us through to our
first Shamrock final. Steve Parry, Paul Evans and Shaun O'Leary were missing from Saturday's starting line up.

A difficult pitch didn't help either side and it was difficult for our lads to lift themselves after the emotion of last Saturday's Welsh Cup.  Tredegar had nothing to lose but failed to create much in front of goal.

They took the lead on twelve minutes when a cross from the left found their 11 free to head past Brian
giving him no chance.  We responded positively and within 4 minutes were level, Liam latched on to a
through ball and shot hard and low past the keeper.  On 26 minutes a repeat performance, Chris Latham played the ball between their central defenders for Craig Jones to run on and score.  Three minutes later we again beat their defence with this time Ian going through. Unfortunately a bad bounce cost us a third goal.  

Tredegar pushed forward and earned a free kick on the edge of the area, however the shot sailed
harmlessly over the bar.  In the final five minutes of the half we had two chances, firstly a free kick caused panic in their defence the ball eventually reached Liam whose overhead kick went straight at the keeper. Then a great cross from Greg was met by Karl Lewis at the far post and their keeper went full length to make an outstanding save to keep them in the hunt.
 

Tredegar realising they needed a good start to the second half came at us in the first five minutes, we
broke with Liam feeding Ian but his effort went over the bar. The pitch wasn't helping either side and
there was a lot of scrappy play, on 61 minutes however we gained a corner which Carl Evans headed just over the bar. A Matt Lavis pass was intercepted and Tredegar broke, Dan Williams got back and won the ball and cleared the danger injuring himself in the process.  There were howls of protest from the Tredegar players and fans who thought they should have had a penalty.  Dan for his trouble left the field to be replaced by Justin Williams.  

Tredegar had a series of unproductive corners and with just over 10 minutes to go, Ian received the ball in strode in to the right side of area, as he shot the ball bobbled and sailed harmlessly over
the bar. He had a golden opportunity to seal the result with 7 minutes to go having been played with the ball between the defenders but his shot was saved by the keeper who with the saves he's made kept his side in touch.

We had almost 6 minutes of added on time but held out to reach the final.  Well done to the lads on
winning especially after the high of Saturday. It was a difficult pitch against opponents who had nothing to lose.

Side  Brian Thomas  Karl Lewis  Chris Latham  Dan Williams  Carl Evans  Craig Martin  Liam McCreesh
        Matt Lavis  Ian Jones  Craig Jones  Greg Hurley

Subs  Justin Williams for Dan Williams 66
          Paul Evans for Matt Lavis 77
          Phil Holmes for Ian Jones 89