Corwen hosted Llay Welfare in a game that was officiated by one linesman, as one of the pair dropped out at the last minute. This may have flustered referee John Spender, who had to slightly delay kick off, after forgetting to bring a match ball out with him.

The visitors had the better of the opening stages, with Naz Farhat having a couple of chances early on, the second one being a great shot from distance that curled just wide of the post.

Farhat was able to find the back of the net in the 20th minute with a brilliant finish, as the ball went in near the far post with a shot from the edge of the box.

Corwen’s first real chance came on the half hour mark, when Sion Hughes crossed the ball to Ryan Billington on the edge of the box, who was able to force a save from Tom Belton.

Scott Evans was the next to try his luck from outside the penalty area, but he sent the ball narrowly over the bar. This was closely followed by a low shot from Andrew Roberts, who saw Belton save the ball with his feet.

Andrew had to don the goalkeeper’s gloves at half time, as Nathan Aldridge had to be leave the field with a back injury. Dale Davies, who was only fit enough for the bench due to a groin injury, came on for Nathan, and went in goal himself on the hour mark after a recurrence of the groin injury. This meant that Andrew had worn 3 different shirts in the game after swapping shirts with Dale!

Jack Crompton was the first to test Belton in the second half, as he sent a looping shot at goal, which the keeper pushed out for a corner.

At the other end Mikey Wright the first to test Dale’s goalkeeping skills, but he sent his shot straight at the keeper.

After returning to center forward duty Andrew got on to the end of an Elystan Hughes cross, but Belton was able to dive on to the loose ball, with Andrew ready to strike. Five minutes later he was bearing down on the Llay goal, but a last ditch tackle from Dan Myers stopped him in his tracks.

From a corner Farhat tried to double his tally with a header, but Dale was able to dive low to make a save.

With twelve minutes to play Andrew saw off the challenge of Nicky Chesters and crossed the ball into the box, where Sion Hughes was able to get a toe to the ball at full stretch, and saw the ball creep over the line to level the scores.

Corwen hit Llay on the counter attack in an attempt to find a winner, however he was unable to see off the challenge of Chesters.

Corwen came agonisingly close to claiming all 3 points in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, as Jack Crompton got his head on to the end of a Scott Evans corner, however the ball was cleared off the line by Jared Taylor.

The Reserves kept their bid for a top 3 finish alive with a 3-1 win at Llay, with goals from Will Hughes and Tom Williams (2). 3 points from their final game at home to Coedpoeth United will see them finish the season in 3rd.

Gavin Billington