At Alyn Park a bumper crowd watched the tie of the FAW Cup second round between The Alex and The Wellmen.
Prior to kick off the players and mascots from Mold ALex's U10's and U11's were led onto the pich by 2 members of the Mold Army Cadet Force and a minutes silence was excellently observed by all present.
Holywell started the better but Mold got back into it and started to exert their authority.
The first clear chance on goal came from a Mold Free Kick after 5 mins which Dave McElnay swung in to the Holywell box. Lewis Buckley got his head to the ball and sent a looping header towards the goal and was just dipping under the bar until the Michael Platt in the Holywell goal pulled of a marvellous save to push the ball over the top.
Only minutes later Buckley was in the middle of things again as he wriggled his way passed the attentions of the Holywell defence before unleashing a drive that was heading into the top corner until Platt again pulled off a top class save to keep the scores level.
The action came thick and fast as again only minutes later there was a key moment in the game. Lewis McNally was pulled up for a foul on the Holywell's Sam Jones near to the Holywell box. Jones reacted angrily resulting in McNally and Jones being booked. As the players moved away from the ref, Jones took a swipe at McNally from behind and connected with the back of McNally's head. However the ref, and linesman who was standing only yards away, completely bottled it and took no action rather than showing the red card which should have been shown.
To add insult to injury only 4 minutes later Jones, who shouldn't have been on the pitch, scored from the penalty spot after the ref adjudged a deliberate handball against Mold's Daniel Dalton after he was clearly pushed in the back.
The goal unsettled Mold for a short while and Holywell looked very dangerous as the pressed for a second. Mold gradually got themselves back into the game and pushed forward but struggled to break down the well drilled Holywell defence. With half time approaching the same 2 officials were again all at sea as firstly Aarron Stafford was pushed to the ground whilst he shielded the ball in the Holywell box but nothing was given and then Stafford ran onto a beautiful through ball and duly stroked it into the bottom corner passed the stranded Holywell keeper. But the linesman who was at least 5 yards behind the play decided to raise his flag and award a clearly incorrect offside decision against Stafford.
The half ended with Holywell holding onto their slender lead.
The second half saw Holywell come out fast again but it wasn't long before Mold were winning the territorial battle. However the visitors remained very dangerous as they looked to hit Mold on the break with long balls to the pacy frontmen.
As The Alex searched for the equaliser Platt again pulled off a couple of top level saves, injuring his head in the process, to keep his side ahead.
As the game neared the end of the 90 mins Lewis Buckley's shot on goal was stopped by the arm of a Holywell defender but yet again the decision went Holywells's way. More woe was to be heaped on Mold as 2 mins into extra time the ref got his red card out to substitute Ross Ankers for a heavy tackle that at worst should have been a yellow.
Moments later the game was called to an end with Holywell still 1 up and heading into the next round of the Cup.
After several weeks of good, improving performances, this wasn't Mold's best showing and they came up against a man of the match performance from the visiting keeper but the players will be very disappointed not to be in the draw for round 3.
Make no mistake, Holywell are a very good side, they have tremendous support and they will be an asset to the Huws Gray Alliance next season but the ref completely spoiled this game for The Alex with a string of truly awful decisions, we can only hope that the assessor that was present enters a representative report of the officials lack of competence.

Good luck to The Wellmen in the next round

At Castel Alun The Reserves suffered a 2-1 reverse as they lost out to a last minute penalty but they remain top of the WNL Reserves division.

On the plus side this afternoon The Colts came away from Ruthin Town with a 2-5 victory that keeps them in touching distance of the leagues top 2