A perfect night for a derby match... a dry cool evening, with a sprinkle of rain to make the pitch invitingly zippy yet firm.

We lined up 4-3-3 with Kenny between the sticks, the back four consisted of Jon, Andy, Allman who filled in for Steve with Cae Garw suffering 'burn out' & Steve Jones at left back. The game started with Bodedern looking to press Gwalchmai in possession and this seemed to be the way the tie would continue. Bodedern pressed hard and seemed to battle the most whilst Gwalchmai kept chipping away and looked to play the better football.

Almost immediately the Bodedern centre half cleared and Bailey dummied effectively which saw the ball run through the Gwalchmai centre halves for Burgess only for skipper Sinclair to make a great last ditch tackle. This was the alert that Gwalchmai's defence needed and it certainly put them on their way to produce a solid performance.

In the first half Gwalchmai played to the flanks, however with Bodedern's high wingers Jon & Steve's assistance in attack was limited which meant that extra work from Craig and Ryan was required. Despite Adam Roberts & Boylan's efforts to spoil Gwalchmai's young Ryan Taylor he managed on numerous occasion to win free kicks, and when not kicked let in Loggs down the left where we carried a strongest threat.

The deadlock was broken on 25 when Scruff picked up the lose ball on the edge of the box and hit hard, deflecting off Boylan, it foiled the experienced OJ between the sticks to make it 1-0 to the home side.

Both sides continued to attack in an end to end affair, however little clear cut chances were created against to sets of back 4 which appeared to be on their guard. Just before the break Bodedern won a cheap free-kick on the edge of the box however it had minimal effect.

HT 1-0

The second half started with Bodedern changing their tactics, in came Calvin Owen off the left to play behind James Burgess as Bailey & Iwan Jones hogged the flanks.

The change seemed to work and the visitors applied some early pressure, some sloppy play on the Gwalchmai's right hand side let in the visitors with shots from distance, however Kenny wasn't severely threatened.

Gwalchmai's energy levels dropped slightly and the visitors still pressed which let them into the game a bit more, however their final ball wasn't effective enough on numerous occasions.

The home side when in possession looked to keep the ball for longer periods through the full backs, Corey and Loggs whilst Scruff worked tirelessly to hold the ball up down the centre. The visitors looked to attack more directly to the Maes Meurig returning Burgess, however he was at times left iscolated or given too much to do which allowed Allman and Sinclair to work in unison as one attacked the ball as the other played sweeper.

The visitors hard work and desire paid off on 70 mins following some excellent work by Iwan Jones down the left as he jinxed passed defenders before intelligently cutting back to Calvin Owen who hit high into the Gwalchmai net 1-1.

The visitors must have felt they now had the momentum, however Gwalchmai had other ideas. Ten minutes after the game became all square a cross from the right wing found Loggs in the box who hit first time only for a save/block to foil his chance, however he was first to react to the rebound and managed to volley home from close range to regain the lead, 2-1.

Tonight was a very close encounter. Whilst the visitors possibly battled harder than their hosts, their direct play wasn't as effective as Gwalchmai's efforts to play the ball to feet. All in all it could have gone either way, there weren't many clear cut chances from either side. For the visitors players such as Iwan Jones, Burgess, Tom & Adam might feel hard done by to have finished on the losing side having produced performances of the highest order. For Gwalchmai the back four and Kenny were solid and were rarely threatened whilst in the middle Gerry was very disciplined and mopped up well in front of his defenders as well as a great effort by young Taylor who applied great energy in the middle of the park.

This was a vast improvement on recent games, notably the Llangefni & Glan Conwy fixtures. There was too much at stake tonight and we couldn't afford for our pride to be damaged further. We fought hard, and we worked as a team from start to finish which is something we possibly haven't done of late. Hopefully this result will give us some confidence and set us on our way to a good finish to the season starting on Saturday against Junction at home.

Gwalchmai Man of the Match: Jon 'Bach' Williams

(about time too as his recent performances have been outstanding despite the team as a whole not performing)

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