Ruthin Town 1 v Gresford Athletic 1
Points are valuable commodities in the JD Cymru North league and both Ruthin and Gresford will be happy to have kept theirs in what was a good game played in the right spirit, despite a plethora of cards from the referee.
Both sides had chances in the first half, notably Ruthin had shots saved as the ball bounced around the 6 yard box early on, only for a final shot to hit the post. At the other end Ryan Goldston made and excellent save from point blank range.
It was Gresford who scored first with Jake Eyre hitting the net after a pass from ex Ruthin player Jordan MacCarter. Both teams looked lively up front and there was a good battle in midfield, but it was Gresford that went in at half time in the lead.
Five minutes after the restart, Ruthin were awarded a penalty which Llyr Morris took by blasting it high down the middle of the goal. The ball hit the underside of the bar and bounced in and hit the roof of the net 1-1.
Good football was played on an excellent pitch and both sets of strikers put pressure on opposing defences. The referee had seen the need to brandish yellow cards to both sides throughout the game much to the obloquy of both sets of fans. With less than a quarter of an hour to go Gresford were reduced to 10 men with Joseph Davies, unluckily in my view, being given a second yellow card for a foul as Ruthin attacked down the left.
Ruthin pressed towards the end with corners and free kicks and they nearly won it with a glancing header from Garmon Hafal and a Llyr Morris poke at goal forcing an excellent save from Ben Jones in the Gresford goal.
1-1 was a fair result for two good teams and the result could easily have gone either way.