Classy Crows Win Again

By Robert Stock
January 5 2005

In-form Cwmbran Town climbed to ninth in the table following a comfortable 4-0 victory at Llanelli on Monday. All four goals came in the 2nd half, ensuring the Crows recorded their fourth successive victory. Terry Daley reports from Stebonheath...

A SUPERB second-half display at a wet and windy Stebonheath Park earned the Crows a thoroughly-deserved, fourth-successive league win at the west Wales venue.

Although visiting striker Andy Mainwaring fired against the crossbar shortly before the interval, there was no hint of what lay ahead for the Reds, who started the game on a high following their recent 5-1 home demolition of Euro-chasing Bangor City.

However from the moment much-travelled Mainwaring opened the scoring with a poacher’s effort from inside the six-yard box ten minutes in to the second period, there was only going to be one outcome.

Indeed Cwmbran should have scored on at least another five occasions after the break as Llanelli looked a different side to the one which had shaded matters in the first half.

There were times in that opening 45 minutes that the Reds simply passed their way through Cwmbran’s rearguard in a fine display of attacking football.

But further goals by Jason Welsh (two) and Academy teenager Kerion Porter, on as a late substitute for Welsh, only proved what a massive gap there is between the Welsh League, where almost all of Llanelli’s players have been drawn from, and the Welsh Premier.

On the evidence of this game, Cwmbran should not be ruled out of a late surge for a European spot should qualification go down to fourth place while Llanelli’s fine victory over Bangor looked like a flash in the pan.

Only time will tell on both counts.