Cymric knew that they had a big challenge against an excellent side from the Premier Division but they started well and restricted their opponents to long range efforts that didn’t trouble James Hendy in the Cymric goal.
Penydarren were controlling the possession and probing away at the Cymric defence but they stood firm. Cymric went ahead against the run of play after 33 minutes.
The lively Huw Owen picking the ball up midway inside the Penydarren half and he ran at the defence and his hopeful shot from 20 yards, which the Penydarren keeper totally misjudged, went in off the post.
Cymric extended their lead a few minutes later. Osian Pritchard picked the ball up on the left and ran at the Penydarren full back and beat him easily before pulling the ball back to Huw Owen who netted from 8 yards.
Penydarren pulled a goal back just before half time. The Penydarren winger pulled the ball back and Nathan Williams’ shot was parried by James Hendy and the assistant referee adjudged that the ball had just rolled over the line and awarded a goal.
Cymric knew that Penydarren would come at them with everything they had but they didn’t anticipate what would happen at the start of the second half. Penydarren striker Josh Brogden struck a long range effort straight from the kick off which deceived James Hendy though he managed to get something on the ball.
It looped over his head towards the line and he rushed back to grab the ball. Penydarren appealed for the goal but the assistant referee didn’t put his flag up. However, the
referee, who was fully 30 yards away from the goal when the incident happened, ran towards the goal and to Cymric’s amazement awarded a goal.
This angered some of Cymric’s players and Kyle Goodfellow was shown a red card for his protest. Penydarren then took the lead two minutes later when Brogden chested a left wing cross into the bottom corner. Cymric were finding it difficult to get any foothold in the match but they did have an opportunity but Huw Owen’s shot went wide.
Penydarren wrapped up the match with their fourth after 68 minutes when Brogden completed his hat-trick when he went round the advancing Hendy and passed it into an empty net. Penydarren could have scored another couple but James Hendy pulled off a couple of great saves to deny them.
Cymric can be proud of their performance, especially in the first half, but a dubious refereeing decision turned the game on its head at the beginning of the second half and left Cymric wondering what could have been.
MOTM – Huw Owen/Osian Pritchard