Bluebirds win exciting cup clash (From Western Telegraph)

Bluebirds win exciting cup clash

Football - Welsh Cup quarter final ABERYSTWYTH TOWN 0 HAVERFORDWEST COUNTY 2

This was one of the most exciting games in which the Bluebirds have been engaged this season, it was one of their best displays and it had the splendid outcome of seeing them into the semi-finals of the Welsh Cup.

As so often happens in these derby games at Park Avenue, Aber came blasting out of their blocks and the Bluebirds had to back-pedal for the first 20 minutes.

They were without the cup-tied Lee Brown and the injured Colin Loss and it looked for a while as if they might feel the absence of Lossie at least.

As the game wore on though, Phil Catlin, Dean Rossiter and Nick Palmer got a grip on the midfield and the Bluebirds began to flow.

There had been a good dart down the left flank by Lee Hudgell in the 15th minute, with no-one at the near post to get on to the wing back's cross but then, in the 23rd minute, came the first of the game's four big defining moments.

Tim Hicks was put through in a quick move out of defence and, in a one-on-one with keeper Lewis Solly, was very unlucky to see his rasping shot cannon away off the keeper's body. And it seemed, at that moment, as if the Blues really began to feel they were right in this game.

In the remainder of the first half they threatened the Seasiders goal several times.

Richie Adams, up front for the cup-tied Brown, twice forced corners with quicksilver runs, and, as Catlin headed a Dylan Blain cross goalwards, an Aber defender all but put through his own goal.

The half ended with Adams trying a flying scissors kick as a Rossiter free kick came in.

As the second half progressed, the Seasiders looked at times as if the Eddie's Snooker Bar logo would overwhelm them, for the Bluebirds really were playing fast, exciting football.

Although the note at the top of this column cites Wyn Thomas, again solid and rugged at the heart of defence, as the Bluebirds' man of the match, there were many other players who ran him very close.

Blain and Hudgell had splendid games as wing backs, and Adams up front ran at and bothered the Aber defence all evening.

Rossiter had perhaps his best game for the Blues.

Sod's law dictated that a side which had attacked for 70 minutes without scoring would then get hit on the break. And that brings us to the 70th minute and our second defining moment.

In a sporadic Aber attack, Jonathan Coates picked up a loose ball some 20 yards out and suddenly unleashed a rasping shot which went full blast at the top left corner of Lee Kendall's goal, only for the keeper to pull off one of the most spectacular saves of his Blues career.

Deservedly, defining moments numbers three and four were both Bluebirds goals.

In the 79th minute, a ball broke to Wyn Thomas 25 yards out and his screaming shot seemed to go under, round and through the hapless keeper, who maybe should have saved it but was maybe so bemused by the sheer pace on the ball that he had no idea where it was flying.

Thomas' ecstatic celebrations were interrupted by referee Southall's yellow card, but the Blues were one up.

They didn't retreat through, they didn't consolidate, but they kept coming forward and in the 89th minute a lovely Blain cross found Palmer, who squared to Hudgell for the wing man to dart into the gap and defeat Solly in a one-on-one.

In the semi-final, the Blues will play Carmarthen on a neutral ground, provisionally on Saturday April 2nd. Next Saturday they travel to play NEWI Cefn Druids.

The next home game is an evening kick-off on Friday, March 18th, when Afan Lido visit the Meadow. BLUEBIRDS TOTE: No winners this week the numbers were 26 27 49.