Welsh Cup, Third Round

Haverfordwest County 0

Airbus UK 2

BOTH sides deserve full credit for 90 minutes of entertaining football in appalling conditions.

The Blues played skilfully in defence and in approach but were finally shot down by some sharp Airbus finishing in a purple patch midway through the second half.

The Bluebirds started with a strong diagonal wind largely in their favour and there were a few ominous early signs that Airbus keeper James Coates could be flustered by the gusty wind blowing down the pitch at him. At the other end, Craig Morris looked far more assured and did in fact have another very fine game.

After Airbus had contributed a sharp opening ten minutes, the Blues settled to get the better of the first half. They began to string together movements of three, four and even five passes, which was no small achievement in the conditions. One fine move by Greg Walters and Kieran Howard nearly put Jordan Follows in before he was crowded out. Another Walters cross was flicked on by Craig Moses but Follows’ shot was blocked. At the other end, Airbus’ most dangerous attacker Ryan Wade was able to get in two nasty curling shots but Morris was able to pouch both of them. The first half ended goalless.

We now had the question of how the Blues would fare playing into the wind. For at least ten minutes it seemed they would do extremely well. They started the second half with a wave of attacks, two or three dangerous shots were blocked, and a Follows run saw Moses tap a ball through to Howard whose shot went just wide. But in the end they found themselves with the recurrent problem of not being able to find the sharp finish which would round off the good approach play, and the game was still goalless after an hour.

Airbus then seemed to move up a gear. With the wind behind them, they started to do something the Blues had rarely done in the first half and that was to shoot on sight. Morris did very well to cling on to a snap shot from 30 yards and a free kick cannoned back off the post. Then, in the 69th and 76th minutes Ryan Wignall and Craig Budrys scored two neat goals, quickly-worked and crisply-finished.

The Blues managed to mount another good surge late in the game and one lovely through ball from sub Glen Fetini nearly sent John Roberts in, but in the end the Blues never quite had the finishing power to hold a side which they otherwise matched very well.

Next Saturday the Blues travel to play Bala Town before they return to the Conygar Bridge Meadow to play Airbus in a league fixture on Saturday 19.

The Match Ball sponsor was Robert Bailleux and the Programme sponsors were the Haverfordwest County Supporters’ Association.

Haverfordwest County: Craig Morris, Ricky Watts, Spencer Williams, Sam Rodon, Dale Griffiths (Steffan Williams, 80), Sean Pemberton, Greg Walters (Glen Fetini, 72), Kieran Howard, Jordan Follows, Craig Moses (John Roberts, 62), Nicky Palmer.