Welsh Cup Semi-final CARMARTHEN TOWN 1 Haverfordwest County 0

The Bluebirds' superb March run of six victories on the trot came to an end on Saturday when they crashed out of the Welsh Cup to Carmarthen.

The Blues were always outpaced and outgunned by a very good Carmarthen side.

There was none of the fluent football of recent weeks and the Eddie's Snooker Bar banner was left fluttering weakly in the sunshine as the crowds streamed from Stebonheath Park in Llanelli.

Deryn Brace had four players available who were making their way back to form and fitness after quite long injury lay-offs.

All are important players and all seemed to be suffering to an extent from their spells of inactivity.

Colin Loss looked out of touch in the early stages, but it is very much to his credit that he was increasingly fighting his way into the thick of things as the game wore on.

The same could be said of Rob Jones. Wayne Jones never seemed his usual forceful self, and the unhappiest case of all was striker Tim Hicks, who was very clearly feeling the effects of his recent hamstring injury and was replaced early in the second half by Niko Algieri.

Again, the knock which took Phil Catlin off the field after 35 minutes didn't help, although in fact Dylan Blain played extremely well as stand-in centre half.

All this, along with the absences of Wyn Thomas, Dai Barnhouse and Lee Brown, in part explains the Bluebirds' lack of impetus, but shouldn't obscure the fact that Carmarthen on the day were very much the better side, quicker and sharper to the ball in defence and attack.

Carmarthen had a strong wind at their backs in the first half and used it very well.

The sides exchanged a couple of dangerous attacks around the 12th minute, first when Gary Lloyd's inswinging free kick was very well fielded by Lee Kendall.

At the other end, Hicks' header put Lee Hudgell through, but Hudge's shot went narrowly wide.

At this stage, Hudgell was threatening on occasions but Richie Adams and Nick Palmer were finding it difficult to make headway against a strong Town defence.

Lloyd came very, very close when his corner exploited the wind very well and Kendall launched himself into a brilliant tip-over.

He did equally well five minutes later when he dived to smother a low shot by Kevin Evans.

Mark Dodds was showing up very well for Carmarthen, raiding on both flanks, but in the 32nd he twice missed badly when through on goal. Richard Kennedy was then very nearly through and was kept out by a fine saving tackle by Dean Rossiter.

That was half-time and the Blues were still level, clearly hoping that with the wind at their backs they could push on. This sadly didn't happen.

The Town kept pushing forward and in the 68th minute it was Gary Lloyd who engineered their victory.

Kendall did very well to parry Lloyd's close range shot and Brace cleared for a corner. Lloyd took the corner from which Kevin Evans crashed home an emphatic near-post header.

Lee Kendall is of course a real perfectionist, and never a man to be happy with conceding a goal at the near post, even though he could hardly be blamed for this one, since Evans' header was moving at real speed.

'Kendo' though seemed determined to make amends and this ushered in an extraordinary battle of wills and skills between himself and Town's Tony Pennock.

Kendall and Pennock are surely the two best keepers in the Welsh Premier and they now went head-to-head as Kendall went up to take several free kicks, with the wind, from well inside his own half.

Each one he pumped to a perfect length, dropping to the 18-yard line. Had Pennock held his line this would have put the Blues right into the goal area with a real chance, but on each of four occasions Pennock came for the ball and won it cleanly.

The Blues were pressing more now, and Adams was showing up more, but the final acts in the saga were still to belong to the goalkeepers.

In the 75th minute, Adams put Hudgell through on the right and Pennock slid out to clear, looking as if he had slid out of his area, even though in fact he didn't seem to handle.

Finally, in the ultimate grand gesture, Kendall took it upon himself to come up for a corner.

He got nowhere near the ball which was cleared to Nicky Burke on the halfway line.

It looked as if the Town midfielder woul drive the ball at an empty net but Kendall managed to scurry back at pace, to collect the bouncing ball and hoof back upfield.

And that was it. Carmarthen went on to a cup final place they fully deserved on the day.

Haverfordwest County: Kendall; Brace, Wayne Jones, Rossiter, Catlin (Blain, 35), Rob Jones, Palmer, Hicks (Algieri, 65), Adams, Loss, Hudgell. Sub not used: Adam Raymond.