Welsh League Division One: Haverfordwest 2-2 Cambrian & Clydach

On an afternoon on which all of the top four sides drew with one another in a pair of games, the Blues would have settled for the point from this very fast, physical and exciting encounter, even if the shot which would have given Elliot Scotcher his hat-trick came crashing out off the post in the very last minute, writes Robert Nisbet.

The game set off at a fair old lick and the sides could easily have exchanged goals in the first five minutes, when Kyle Stuart did well to execute a punch as a corner threatened to curl in beneath his bar and then when Ashley Bevan was put in on goal and shot just wide.

But it was Cambrian who took the lead in the 15th minute when Kieron Coles headed in from a corner.

One quick move down the Blues right saw Tom Dyson not too far away from getting the right connection to a Ricky Watts cross, before a jittery spell in the Blues defence was ended when Sean Pemberton headed out and away for a corner. At the other end Pemberton was not too far away from a Scotcher free kick.

The Blues got the equalizer in the 46th minute when a rapid attack saw the ball played wide to Ben Fawcett, whose cross came in quickly and was stabbed in at the far post by Scotcher. Stuart took a knock when he was challenged for a ball in the air and it looked as if he might struggle, but he was so well covered by his defence for the remaining 35 minutes that Cambrian rarely got a shot on goal. The whole defence was really strong but Pemberton once again was outstanding.

The one exception to this was the Cambrian second goal and it came in the 65th minute when Coles headed in from a corner for the second time, these two being among the very few goals the Blues have conceded from set pieces this season.

The Blues’ second equalizer came in the 78th minute when Kaid Mohamed slipped through a neat ball for Danny Williams to set off on a diagonal run across the box only to be quite needlessly brought down. Dead-ball specialist Scotcher was bang on target with the penalty.

In the dying minutes the game could have ended with a winner for either side for Cambrian were making a real fight of this game for the 90 minutes, but the Bluebirds, as home side, seemed the more urgent in the quest for a winner.

And they were very close when another Scotcher free kick hit the far post and conned away.

The Bluebirds’ next game is away to Goytre next Saturday, January 19th.

Haverfordwest: Kyle Stuart; Ricky Watts; Leon Luby; Sean Pemberton; Tim Hicks; Tom Dyson; Danny Williams; Elliot Scotcher; Ashley Bevan (Kaid Mohamed, 60); Ben Fawcett (Jack Wilson, 80); Elliot Thomas.
Subs not used: Mark Davies, Fraser Finlay.