Football: Druids’ curse hits Rhyl FC

Dec 17 2008 by Dave Jones, Denbigh Visitor

RHYL 3 NEWI CEFN DRUIDS 4

WELSH PREMIER LEAGUE

NO damage done – that was the main message to emerge for Rhyl from a strange weekend in the Welsh Premier where the top three all lost against the odds.

The Lilywhites feared the worst after kamikaze defending cost them a 4-3 home defeat against lowly Cefn on Friday night, but on the same evening TNS went down 1-0 at Airbus and then on Saturday Llanelli, who could have gone level with Rhyl on points with a game in hand, crashed 3-1 at Connah’s Quay.

“With the other top three sides also losing, luckily for us nothing has altered,” said Lilies senior coach Allan Bickerstaff. “It still doesn’t take away the fact it was a very disappointing result for us, though, after such a fantastic performance at TNS the previous week.

“I can’t fault the effort of the players; if you take into account attempts on goal it could have ended up 20-4 to us.

“We did give away bad goals, but I can’t fault the defence over the season; we were due a blip and I’m hoping this was a one-off. Credit also to Druids, they’ve come here and set up well, attacked well and taken their chances when they came.”

Despite the result Rhyl remain three points clear at the WPL summit. This Saturday they visit Newtown where they have won on their last six visits.

“I’m confident we’ll bounce back at Newtown with another tremendous performance,” added Bickerstaff. “We’re going to have a blip every now and then but we’re top of the league; every other club in the league would like to be where we are.”

Midfielder Danny Williams, a late withdrawal against Druids through injury, will train at Wrexham during the week and will hopefully be in contention for Saturday.

The versatile Jamie Reed, who missed last Friday’s game due to work commitments, also returns to the fold.

At a rainswept Belle Vue, Rhyl totally dominated the first quarter against a Druids side which had not beaten them in 12 previous attempts.

Gareth Owen drilled inches wide in the opening seconds, Josh Johnson had a shot pushed behind by Chris Mullock and Matthew Williams hit the post after beating the keeper to a Greg Stones flick on.

Greg Strong’s shot was then parried by Mullock and Williams was first on the scene but his shot on the turn flew over.

Totally against the run of play, Druids took a 29th minute lead when a quickly-taken Chris Marriott free-kick found Mark Stewart in acres of space and he confidently beat Lee Kendall.

Rhyl levelled three minutes before the break when Stones’ 20-yard stinger beat Mullock all ends up and went in off the post.

With the wind now at their backs, Druids started the second half well and edged in front again in the 47th minute when Kendall kept out Lee T Jones’ shot but Stewart tapped in the rebound.

On the hour Neil Roberts made it 2-2 with a header from an Owen corner – his 13th goal of the season – but two minutes later Ricky Evans lashed into an empty net after Kendall denied Stewart a hat-trick.

Mullock produced two great saves from Craig Jones before on 70 minutes a dire error from Mark Connolly allowed substitute Kevin Holsgrove through to apply a super finish to make it 4-2.

Kendall again thwarted Stewart’s hat-trick bid in a one-on-one before skipper George Horan headed in Rhyl’s third from an Owen flag-kick on 83 minutes.

Despite frantic home efforts to equalise, heroic defending from Druids ensured they held on for a landmark three points.