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BLAENAU AMATEURS 0 GLAN CONWY 3.

The Amateurs first taste of their new season in the Welsh Alliance League ended in a home defeat in this Welsh Cup preliminary cup tie. There were no complaints as the visitors were deserved winners and on this showing they can be a force in the league again this season where last time around they were 2nd coming into the last 6 matches before they faltered and ended up in 5th place. They have virtually the same squad whilst the home side miss the reliable Euron Roberts in defence and on Saturday's performance they urgently need to strengthen their midfield. New manager Ian Roberts played Geraint Owen as a defensive sweeper which might be a good thing in the long run but they had noone in his place in midfield and as a result the visitors controlled matters from the start and could have easily gone ahead in the opening minutes when the dangerous Joe Williams saw his shot crash against an upright and was cleared by the home defence. At the other end Gareth Roberts's clever lob nearly caught out the Glan Conwy keeper Arron Peel but he managed to get his hands on the ball and push it away for a corner kick. The visitors had the ball in the net on 19 minutes but the effort was ruled out for offside and their veteran striker Ashley Smith had a golden opportunity to score but blasted the ball over the bar with only Peter Jones in the home goal to beat. Still the visitors were creating chances and it looked like the home side would get to the interval level but Joe Williams had other ideas latching onto some sloppy play by the home side this time he made no mistake to open the scoring on 43 minutes. The home side opened the second period with a few promising attacks which came to nothing as the visitors again took control and after the home side gave away a needless free kick Ashley Jones neatly flicked the free kick home from close range on 65 minutes. The visitors always looked dangerous going forward but they weren't that sure in defence and John O'Donovan had a golden chance to pull a goal back but his final effort was straight at Peel and that was as close as the home side got to scoring. The visitors made it three when their unmarked captain Shaun Shannon headed in a corner kick on 82 minutes. After last season's success this first match proved to the Quarymen that they have a on this performance a tough time ahead but it is early days yet and the good news on Saturday was that defender Aled Owen will soon be back in training after his lengthy absence with a knee injury. This Saturday they open their Welsh Alliance league programme with Rhydymwyn the visitors to Cae Clyd kick off 2.30pm. Off the field the club suffered a financial loss as someone had broken into the club's canteen and stole over £150 worth of goods just bought for the new season.

Meirion Ellis