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LLANBERIS 4 BLAENAU AMATEURS 1.
After their fine performance the previous week in beating Holywell it was a case of "After the Lord Mayor's Show" for the Amateurs as they soundly beaten by lowly Llanberis. True the visitors had 5 of that winning team missing for this Design2Print Welsh Alliance encounter but they simply didn't play to the conditions. On a much smaller pitch than they are used to at Cae Clyd the Amateurs tried to play too much football and were caught in possession on so many occasions and yet they continued on that vein throughout. The home side's policy was to pump the ball into the Amateurs half and should and could have been 3 up in the first 15 minutes or so. They saw an Aled Hughes header crash on the underside of the bar bounce on the line before it was cleared and Carwyn Ephraim in for Geraint Hughes in the Blaenau goal was called upon to deal with other goal bound efforts. He and his side were lucky for the home forwards also spurned some easy scoring chances and as is usually the case in the Amateurs's first real good move of that first period Keiron Ellis gave them the lead after 34 minutes. However that lead was shortlived as David Jones drilled a low shot through a crowd of players and past the stranded Ephraim for the equaliser 2 minutes later. The same player gave the home side the lead on 42 minutes which was what the home side deserved at the break. Worse was to come for the visitors three minutes into the second half when goalscorer David Jones provided a pin point cross for Gwyn Jones to head home.
The Amateurs had a glorious chance to reduce the deficit but Ceri Roberts through on goal placed his final shot wide of the mark. When Cemlyn Williams made it 4-1 half way through the half it was game set and match and it even got worse for the Amateurs as defender Dei Reynolds saw red after two yellow cards and though down to 10 men they enjoyed more of the play with the usually reliable Gareth Roberts missing a great chance to cut back the deficit but it was one of those days for him and his teamates. Over the season so far the Quarrymen have performed well but this and the home defeat by Pwllheli earlier in the season were two matches that they really didn't get going in and deserved nothing. New signing Tom Hughes has suffered a knee injury which meant he wasn't present as was last week's goalscorer David Copsey, Steve Jones and John O'Donovan but take nothing away from the home side they simply played the right football for the conditions what the Amateurs simply failed to do. The Amateurs are at Barmouth this Saturday though they had thought they would be entertaining Llandudno Junction in the semi final of the Cookson Cup but it appears that Holywell has lodged a protest about the home side playing an illegible player which the Amateurs strongly dispute. The matter is to be sorted at a League management committee meeting on February 11th.

Meirion Ellis