Cwpan Ceredigion - New Quay 3 v 1 Maesglas

With a semi final place at stake and after such a good team performance against Lampeter the previous Saturday you would think the Maesglas would be going into this game with confidence flying high, and rightly so, but as always seems to happen to Maesglas they have influential players missing for the bigger games, with Huw Meredith, Llifon Howell and main shot stopper Graham Keen being unavailable, and with this the balance of the side was not as strong as it was last Saturday. This slight weakness showed, with the midfield where the game was crucially won or lost today looking short of ideas for most of the afternoon and being second best at times.
 
But saying that no-one goes out and plays poorly purposely and there were periods in the game where the Blues had opportunities to get back into this cup tie.

Maesglas were a goal up after some 15 minutes after Dazza Davies managed to squirm his way into the box and squeeze a shot in past the Quay keeper, a goal up for the Blues even though being under the cosh for the opening quarter.
 
A free kick, for the home side soon after, from some 30 yards out was heading for the open hands of stand in keeper,19 year old Emyr Davies (son of ex Blues keeper John Broderick), but a wicked deflection on the way through left him stranded and flat footed, so the Quay levelling fortuitously.  Maesglas then upped their game and were on top, but a Maesglas sloppy defensive clearance, went straight to a Quay player and from way out he fired in a shot without much conviction but keeper Davies will know that he should have dealt with effort, which he thought was going wide, but the ball nestled into the bottom corner, a goal conceded which hurt Maesglas just on the break.
 
A good talking to at half time some saw better performances in the 45 minutes that followed but the third crucial goal was a howler, not just for Maesglas but for referee Meirion Evans, a Quay player was down injured and the ball was sportingly kicked into touch, and as always happens the ball is sportingly kicked back to the opposition, referee Evans asking specifically to the Quay player to kick the ball back to the Maesglas keeper, which obligingly the Quay player did, but due to the wind the ball fell ten yards short of the keepers area, with the back four of Maesglas seemingly  waiting for keeper Davies to come and collect the ball, a Quay player pressurised the Blues defensive line and intercepted the pass and duly tucked the ball away. A soft goal which was a howler to say the least and obviously made things even tougher on the away side to get back into the game.

Sadly this was to be the case; Maesglas were more dominant in the second half and had some good opportunities to get back into the tie, but the finishing not there.

A disappointing result especially the way the goals were softly conceded and more frustratingly a semi final place slips from the Blues grasp.