YSCEIFIOG 2
LLANFAIR 3
VETERAN frontman Neil Davies struck twice in the closing five minutes to safeguard Llanfair’s amazing journey through to the Shield semi-finals.
Roger Beech’s determined side looked to be out of things when they fell 2-0 behind at Ysceifiog in the opening quarter-of-an-hour, but they came roaring back to secure a stunning win.
“It was a superb game,” admitted Beech.
“We have had two good league games versus Ysceifiog and this didn’t disappoint.”
Ysceifiog could not have wished for a better start, though, and they pretty much had one foot in the last-four after just 15 minutes of play.
Simon Holloway received the ball 20 yards from goal, where he turned quickly and netted with a fantastic strike.
It was two-nil just a few minutes later when Luke Jones got on the end of a long throw-in.
Ysceifiog’s Danny Jones said: “We had a sort of game plan.
“We thought we would try and get a couple of goals in front and then keep it nice and tight.”
The task now facing Llanfair was huge.
Only four times this season had Llanfair managed to score more than twice in a match.
Llanfair began to see more of the ball and they started to look threatening in the final third, with Simon McGrath and Guto Jones providing the ammunition.
The comeback was on when the visitors halved the deficit five minutes shy of the break.
Huw Price bagged his third goal of the campaign from the spot.
The story of the second half was mainly one of Llanfair pressing, but without finding that vital second goal.
“It probably looked like it wasn’t going to happen,” added Beech.
“But then we got our rewards with four minutes to go.”
Substitute Ifan Roberts put a great cross into the dangerzone and Neil Davies managed to poke the ball home from six yards.
The ink hadn’t dried on that one when Llanfair completed a stunning comeback a few minutes later.
Davies was again the scorer, latching on to a fine through ball from youngster Elgan Lightfoot.
“As soon as the equaliser went in, I was sure we were going on to win it,” said Beech.
“Overall, I was really proud of them.
“It would have been a travesty had we not won!”
Danny Jones added: “We should have kept the ball... but we did the opposite and we put ourselves under pressure.”