Llantrisant eagerly awaited the match against the current reigning Champions following last years very entertaining 3-3 draw at Bryntirion and the game didn’t let the occasion down. The home team however was rocked by the absence of their regular keeper Jason Burton and centre half Rob Dunn stepped into the breach and pulled off numerous quality saves throughout the match.

The visitors opened the scoring in the first few minutes with a quick goal by Rob Cronick and the briefly stunned Llantrisant responded within minutes, quickly equalising through midfielder Adrian James (right) who waltzed through the defence and finished with style which gave keeper Dai Feeley no chance, this was following some good work involving Pepe Mele and Garry Dodd.

Both teams played some entertaining attacking football throughout the first half with Peter Shilton & Dusty Miller holding firm in the centre of defence for Llantrisant.
Both teams were satisfied to be sharing the spoils at half time.

The opening period of the second half saw Bryntirion race out of the blocks and take control of the game and after a few half chances Jeff Wile drove the ball past keeper Rob Dunn. Llantrisant were visibly rocked following the opening pressure and were hit again shortly afterwards following good work from Steve John and George Cronick who crossed from the right for Jeff Wile again to volley powerfully past keeper Rob Dunn. Llantrisant now found themselves 3-1 down with 20 minutes of the match left.

Those who have played Llantrisant over the years know the game ain’t over until the referee blows the final whistle and Llantrisant came roaring back driving wave after wave of attacks towards the Bryntirion defence and they were eventually rewarded when scoring firstly through Pepe Mele firing home from 6 yards following good work from Steve Pearson out on the right wing. The maurding Pepe Mele who terrorized the Bryntirion defence all match so much to the extent that Bryntirion manager Vic Carpenter had to re-organise their central defence pairing to try and stop him. The equaliser followed the home team definitely enjoying their best spell in the match when Steve Pearson grabbed the equaliser when he fired in a shot come cross which was assisted by the run of Pepe Mele that caused a defensive mix up between goalkeeper Dai Feeley and left back Anthony Willoway which saw it roll into an unguarded net with Pepe Mele & Robbie Ryan chasing it in to make sure it got home.

Both sides were now attacking and going all out for the winner as if their lives depended upon it and both teams spurned a number of chances to nick the win which on reflection wouldn’t have been fair to either team.
Overall a fair result in very warm conditions and a very entertaining game played in the right spirit.

Robbie Ryan - Llantrisant FC