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Ton Pentre players and fans celebrated this wonderful cup win late into the night. Top scorer Alyn Jones netted the last gasp goal to secure the win over Premiership side Rhyl. It was regarded as the tie of the round with the current cup holders making the long trip south to the Rhondda. The Merlin sponsored Rhondda Bulldogs made it an even longer journey back after a battling 1-0 win.
S4C were at the game televising their flagship soccer programme Y Clwb Pel Droed from the Ton Pentre clubhouse, the result made their choice of game even better viewing. The euphoria on and around the pitch at the final whistle was wonderful to see, it does not happen too often these days at Ynys Park! Hearing the Rhyl supporters chanting Sunny Rhyl sunny Rhyl gave it an even better atmosphere and they chanted for their team throughput and helped to make it a memorable occasion.
The tall, free-scoring, Rhyl side had a reputation for scoring goals for fun, especially from set pieces. Ton elected to play with Tony Rees and Alyn Jones up front, two players who are short, quick and have good movement.
Rhyl won the toss and elected to play with the sun at their backs, the sun was low in the sky and shining into the eyes of the Ton defence, the visitors were playing high ball into the heart of the Ton defence.
However, the opening exchanges were quite even with Ton playing an up tempo game. The opening encounters saw Ton chase and close the ball down and not allowing the Rhyl side to settle, this was carried on throughout the game. The first opening of the game fell to the Bulldogs in the 7th minute when a superb cross from the left by top scorer Alyn Jones found the head of Ryan Shugar, he could not get his attempt on target and the ball went over the bar. Rhyl were dangerous on set pieces and put the ball into the Ton area whenever they could however the outstanding Crutch seemed to get to most of them.
Then in the 18th minute a rash two footed challenge by Ton’s Rees gave referee Phil Southall no option but to show Rees a red card. Ton were now down to 10 men and with more than 70 minutes to go the task was getting bigger for the Bulldogs. This gave Rhyl a lift and they put greater pressure on the home side, it was backs against the wall defending after the dismissal. After the initial onslaught Ton did get some possession and the midfield of Bradford, Conaty and in particular Lee Mathews were taking the pay to Rhyl. Mathews must have covered every centimetre of the ground!
Another twist took place just after the half hour when the referee evened the game up, he sent off Rhyl’s Mark Powell for “foul and abusive language”. You could see this gave the Ton players a lift and their confidence grew immediately. The rest of the first half was even with neither side having any dominance, however in the 46th minute Rhyl’s George Horan headed wide from a corner, this was a warning to the home side. With the score 0-0 and both sides down to 10 it made for an interesting second half.
The second half was only one minute old when Ton created a great chance and should have gone ahead, Orchard threaded a ball into the path of Alyn Jones who took the ball towards the Rhyl goal and side footed it to the right of John Gann the Rhyl keeper, he dived low to his right and got his finger tips to the ball and turned it around the post, it was wonderful shot and save.
Assistant manager Brian Gibson made a change on the 52nd minute when he put striker Jamie Blatchford on for midfielder Jamie Bradford.
Rhyl really put Ton under pressure for long periods in the second half, mainly from set pieces and Marty Ellacott was called upon to make a fantastic save to keep the bulldogs in the game. With 15 minutes remaining Ton made their second “brave” change, with forward Dwayne Mardenborough replacing left sided wing back Orchard. For all their possession Rhyl did not look like getting in behind the Ton defence with Hayward, Picknell and Crutch coping with their one dimensional long ball game. As the half drew to a close the Ton midfield were getting better possession and using it to good effect, playing the ball into the feet of Mardenborough and behind the defence for Blatchford to run onto.
The breakthrough came in the 91st minute when Mardenborough held up the ball and turned it into the path of Alyn Jones, he beat the static Rhyl defence and shot the ball low passed Gann and into the Rhyl net to score what turned out to be the winner. The cheer from the Ton faithful echoed around the ground. With so little time left Rhyl threw everything at Ton, the bulldogs were not going to lose this one and defended brilliantly to get a wonderful win.
This result has shown the need for Rhondda Bulldogs can compete at the higher level and should be in the Welsh Premier, the players and supporters deserve it, hopefully with help this can be achieved.
After the game the 4th round draw was made and Ton Pentre travel to Port Talbot of the Welsh premier. Another Premier side for Kevin Richards and Brain Gibson to pit their wits against.
Next Saturday 11th November Ton travel to Barry Town’s Jenner park for a League game, 14:00 kick off.
Match report by Gary Matuszczyk
Ton Pentre: 1. Marty Ellacott; 2. Scott Hayward; 3. Jamie Bradford (Blatchford 52); 4. Mark Crutch; 5. Gareth Picknell; 6. Kristian Orchard (Mardenborough 75); 7. Ryan Shugar; 8. Steve Conaty; 9. Tony Rees; 10. Alyn Jones 1 (91st); 11. Lee Mathews
Subs
12. Jamie Blatchford; 14. Dwayne Mardenborough; 15. Phil Allen
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