Jekyll and Hyde performance costs Sawel dearly in derby

Llansawel welcomed Briton Ferry to Cwrt Herbert in this eagerly awaited match which must surely be one of the if not in terms of geography but in name most local of local derbies currently in the Welsh League.

In front of Llansawel’s biggest crowd of the season the game started at a frantic pace and it was Sawel who applied the early pressure while retaining most of the possession. The home sides early pressure paid dividend when Keith Phillips was brought down in the penalty box giving the referee no choice but to award the spot kick. Phillips picked himself up but was unable to give the home side an early lead.

The disappointment of the missed penalty only seemed to galvanise the home team has they continued to boss the game with visitors only managing to create chances from some well worked counter attacks. The Ferry although should have taken the lead when home keeper Josh Tobin could only manage to palm a good cross to a Ferry forward only for him to miss from six yards.

Although they failed to make the breakthrough the home side seemed comfortable and confident has the whistle went for half time and didn’t show any evidence of the disastrous second half performance that was to follow.

It may be an old cliché but from the home side’s point of view this game was a perfect example of ‘a game of two halves’. In a match that started with so much promise and was played with purpose and conviction in the first half to materialise into a spectacle of embarrassment simply defied believe.

The first goal was always going to be so in important and it was the visitors who made the breakthrough through Sawel old boy Robert Cann heading in to give the Ferry the lead. In honesty from this point there was only going to be one winner has the visitors grew in confidence and however hard it is to accept the home side simply did not have it in them to turn the result around.

However difficult the circumstances a team finds itself in, desire and heart are two characteristics which are precisely the minimum that is expected from the management duo of Vowles and Colwill whoever they send out to represent Llansawel. Unfortunately the home sides inept form in front of goal combined with a complete lack of character to dig deep enough when it matters only helped the visitors in their quest to leave Cwrt Herbert with all three points and this was done comfortably in the end thanks to a further three goals that only completed a miserable night for the home side.

Although the result should rightly hurt everyone associated with Sawel especially the players they now need to pick themselves up off the floor after a performance that remarkably showed how good (First half) and how very bad (second half) the home side can be. The result however hard it is to swallow is acceptable if on occasions the opposition is that much better than you, but this was a game that will not be remembered by Sawel for the result however much it hurts, but for a teams unacceptable and disbelieving second half performance that must have left the Sawel management duo completely perplexed at the final whistle.


South Wales Evening Post

BRITON Ferry moved into third in division three of the MacWhirter Welsh League thanks to a 4-0 derby win over Llansawel.

Ferry went in front just after the break when Rob Cann headed home. They doubled the lead through Aaron Price and Chris Gardiner put them three up. And Cann completed the scoring in the 70th minute.