The New Saints 1 Bangor City 2
Loosemore's League Cup QF
Another away game, another journey, another mode of transport. Ian was the Chauffeur this trip. I turned up at Tesco, met Ian, along with Kev and Geraint, because Oswestry was our destination. This was going to be another ground to tick off the list as it was new. After a couple of hours in pleasant company we arrived at a health club.
The plastic pitch was visible from the car park. It actually looked like grass from this distance and not the like the surface I was used to; one where falls require skin grafts. After we’d paid to get in, 7.50!!!, we could behold the ground in all its majesty. There was a fence, a plastic pitch, a stand from a county fair and a balcony attached to a health club. I saw Haz and she said that they planned to build stands before next season, well at least they had the room to develop.
For some reason I didn’t mind paying the money here, in comparison with Rhyl. This wasn’t logical, I was indirectly helping to fund both clubs attempts to put distance between them and us. The social club was nice, they had good seats. What they didn't have was space age hand dryers, all that money and ordinary appliances, tsk tsk.
We went out to inspect the surface more closely, it looked like realistic grass but it felt like display material underneath lawnmowers in B & Q. The corner flags had their own stands. The goals looked like an afterthought, as if their presence would ruin the simplicity of the straight lines of the pitch markings.
As the teams appeared so did a fine drizzle. With no Limbo available Sarge was on the wing. In a good opening period it was Sarge who came closet to breaking the deadlock but his free kick hit the post. After the shot had bounced off the post the goal slid back slightly. They might be the richest club in the League but the nets are poor. They were attached to the goal by shoe laces and scrag ends of rope. When we alerted the ref to the gaping hole at the foot of the net we were met by robust language; “Fuck Off” to be exact. Somebody from TNS appeared with some electrical tape and the problem was alleviated temporarily.
City looked very good, their attacks troubled the TNS defence. In contrast our defence was relatively untroubled, apart from a couple of occasions. In fact you could go as far as saying that the blues were matching their full time opponents. Then, just before half time, we were more than matching The New Saints, we were ahead. Les turned the last defender and dinked the ball past Doherty, we cheered loudly. The game was definitely felt more comfortable than we’d expected. It was 1-0 at half time.
The second half was marked by yet more dangerous Bangor attacks. A couple of times in the first few minutes we could have doubled our lead. There was some good long range passing today and that helped to open up the TNS defence.
TNS scored about 20 minutes into the second half. It looked a bit of a soft goal to concede as we’d manged to keep more dangerous attacks at bay. In the end it was a simple cross and header that gave TNS the equaliser. Bangor didn’t let this setback pray on their minds and they continued to push forward although TNS looked capable of scoring their second quite easily during the 5 minutes after their goal.
Bangor’s missed chances could have been considered golden on other less than golden days but in the final analysis, they didn’t matter today. Stotty hit the ball into the side netting. We could have won a penalty but the ref declined to award it. Then Les got the ball in the area. Les turned the defender and smashed the ball past Doherty, “VIVA LES DAVIES!!!!”
For the second time in three days the city faithful were in paroxyms of joy. As we sang Les’ praises we could have had a third, Sion did everything right apart from score. From the remaining injury time Bangor kept the ball in the corner.
After Belle Vue on Saturday Park Hall saw our second successive win on the road for Bangor. We'd played really well against 2 of the stronger teams in the league so the City followers that sang and cheered the side had further evidence for optimism about our season.
