The scoreline suggests a clear and comfortable victory for Port but the real story of this game hides behind this result. Indeed Port should have won comfortably as the opposition played for the last half-hour with only 9 players. This came as a result of two defenders, Alec Stacy and Alan Morgan, being given straight red cards by referee Steve Hamer (Aberdare). Three minutes into the second-half Stacy pulled down Carl Owen as the speedy striker made a clear break on goal and on the hour Morgan received his marching orders for elbowing Gareth Caughter in the face as the two clashed on the left touchline.
The home side, despite their numerical advantage, soon found themselves a goal down when, not for the first time in recent weeks, a high ball into the box caught out the defence. This time it came from a free-kick by Joe Main with Cefn defender Brett Jeffries rising, virtually unchallenged, to head past Gerard McGuigan only three minutes after they had been reduced to 9 men. Porthmadog struck back four minutes later when following a Ritchie Owen corner on the right a John Gwynfor drive was cleared off the line before squirting into the path of Lee Webber who reacted well to score from close range. Despite this quick riposte the home side failed to take advantage of two extra players and indeed for much of the time Cefn were the more threatening and kept possession well.
It took until the 82 min for the home side to get their noses in front and again it was a central defender who came to the rescue. Mike Foster found Graham Austin on the left and the sub worked the ball into the box for Ryan Davies to unleash a powerful 15 yd shot into the corner of the net. In the last ten minutes Port managed to get the ball into the net on two occasions but were both ruled offside. In injury time the home side manged a third goal when Tony Williams outwitted the defence to lay on a pass for Carl Owen to break to the edge of the box and drive firmly past Price into the net.
Port made heavy waether of a game which they should have sewn up in the first half-hour and well before the red cards were bandied about. In this period they totally dominated the game. As early as the third minute Carl Owen took advantage of a poor defensive header and squared the ball across the face of the goal but there was no one on hand to put the final touch. Mark Williams then put Carl Owen through but the his finish was blocked by the keeper. Soon after Gareth Caughter on the back post was off target with his header. Then the best chance of all when Mark Williams did well to rob keeper Price but his tap in rolled tantalisingly wide of the empty goal. Lee Webber also struck the upright from a Caughter cross. With all these failures the visitors, who had been under the cosh, started to grow in confidence and despite the scoreline the home side were never able to exert the same control on the game again.
Nevertheless over the last few weeks Port have found themselves pointless after producing some excellent performances so they will feel that there is some poetic justice in the fact that they have collected three valuable points when they have performed well below their best.
Porthmadog: Gerard McGuigan, John G. Jones, Ryan Davies, Lee Webber, Mike Foster, Danny Hughes( Steve Pugh), Dafydd Evans, Ritchie Owen (Graham Austin), Gareth Caughter, Mark Williams (Tony Williams), Carl Owen.
Cefn: Mike Price, Nick Parry, Alec Stacy, Aled Rowlands, Brett Jeffries, Alan Morgan, Joe Main, Dan Desormeaux, Anthony Williams (Matty Dabbs), Joe Desormeaux (Mike Reece), Roy Cardus (Gareth Evans).
Report by: Gareth Williams
