Penybont 3
Llanelli Town 0
ABOUT the only positive the Reds can take from the visit to their first division opponents is that it was a friendly and, as such, the result was not so much of an issue as if it had been a competitive game.
Having said that, they will be disappointed at the overall display, which was far below par than in their previous pre-season warm-ups, and they will certainly have to up the ante when the season begins in earnest next Saturday.
Admittedly they were without the services of Richard Lewis and Jordan Davies, but once again their inability to come to terms with the 3G playing surface was palpable, and they have never been comfortable playing on an artificial pitch.
They also have goalkeeper Craig Morris to thank that the eventual deficit was not considerably more, as he brought off a string of saves to deny the home side, who were two goals up in as many minutes, with the first coming in the 11th when some slack defending led to the opener. The lead was doubled on 13 minutes when, once again, a home player was allowed far too much time to line up his shot before beating Morris.
Despite these early setbacks, the Reds were enjoying plenty of possession but were finding the home defence resolute in their efforts to keep them out, and they were confined to mainly long distance attempts, with both Liam Samuel and Matthew Hughes going close.
Jordan Follows delayed too long when he found himself in space in the box and the danger was snuffed out, while the Penybont keeper denied Bruno Forkuoh by diverting his attempted finish for a corner.
Two more Samuel strikes went close, but the interval arrived with the Reds trailing, and after the restart found themselves on the back foot from the outset.
Morris brought off a great save to push away a fiercely struck shot from the edge of the box following a short corner, and then did well again to keep out another goal bound effort.
The home side should have increased the lead but missed an open goal when Morris was forced off his line in an attempt to close down an attack with the finish skewed wide of the vacant net.
The nearest the visitors came to scoring was from an Anthony Finselbach free kick, which was flicked on at the near post but bundled off the line.
Morris continued to thwart the hosts with another good save to push over a well directed strike, but was beaten again on 76 minutes when a break from their own half led to another Penybont goal, with the Reds’ keeper managing to keep out the initial shot but was helpless to prevent the same player from slotting in the rebound.
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