O50s dominate...but mistakes cost dearly!

The Wales Veterans' Football Association welcomed an England squad to Cardiff, for this o50s international match...and although the hosts dominated... defensive mistakes cost Wales the match..writes a pitch-side reporter..

Wales were on the front foot from the whistle, pressing forward aggressively and enabling the pace and movement of Ricky John and Phil Tranter to cause problems for the visiting defence BUT England stayed resolute and inevitably went ahead....when a long ball over the high Welsh defensive line was seized onto by striker Ian Hollamby, who drove past Welsh stopper, John Bailey. The hosts continued to dominate and when John took a neat ball in his stride from Tranter, he finished with aplomb. Unfortunately, within minutes England again took the lead, capitalising on a defensive mistake after another long ball caused confusion in the Welsh camp and Dave Gipp clipped the ball astutely over Bailey into the top of the net and England led 1-2 at the break.

Wales started in much the same manor in the second half, dominating possession but not creating anything of real note and in fact, only a superb one-handed save by Bailey kept Wales in the game. As the match drew to a close, another break by the visitors found Warren Bayliss unmarked on the edge of the box, and he gleefully crashed home to give his side an excellent, albeit slightly fortunate 1-3 win.

Manager, Rogan Matthews, was clearly disappointed saying "we needed to score during the periods when we were on top, but, apart from some obvious errors, it was a pleasing team performance nonetheless."

Congratulations to the following players who were selected by manager, Rogan Matthews...
John Bailey
Steve Blackford
Shane Davies
Chris Thomas
Simon Rocke
Carl McClarnan
Steven Davies
Steve White
Carl Evans
Karl Miller
Mark Smith
Nic Francis
Neil Richards
Ricky John
Neil Williams
Phil Tranter