Wales o55s edged out by England!

Wales Veterans' Football welcomed an England squad to Ocean Park Arena on Saturday, 21st January, for an o55s international and lost out by the odd goal!

Wales started sprightly with Matthews, John and Lukaris prominent but a lack of cohesion meant England were untroubled and gradually came into the game and looked the more likely to score, creating several dangerous moments before finally going ahead through Andy Gombas on 30 minutes. Wales created several good 'situations' which came to nothing when the final ball was slightly 'wayward'.....but England also hit the woodwork and forced Wales stopper Jones Jones into two fine saves before the interval.

In the second half Wales pressed for an equaliser and their best moments came when Paul 'Murph' Jones charged down the right but saw his excellent ball into the box, cut out by an alert England defender and shortly afterwards a carbon copy by Fredriksen ended with the same outcome. But the visitors retained possession and took the sting out of the hosts' forages forward AND at the other end they patiently waited for the right moment to feed their dangerous strikers...who hit the woodwork twice more and forced a great save from keeper Jones and forced Murray into a dramatic goal-line clearance and the game ended 1-0 to the visitors.

Manager, Shane Davies was obviously disappointed with the result but concluded "there were some real positives to take from the game, particularly the effort put in by the players and some and elements of play, but there is plenty to work on for the next encounter!"

Congratulations to the following players who were selected by Manager, Shane Davies...
John Jones - Barry Town
Mark Warman - Barry Town
Gareth Morgan - Newport
Laurence Owen - Newport
Nick Lukaris - Newport
Paul Averies - Barry Town
Dave Murray - Barry Town
Nigel Casey - Penybont
Wayne Matthews - Barry Town
Steve John - Penybont
Darren Thompson - Newport
Richard Gaye - Swansea University
Mike Fredriksen - Barry Town
John Ross - Newport
Paul Jones - Merthyr Tydfil