A spirited second-half fight back wasn’t enough to prevent Presteigne St Andrews FC exiting the FAW Cup when they were beaten four-one by visiting Bow Street at Llanandras Park on Saturday, 24 July.
There is a video report on the game – that is available by either clicking here or on the image at the top of the page.
Full credit to Bow Street, they were very good value for their win but Presteigne’s young side showed some character in the second half when they enjoyed their share of possession and asked some questions of the visitors’ defence.
Given Bow Street play their league football two levels higher than John Haycox’s side, this was always likely to be a tough ask and the message prior to kick off would have been the need to keep things tight early on.
Sadly, this wasn’t to be the case as a defensive error by the home side allowed Bow Street in down the right and they were ahead inside 90 seconds.
Presteigne did their best to rally and they created a few good opportunities but lacked the cutting edge needed to trouble the visiting goalkeeper.
Bow Street were certainly more clinical in front of goal and they scored twice more before the break and once shortly after it to open up a 4-0 lead.
But, to their credit, Presteigne dug deep and the Bow Street keeper had to alert to push a long-range free kick from Matt Strangwood around the post.
This proved to be something of a sighter for ‘Strangie’ as a few minutes later he was presented with another opportunity from a similar position and this time his shot found the bottom corner for what proved a consolation goal.
Both sides created further good chances – there was a point blank save by the Bow Street ‘keeper while – at the other end – the visitors hit the post.
So, it’s the end of the road in the FAW Cup for Presteigne this season but the sizeable crowd at Llanandras Park would surely have gone away feeling Presteigne had played some nice stuff in the second half and John Haycox’s side appears to be putting down some solid foundations for the Mid Wales League (South) season ahead.
Good luck to Bow Street for the remainder of their run in the Welsh Cup – few would deny they were good value for their victory on the day.