Presteigne’s Under 18s picked up their second win of the HFA Floodlit Youth League but they made hard work of it after a dream start in which they were two goals up inside the first five minutes.
Callum Matthews ran on to a through ball after two minutes and kept his cool to time his finish to perfection, shooting across the goalkeeper and into the far corner despite the desperate attempts of a defender to clear off the line.
It was 2-0 three minutes later – another long ball up the middle caused consternation in the heart of the Westfields defence and, with Callum Matthews pressurising the centre-half, the unfortunate defender lobbed the ball over his own goalkeeper and into the net.
Any thoughts of a landslide victory were to prove misplaced as the Hereford-based side raised its game and deservedly got back into the match on 35 minutes when Presteigne defenders stood off a Westfields midfield player who needed no second invitation to run on and finish in some style.
Presteigne’s response was immediate – a scramble on the edge of the Westfields penalty area saw the ball break forward to Josh Watson who span quickly and rifled home low to the goalkeeper’s left-hand side.
3-1 up at the interval, the general view from the sages in the stand was the next goal would be critical and when it came it was worth the wait. Again, Presteigne were guilty of standing off a Westfields player but the finish from 25 yards was still a bit special as he drove his shot high to the keeper’s right and into the net.
Spurred on by this, Westfields finished the stronger and created the better chances, many of which came from set-plays, and from one of which Presteigne were grateful to Jamie Blythe who headed off the line.
But Presteigne held on for the win much to the relief of the majority of those at Llanandras Park who had been living on their nerves in the closing minutes. Manager Trevor Gummer has promised a detailed match report that will be up on the Under 18s page of this site at some stage on Tuesday 29 September.