Presteigne St Andrews FC are through to the second round of the Radnorshire Cup but, in truth they scarcely deserved their narrow 1-0 win over visiting Penybont at Llanandras Park.
Brian Dyer netted the decisive goal in the final 10 minutes of a dour game in which the visitors from the Mid Wales League (South) showed enough to demonstrate their Emrys Morgan Cup win of last season was no fluke.
Penybont certainly created the better opportunities in a largely forgettable first half in which Presteigne hardly had a serious shot on target – the ‘bont could and probably should have gone in front on at least two occasions.
The heavy rain of the previous couple of days led to a slick surface, but there were only sporadic signs of the passing game that had stood Presteigne in such good stead when they beat Kerry in a league game 10 days ago.
The early second-half signs were more promising as Brian Dyer warmed the finger tips of the visiting keeper who made a good save to his left-hand side, but still Presteigne were well short of what manager Adriano Girolami was looking for – a point not lost on the players as ‘Adge’ made his feelings clear from the dug out.
The game was ultimately settled by one of the few pieces of class football on the night and it owed much to the persistence and unselfish attitude of Ieuan Crowe who got away down the left and initially did well to hold up the ball despite the attentions of a couple of Penybont defenders.
‘Crowie’ then picked out Brian Dyer arriving at the edge of the area who finished coolly to take Presteigne into the next round.
As someone behind the goal put it, ‘The best thing about that goal was that it spared us another half-hour of that’ – a bit harsh, maybe, but this was not a great spectacle and Penybont can certainly consider themselves unlucky to be out of the competition.
If you would like to hear Adriano’s thoughts on that game and also how he views the prospects of Saturday’s FAW Trophy trip to Bont, then you can either click here, or on the photograph alongside this story.