Presteigne St Andrews ultimately crashed to a heavy 6-2 home defeat in their Spar Mid Wales League, second division match against visiting Llandrindod Wells but, yet again, the story could have been so different.
Make no mistake, Llan’dod were the better side and were good value for their win, but Presteigne again ran out of steam in the final half hour after getting themselves into a strong position.
Llan’dod were quickly out of the traps and took the lead after only 90 seconds – a ball into the Presteigne left-back area allowed their right-sided player to get away and his cross was thumped past Ed Jackson in the Presteigne goal.
But, while Llan’dod enjoyed more than the lion’s share of possession, they didn’t actually create too many more clear cut chances, and Presteigne were level before the interval.
Adriano Girolami’s quality ball forward from midfield picked out Joel Layton inside the area whose first touch brought the ball under control, while his second saw him stab the ball past the visiting keeper for 1-1.
In the second half Llandrindod again started brightly, but Presteigne made the most of a rare break forward when a ball in from the right eventually fell to Tom Durant who tucked away his first senior goal to put Presteigne in front.
That was as good as it got for the home side as Llan’dod were level within a couple of minutes, although this goal had more than bit of fortune about it – Ed Jackson’s attempted clearance cannoned off a Llan’dod striker who knew little about it as the ball bounced back past the keeper and into the net.
Shortly afterwards, Danny Evans was red-carded by referee Chris Bodenham, but nobody could have any complaints – on another day, the initial challenge would have merited a red card in its own right, but it appeared from the stand as though Danny was going to get away with a yellow.
Whether something was said in the immediate aftermath, well, it was difficult to tell, but this was the impression we got as the referee appeared to change his mind and produced the red card.
From here on, Llan’dod were pretty much in total control as they went on to score four times to take the game away from the home side and run out comfortable winners.
This game pretty much encapsulated the season as a whole – how often have we seen Presteigne play well for an hour, only to then fall away over the final third of the game and end up a well beaten side?
This is among many areas that will need addressing for next season.