October 16, 2019 - 992 views
Colwyn Bay FC staged an outstanding second half come back to come from a goal down and gain a 3-1 home win over Gresford Athletic which temporarily lifted them into the top four of the JD Cymru North table.
Missing four regular first choice players, they struggled early on, went a goal down, and needed three or four fine saves from Andy Coughlin to keep them in the game,
But the team turned it around in the second half with goals from Julian Williams, Damien Ketley and subsituite Joe Chaplin.
For Damien and Joe it was their first goals of the campaign.
Gresford were much the sharper team in the first half an hour and Andy Coughlin produced several fine saves, including one on his line from a point blank range header and then an outstanding double save - parrying the first shot and recovering to block the follow up effort before finally grabbing the loose ball.
A goal was coming and when Aaron Edwards was found unmarked in the area he finally beat the Bay keeper to put his sided deservedly in front on 14 minutes.
Colwyn Bay stemmed the tide somewhat in the closing 15 minutes of the half with Tom McCready shooting narrowly wide and Toby Jones having a shot blocked
Bay were much better after the interval and McCready, who had raced back from working in Bristol to play in the game, brought a good save out of Gresford keeper Ben Jones and was narrowly off target with another effort before two goals in the space of four minutes swung the match around.
Julian Williams equalised at the far post from a super cross by Kian Owen on 66 minutes, and then Damien Ketley beat the keeper in a race for the ball to put Bay in front.
Injuries to Jord Carrington (knee), Toby Jones (hamstring) and Damien Ketley forced Bay changes, but they wrapped up victory when substitute Joe Chaplin, who is still not fully fit, broke clear onto a Julian Williams pass to fire his first goal of the season.
"I'm still feeling the hamstring a little bit and I wouldn't have played if we had had a full squad available, but it was certainly good to get my first goal," Joe said afterwards.
Assistant boss Mark Orme admitted: "You have to be honest. Gresford outplayed us in the first half and we were lucky to be only 1-0 down at half-time.
"They were first to every second ball and Andy Coughlin has made three or four brilliant saves to keep us in it
"We called for a reaction at half-time and the lads have responded. We played further forward and we asked the players to be braver on the ball, play higher and give Gresford some problems - and we did that.
"Unfortunately we have had more injuries, which seem to be coming all over the place at the moment, and ended up with three 16-year-olds on the pitch, but Morgan Ashworth came on for his first team debut along with Ash Seddon and they both did well.
"We also had to throw Joe Chaplin on, even though he is still feeling his way back from injury, and he has come up with the third goal to kill the game which was great for him."
"We'll have to asses how everyone is before Saturday's Cup game, but we won't be taking risks with anyone who is not fully fit. Mitch Bryant (who missed this game due to work commitments) will be back and if we have to use lads from the Reserves again we will have no qualms about doing that."
Keeper Andy Coughlin was voted SoccerMillion Man of the match by the fans for his crucial first half saves and received the award from Arwel Clwyd Jones of the Supporters Group.
Reproduced with thanks to Colwyn Bay FC
