Caerleon V’s Newport YMCA Sat 28th December 2008

Our final game of 2008 pitched us against local rivals and fellow relegation battlers Newport YMCA. It was a real six pointer with the YM lying rock bottom and ourselves third from bottom.

Unavailable this week were Lewis Andrews and Mike Hard but making a welcome return were Josh Collins, Luke and Ryan Cueto.

As expected, the crowds turned out on a freezing cold day to watch what was hopefully going to be a good competitive local derby !! They were not disappointed when after only 52secs the YM took the lead from a great 20 yard strike after we had failed to clear our lines. The worst possible start for us but the best for the YM !!

The YM had us on the rack for a good 15mins and we just couldn’t seem to keep the ball. Churchy was called upon on several occasions during that opening period to keep the YM from going two up. We did however settle into our game with Darren Woodcock creating some good chances down the left hand side. One great through ball from Woody saw Luke with almost a one on one with their keeper but unfortunately Wesson got a leg out and managed to push Luke’s shot wide.

The game evened itself out for the remainder of the half and the only slight controversy was a disallowed YM goal for an alleged push on Churchy. Half time came with the score locked at 1-0 to the visitors.

The second half continued in much the same vein with both sides having their spells of domination but the YM seem to be creating more chances with theirs, often forcing Churchy to make a save which we didn’t seem to be doing at the other end.

With 10 mins remaining on the clock we burst into a bit of life, forcing several free kicks on the edge of the YM’s box. Josh went closest to taking advantage when a quickly taken kick just brushed the post and went wide. George Lloyd also had a good chance, which he shot narrowly wide and then in the dying moments Luke couldn’t finish off of good move and give us a share of the points. It was a case of too little too late and the YM left cold Cold Bath Road and left 2008 with 3 desperately needed points.

We have shown in the past few games that we have got the fight there when we all pull together and that’s just what we have to do now in the last few months of the season and pull ourselves up out of the relegation battle. Lets hope we all have a successful 2009 and the club continues to move forward on the pitch as well as off it.

I would like to sign off by saying a massive Thankyou to all those (and you know who you are !!) who have transformed this club off the field in 2008. The club is now being run with a fresh new enthusiasm and you only have to look inside the clubhouse itself to see evidence of this, long may it continue.

Have a good 2009

Dave Griffiths