Match Report

Saturday 16th November

Cardiff & District Under 16 A Division

Butetown Park

Butetown 1 - 0 Pentwyn Dynamos 

Always a tough one and Today was no different. Butetown were good last year and have improved even more this season. They play much more football now and it was a strange one as they had more of the ball than us which we are not that used to. The first half was largely contested in midfield and we stood up well to their physical threat and counter attacked when we could. There were few clear cut chances for either side. for us - Huw hit over from close range, Dan hit over from the edge of the box and so did Ryan. They had a few shots from the edge of the box and several corners that threatened but we dealt with them well enough.
Ryan was taken down with a bad challenge that some refs would have shown a red card for but this time it was only a yellow.

AJ was looking really good for Butetown - always a handful down the right and Mike Bellew had to be at his best all game to track him. They shaded the first half but it was 0-0 at half time and the match could go either way.
I noticed that it was getting close to half time and shouted to the ref asking how long was left - he thought we were playing 45 mins each way - I corrected him that it should be 40 mins but he insisted on playing 45, instead of blowing up and accounting for the extra as injury time. I commented that I wouldnt be happy if we lost in the last minute when we would have played 10 mins too long!

We were better in the second half and saw more of the ball and the game became more stretched and both teams were trying to win it. 
They went through twice but hit shots wide - it was still on a knife edge.
Jared went through and was taken down in the box but the ref refused a decent penalty claim for us.
Chaz hit one from 25 yards that had the keeper stranded but it cannoned off the bar and they managed to clear.

Then in the 90th minute we conceded a penalty - no arguments from me, a clear penalty.
We then had a man sent off for swearing at the ref when protesting - no arguments there either , obvious straight red.
They scored the pen - in off the post.
My argument was that all this happened during 10 minutes additional time that shouldnt have been played - and we should have been in the car on the way home with a well deserved point from the hardest place to go in the A Division.