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COULD 2008 be Llangynhafal's year to get their hands on the Shield for the first time?
The omens are looking good as the Rhewl-based battlers achieved yet another unlikely win on their travels to book a last-four clash with either Henllan or Caerwys.
Llangynhafal, missing half-a-dozen key players, were not expected to make it past the preliminary round stage, but they booked a first round spot in some style with a great win at Cefn.
Monday night proved to be a carbon copy as hosts Nantglyn were the favourites to see off their weakened visitors, but yet again Llangynhafal dug deep to produce the goods.
According to Llangynhafal's Berwyn Jones: "We had the bare 11.
"The lads don't come home from holiday until tonight!"
Nantglyn's Dei Bibby felt that the home side did enough to win the tie and he said: "We were all over them in the second half.
"With 10 minutes to go we scored and I thought here we go now."
That could have been the propellant for another famed Nantglyn comeback, but last year's beaten finalists Llangynhafal stood firm in the face of late pressure.
It was 1-0 in the visitors' favour at the break as Liam Jones scored a great eighth goal of the season.
Nantglyn maybe should have got on the scoreboard in the opening period, with Gareth Lewis twice shooting wide from promising positions.
With Nantglyn pressing for an equaliser in the second half, Hugh Sharples could not have picked a better time to score his second goal of the season as Llangynhafal doubled their lead.
At this point the home side reached for the kitchen sink, with Steven Potter being pushed forward and the influential Osian Jones introduced off the bench.
Gareth Lewis, Geraint Jones and Osian Lloyd all had decent second-half chances, but their reward finally arrived on 80 minutes with Potter on target.
That was as good as it got for Nantglyn as Llangynhafal's unique blend of youth and experience clung on to their advantage.
Llangynhafal's Berwyn Jones added: "We did a good job. We had a couple of 15-year-olds playing and 50-year-olds!"
Asked whether this could be Llangynhafal's year, Jones said: "With a bit of luck!"


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HENLLAN 3
CAERWYS 3
THAT'S now three extremely close matches between Henllan and Caerwys in 2008 - and expect a fourth tight one in tonight's first-round replay.
Despite going into the tie on the back of the six-goal preliminary round thrashing of Rhewl, Caerwys player-boss Richie Roberts was wary of the threat Henllan were likely to pose with a semi-final spot at stake.
"If somebody said we would come away with a draw before the game, I would have taken that," admitted Roberts the morning after.
Henllan's Chris Brown added: "We led twice and came back from behind once.
"It was the usual Henllan performance, really, and we couldn't get two goals in front."
Both league matches between the sides ended 2-1, with Henllan and Caerwys claiming a win apiece, and things were just as close in the Shield tie.
A dramatic first-half yielded no fewer than five goals, the first of which saw Henllan grab an early lead when Owen Jones nipped in to lift the ball over the visiting keeper.
Henllan could not maintain their advantage for long, though, as confident Caerwys came back into it when top striker Wayne Shill latched on to a through ball and expertly levelled the tie after 20 minutes.
Things got even better for Roberts' raiders soon after as Richard Hughes was given space in the box to turn and fire in Caerwys' second goal.
And Caerwys felt they possibly should have had a chance to bag a third soon after, but strong pleas for a penalty award were waved aside.
The rest of the half belonged to Henllan, however, and the Owen Jones show continued as he finished from close range to tie things up yet again.
And two minutes before the break Jones completed his hat-trick to hand the Top Park hosts an interval lead, lifting the ball high into the net from 10 yards out.
Despite leading at the break, there wasn't too much confidence in the Henllan camp that they would keep a clean sheet in the second 45 minutes.
"I think we always wanted to make sure we got another goal," added Brown.
"Despite a number of chances, we didn't get it."
And Henllan didn't manage to shut Caerwys out in the second stanza either, as it was level pegging again with 20 minutes left.
Good work from Nick Voyle set up Richard Hughes to score his second of the night from close range.
From that point on both teams went gunning for a winning goal and the spectators were left feeling like they had been watching the tennis at Wimbledon - it was that end-to-end!
The better late chances probably went to Henllan, although the possession stats swung in the favour of Caerwys.
But neither side could find that vital fourth goal and it's take-two at Caerwys tonight to decide who will play Llangynhafal in next Monday's semi-final.


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YSCEIFIOG 2
LLANFAIR 0
THE 39 steps have taken all-conquering Ysceifiog to within two acts of a league and Shield double.
A Dave Holloway one-two in the first half accounted for Llanfair in Monday's first round tie and with the winners of the Clawddnewydd-Trefnant tie awaiting them in next Tuesday's semi-final, Ysceifiog are red-hot favourites to complete the double.
Holloway's brace takes his tally for the season up to a majestic 39 goals - and surely the Summer League's top scorer will smash through the 40-goal barrier next week.
In his appraisal of the match, Llanfair player-boss Roger Beech said: "Ysceifiog deserved to win.
"There's only so much pressure you can take and Ysceifiog played good football."
Both of the Holloway goals came from Ysceifiog set pieces, the first from a corner when Alex Hodge headed it back into the danger zone and the hotshot got in front of his marker to hand Ysceifiog the lead.
One became two shortly before the break as another corner resulted in Holloway netting with a snapshot to effectively snuff out Llanfair's hopes.
Llanfair did go close to scoring in the first half when Huw Price put top scorer Simon McGrath in the clear but a fine stop from keeper Andy Hughes denied McGrath his 11th goal of 2008.
Beech added: "It was an uphill battle but it stayed at 2-0 and we played well in the second half.
"We changed a couple of things but we didn't really have any chances in the second half."
Ysceifiog chairman Tony Evans said on Tuesday: "It was one-way traffic and their keeper had an outstanding game.
"We had four players missing last night, which was fantastic to pull off a result like that."
Ominously for the rest of the sides left in the Shield, Ysceifiog have now won 15 games in a row in all competitions and they are yet to concede a goal in this season's Shield.


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CLAWDDNEWYDD 1
TREFNANT 1
A SECOND-half stunner from Danny Porter means that battling Trefnant still have an interest in the 2008 Shield competition.
The 2002 and 2004 Shield winners trailed tie favourites Clawddnewydd by a goal-to-nil at the break, but a fine second-half comeback saw Trefnant salvage a draw to bring Clawdd back to their place for a replay tonight.
Last season's league champions Clawdd were strong favourites to book a semi-final spot at the expense of Trefnant, who ended the 2008 league season in last place.
But Trefnant demonstrated plenty of grit, determination and skill to secure a replay and Clawdd chairman Huw K Williams said: "They were a good team.
"They were better than they were in the league against us."
As expected, Clawddnewydd took the lead with Danny Jellicoe's first-half strike.
But both teams had chances and both sides hit the woodwork during the course of the game.
An effort from Trefnant's Danny Porter came back out off the crossbar, while the visitors also went close as a Lee Ferguson header just drifted wide of the target.
Clawddnewydd probably created the bulk of the chances, though, but they found Trefnant keeper Nathan Pope in fine form again.
The veteran number one made a number of fine stops, while in general Trefnant defended well on the night, with Will Kirkby immense at the back.
And then came Porter's peach in the second period, as he cut in from the left and curled a beauty into the top corner from 20 yards out.
That means a fourth Trefnant-Clawdd 2008 meeting takes place and maybe the sides had the bright idea of honing their penalty skills over the course of this week.
The league meeting between the sides at Trefnant also ended up 1-1, so another close contest could be in store!


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