CEFN DRUIDS RESERVES 2

CORWEN RESERVES 1

IT was a relief for Corwen Reserves that they finally took to the field of play.

The War Memorial Park side travelled to the Rock to take on Cefn Druids Reserves.

Four consecutive postponements meant that Corwen's previous game came on October 26.

As a result, a lack of match sharpness may have been an issue for Corwen against a side that consisted mainly of academy players.

Early on in the game, Cefn’s Jaden Jones was able to get beyond two Corwen players with the ball and to the edge of the box.

He went for goal, but Jones saw his effort loop over the bar.

The visitors' first chance of note came when a Jak Newell free kick was cleared to Will Hughes.

He who played the ball back to Owen Cordiner, who saw his angled shot take a deflection and go wide.

Turning to the 23rd minute and a Cefn Druids free kick was launched into the Corwen box, where it was collected by Callum Walters, whose shot forced a good save out of keeper Nathan Roberts.

It looked as if Corwen were going to break the deadlock when Tom Mann skinned Polat Ciftci to get through on goal.

He crossed beyond goalkeeper Hudson Parry and into the path of Owen Cordiner, who was unable to shoot at the open goal as the ball got stuck under his feet.

This miss came back to haunt the visitors and Druids went ahead three minutes later.

Jaden Jones broke the deadlock as he found the back of the net straight from a corner.

The same player had an opportunity to get his second as he collected a great cross at the far post, but he could not get enough onto the ball to get a shot away.

The away side put pressure on their hosts in the closing stages of the half as Owen Cordiner set up Andrew Roberts, whose effort forced a great save out of Hudson Parry.

A minute later and Elystan Hughes had two bites of the cherry from Jak Newell's corner.

His overhead kick was saved and Hughes followed this up with a diving header, which went wide of the goal.

Seven minutes after the break and Morgan Daykin sent a powerful shot at the Corwen goal.

This was parried by Nathan Roberts and Joshua Hughes collected the loose ball and put it into the far corner of net.

The deficit wasn’t two goals for long, though.

Two minutes later, Owen Cordiner was able to get on to the end of a Jak Newell free kick and head the ball home from within the six-yard box.

Corwen searched for an equaliser and substitute Scott Evans went for goal from a 30-yard free kick, which went just wide of the far post.

Will Hughes was able to get some space and collect the ball in the Cefn box and despite having team-mates in promising positions, he went for goal himself and this effort forced a save out of the keeper.

As the game entered the final five minutes, the ball was played out of the box and to Scott Evans.

He punted a shot from distance and this went just over the bar with the keeper beaten.