Goytre fall asleep (From Free Press Series)

Goytre fall asleep

Goytre 2 Cwmamman United 3 By Keith Fairbank

IN A classic game of two halves, Goytre let a 2-0 lead slip at home to Cwmamman to heap pressure on themselves at the bottom of the Welsh League Division Three.

Goytre keeper Ryan Mackernass had to hold his hands up at the final whistle for a costly mistake, his missed punch gifting Cwmamman's winning goal, but Goytre were collectively to blame for letting the three points go after failing to kill the game off.

Club chairman Paul Greenhalgh said: "When a keeper makes a mistake there's rarely anyone there to cover so it stands out. But Ryan's done well for us and we had enough chances to win the game."

There was little hint of what was to follow when Graham Mason had given the home side the lead within ten minutes of the start. Goytre had been applying pressure to the Cwmamman goalmouth from the off and were 1-0 up inside ten minutes when Mason smashed home into the roof of the net after taking a pass from Mark Langford.

Then after 20 minutes Langford himself doubled the lead. Steve Collett had chipped the ball over the top for Langford to chase and he duly lobbed the ball over the advancing keeper.

Then at 2-0 up, Lee Grimes had a chance on 38 minutes to make it three, but hit his shot straight at the keeper.

Greenhalgh said: "It was a bad miss but at 2-0 up to be honest we were coasting and dominating the game. We had to be happy with the way it was going.

"But we were still asleep when the second half started."

Gareth Owen pulled one back for visiting Cwmamman after 47 minutes, smashing in a cross from the left past Mackernass. And three minutes later Cwmamman were level through Paul Pugh, the centre forward evading the tackles and easily placing the ball home.

Greenhalgh added: "At that point we were struggling to get back into the game. All the confidence had gone, although our captain Kevin Wallace was working hard."

Manager Steve Morgan was prompted into a triple substitution, introducing Ian Rosser, Chris Perry and Joe Carlos to the fray. But the change failed to inspire a chance until after Mackernass' mistake.

Mason then put Darren Haines through with a late chance to equalise from five yards out - only for Haines to dally too long over his shot and somehow hit the corner flag.

The defeat allowed Cwmamman to leapfrog Goytre, who are now just two points off the dropzone going into what Greenhalgh believes is a "must win six-pointer" at third-bottom Treowen on Saturday.

He added: "We've got games in hand over Treowen and the other sides at the bottom, but I'd rather have the points in the bag."