North East Wales League
Premier Division
Saturday 3rd July 2021
Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.28
Greenfield 2 Cefn Mawr Rangers 1, attendance 26
29’ 0-1 (pen)
34’ 1-1
86’ 2-1
@ Alpha Park
Bagillt Road
Greenfield
CH8 7HG
No Admission or Programme.
At last, I finally got to see a game outside England, following endless restrictions on travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last time I managed this was back on 8th March 2020, with a trip to Belgium to see K. Standaard S.V. Denderleeuw and I hadn’t managed a visit to Wales since seeing Pontypridd Town on 17th January 2020. The shutdown of football in Wales feels like it has been going on forever and today’s match was the first competitive fixture for the clubs in 483 days!
I decided to tick off the only ground I hadn’t visited in the Premier Division of the North East Wales League, which sits at Tier 4 of the Welsh pyramid. I was a bit concerned as to whether I would be allowed in to watch the match, as there seemed some confusion over whether there was a limit of 100 spectators (set by the Welsh Government/F.A. Wales ?) and some reports suggested this number included players, etc. I had asked both clubs for confirmation on Twitter, but neither bothered to reply, despite having active accounts. In the end it didn’t matter, as the crowd was a pitiful 26, and you just strolled in through the gate.
Cefn Mawr Rangers started off the better of the two. They opened the scoring half an hour into the game, with a penalty awarded for a handball. Their lead only lasted five minutes. A through ball was taken around the ‘keeper and slotted in to make it 1-1. The second half saw plenty of effort, but neither side looked capable of getting a winner. Then, as we entered the last five minutes, out of nothing, another through ball saw the striker race clear, nicking the ball one side of the ‘keeper, whilst he went the other, and he finished calmly from a tight angle. There was still time for Cefn to have an equaliser bizarrely disallowed. A striker went for a 50/50 ball with the ‘keeper and both ended up on the floor. The ‘keeper stayed down, but wasn’t really injured and was told by the Referee “get on with it ‘keeper, he never touched you”. He stood up, placed the ball on the ground and took a couple of steps back. The striker then tapped the ball into the empty net, but for some reason the goal never stood. There was no whistle blown at any stage by the Referee and he obviously hadn’t awarded a free kick, but Cefn just seemed to accept it. All of us watching, that were nearest to the incident, were in agreement that the goal should have stood. Very strange decision.
