South Wales Alliance League Division One

Cwmamman Institute 4 (James, Bogis, Wickham, Thornton) - Cadoxton Barry FC 4 (Weekley, Dawson, Scott Williams 2)

WHEN they lost their Welsh League status Cwmamman saw a number of players off in search of fresh pastures and that meant a further weakening and, hence qualification for only the second level of the new South Wales Football Alliance.

But, on finding that the other man's grass is not always greener last season, a good number have returned for this season - including the whole of their midfield. In addition, with two English League sides looking at one of their forwards, this was, arguably, going to be one of the stiffest tests Cadoxton Barry have faced in many a season and that is exactly the way it turned out.

A quiet opening spell gave CB no hint of what was to hit them some 15 minutes in. Indeed, the match was seven minutes old before either side won a corner, one which went to the home side and one which was easily cleared.

But following a phase of scrappy play, Cwmamman began to turn up the anti, winning a series of further corners in the process. Then, on the 24-minute mark, Bogis gained possession, used a little shimmy to deceive the CB defence before slotting the ball through to James for a simple finish.

Cwmamman were back in the CB penalty area straight from the re-start, and when the ball popped out of the goalmouth scramble, Bogis didn't need a second invitation to make it two goals in a minute for the home side.

Cadoxton Barry were now all at sea, not knowing what had hit them. Was this the real welcome to the 'big time' that they hadn't thought was so tough up to now?

Barely had another minute gone by before the CB upright was rattled. Would CB beat the count?

It looked unlikely at this stage as wave after wave of attacks bore down on them. But weather it they did and no one was more stunned than the home side when CB broke away down the right for Adamson to send over a delightful long distance cross which found Weekley at the far post to head home an excellent, if unexpected goal.

This lifted CB and suddenly they started to give as good as they were getting, Cwmamman 'keeper, Wagthorn, making instinctive double saves from Adamson late in the half.

The CB renaissance continued into the early part of the second half as Dawson passed out to Oaten on the right, his shot from an acute angle forcing Wagthorn into another good save. CB were then awarded a free kick on the right from which Adamson found Dawson to execute a low flick which left Wagthorn stranded. Bearing in mind the onslaught that they had weathered earlier, to have achieved parity was a major accomplishment.

But this signalled the start of another Cwmamman onslaught as they looked almost certain to score straight from the restart, a looping shot from the left seeing Harker diving to his left to make an excellent save.

It took CB a further 10 minutes before they managed to get the ball out of their box for any period of time. But they did eventually, to see a Curran header brilliantly clear off the line from directly below the bar.

Then, when Adamson got the better of the home side number six, the latter didn't like it, and so, taking the law into his own hands, grabbed Adamson by the neck in an attempt to throttle him.

Thus, while Adamson might have been turning a delicate shade of purple, the number six saw red. Although Adamson had resisted the provocation by not retaliating, in an effort to calm things down Thompson came on in his place, after which Dawson was booked for the second time for a mild looking foul, but it did to even up the playing numbers.

Once again the 10 men of Cwmamman started to take the game to the CB 10 and it paid dividends when another spell of goalmouth pinball saw the ball popping out to Wickham to put Cwmamman back in front.

Still dwelling on the Dawson dismissal, the CB defence was now all over the shop and for the second time in the match they conceded two goals within a minute as clever and neat interchanges deep in the penalty area saw Thornton finally converting. The way things were going one wondered if it was conceivable that there could be a third goal inside the minute.

Yes, there was, but it didn't go into the net that most expected it to. Substitute Scott Williams, on for Baker, took the ball from the restart and with the Wagthorn ambling confidently forward in his area, Thompson decided to take a pot from the centre line. It did land in the pot for as amazing a long range goal as you will ever see on TV.

But Williams wasn't done yet as, with only two minutes remaining, he whipped in a wicked spinning corner which left Wagthorn grasping thin air. For the second time in the match CB had found an unlikely equaliser. Looking sure of at least one point, CB were now looking to take all three. But although the pressure for those remaining two minutes had Cwmamman defending desperately there was disappointment for CB when the referee blew up after only a few seconds of added time.

CB remain top of the table with seven points from three games, but the most pleasing of the seven will surely be the seventh earned from a game in which, during two prolonged spells of pressure, they might have been overwhelmed. But it was also a game in which they finished the stronger side while looking to take all three points. If ever there was a gutsy performance against a quality side, this was it.

Next Saturday CB host Sporting Marvels in a 2pm kick off at Bryn-Y-Don.

Vale of Glamorgan League Division One

Cadoxton Barry 2nds 2 - 2 Vale Utd

Angove, Christopherato

Placed at least one division below their standard last season, Vale United scored 129 goals in garnering 62 points from just 26 games and when these two sides met in a pre-season friendly, the promoted side showed no signs of easing back on their goal scoring spree, running away to a 9 - 4 victory.

So CB 2nds knew they were going to have a job on the hands when the two sides met again on the first Saturday of the Vale of Glamorgan League season.

However, Cadoxton Barry 2nds soon made it clear that there was going to be no repeat performance from Vale, taking just 10 minutes to go into a two goal lead. The first goal saw Angove heading a corner in off a Vale defender, while the second saw Christopherato go on a defence splitting run before drawing the 'keeper and finding the net with a delightful little chip over his head.

A side of Vale's pedigree were always going to try to battle back, and this they did when, after reducing the arrears to 2 - 1 just before half-time, they scored a quality second half equaliser. Vale played the ball down the left before sending in a cross over to the right. The receiver then squared the ball neatly to allow a colleague to fire home with a crisp shot from close in.

Bearing in mind the previous result, CB manager Steve Doyle will be quite pleased with the result while Vale will know that Division One of the Vale of Glamorgan League isn't going to be quite the stroll they enjoyed in Division Two.

Read more: http://cadoxtonbarryfc.proboards.com/thread/1072/results-saturday-22nd-august#ixzz3jpRyw9Uh

Cadoxton Barry FC is also very grateful to their sponsor the Jamie Adamson Memorial Fund.

They have helped the team by sponsoring them with £250.

The fund was set up in memory of Jamie, the brother of winger Sam Adamson who died in childhood from Leukemia.

To find out more information about the Jamie Adamson Memorial Fund and to support them please visit jamfund.co.uk.