Hard Done By Town Grounded at Airfield

Dafabet Welsh Premier League
Saturday 21st November
Airbus UK Broughton 2 Aberystwyth Town 0

A goal in each half from winger Ryan Wade won the game for Airbus UK Broughton, on a day when everything went wrong for the Black and Greens. Weather woes, a contentious red card and a debatably disallowed goal all combined to create a perfect storm for Ian Hughes' men on a cold and windy day on Deeside. 

In the face of a near gale force wind, the visitors started the game strongly, and Ross Stephens had an early header saved by James Coates in Airbus' goal. Minutes later Craig Williams played Jamie Reed into the left channel and his low drive was inches wide. Airbus then took the lead against the run of play when Ryan Wignall found space down the right and crossed for Wade to smash home a 17th minute opener. Truth be told, the hosts then grew in confidence and with the wind behind them dominated possession. The hardworking Tony Grey sent a low shot wide from the right side, James Owen saw a rasping shot turned over the bar by Mike Lewis, and Lewis gathered Andy Jones' header from the resulting corner, but the visiting defence did well to stand firm. Back came Aber once again before the break: a lovely move saw Chris Venables set up Luke Sherbon, who fired a shot just wide, in injury time Reed again almost scored from a Rhys Griffiths knock down, and with the prospect of enjoying the same massive wind advantage Airbus had enjoyed, in the second half, the Black and Greens were confident of striking back after the break.

To Aber's horror, they emerged in the second half to find that the wind had dropped almost to nothing, and a rather pallid third quarter of the game resulted in next to no noteworthy action. Matty McGinn sent a free kick just wide but then just before the hour Airbus got another huge slice of luck when Lee Surman was shown a second yellow card for his second foul of the game, and was sent off. The sense of injustice was compounded by the fact that other players had racked up unpunished foul after foul during the game, but Aber were now down to ten men. To give them credit, the visitors improved under adversity and were again very hard done by when Rhys Griffiths' left wing cross was flicked over his own goalkeeper by a home defender for an own goal, which was promptly disallowed for reasons which remained unclear. Antonio Corbisiero sent in a cross which Griffiths headed just over, but then in the 89th minute Lee Owens powered down the right wing and sent a cross back for Wade to seal the victory with a near post finish. Sion James had a shot blocked and Stuart Jones' goalbound header was held by Coates, but the score remained at 2-0 when the final whistle blew.

In tight games luck plays a big part and Ian Hughes' men must be wondering whether the Team Coach ran over a black cat on the way to the Airfield on Saturday morning. Black and Greens supporters will be hoping to see Lady Luck smile on them instead of their opponents next Friday night when Carmarthen Town visit Park Avenue for a 7.45pm kick off.