LLANGYNHAFAL 3

HENLLAN 2

THIS was always likely to be the tie of the night in the quarter-finals of the Tony Evans Memorial Shield.

Llangynhafal and Henllan occupied the top two spots in the league this season and the last-eight contest turned out to be a real humdinger.

Despite being reduced to 10 men early in the second half, Chris Brown's Henllan refused to throw in the towel and they were so close to taking this tie into extra time.

Both sides spent the majority of the first half testing each other in front of a large crowd at Rhewl.

Thankfully, the rain held off during the opening 45 minutes and the first opportunity went the way of Henllan, with Ynyr Clwyd dragging his left-footed shot wide.

Clear cut opportunities were hard to come by, although a Henllan effort from distance took a wicked bounce as it just cleared the Llangynhafal crossbar.

At the other end, Tom Sharples' goal was disallowed following a foul on Henllan keeper Steve Robinson.

A further home effort was ruled out for offside, before Llangynhafal claimed the lead when they were awarded a penalty four minutes shy of the interval.

Centre back Tom Dyer confidently directed his effort into the corner of the net.

There were more Llangynhafal celebrations four minutes later when Tom Sharples headed in the second goal, giving his side a comfortable cushion at the interval.

The second half saw Henllan on the front foot and they had a goal chalked off for offside soon after the restart.

Hopes of a fightback were hit when goalkeeper Steve Robinson was sent off for handling the ball outside of his area.

Then, when Jak Newell curled in Llangynhafal's third goal on the hour, the tie appeared to be over.

That was not the case, though, and Henllan continued to look for a way back into the game.

Tom Jones pulled a goal back with 20 minutes left to play and both sides were down to 10 men when Jak Newell was red carded.

Henllan were the dominant team at this point and it was game on once again when Ynyr Clwyd's strike from 25 yards crept into the corner of the net with 10 minutes remaining.

Deep into injury time, Tom Jones effort was spilled by home number one Dylan Jones, but the ball was kept out by his legs.

This turned out to be the last chance and Llangynhafal remain on course to win the double for the first time in their history.