PICTURE by Richard Gregson

AS the weather begins to improve (we hope) in North Wales, football fixtures around the region are beginning to be played out once again.

There were some surprises in the matches involving Kon-X Anglesey League sides on Saturday afternoon.

Llandegfan Football Club picked up their first home win of the season as they claimed an impressive 6-2 win over Pentraeth Reserves in the Bwlch Car Boot Trophy.

The tie, set-up as a play-off round to determine who would be progressing to the quarter finals of the tournament, was a real treat for the neutral.

Justin Gallaghers’ Reserves side went 1-0 up early on when Danny Roberts went through on goal and finished neatly into the top corner. However, the lead didn’t last long as midfielder Ashley Jones fired home soon after to draw Llandeg level.

Llandegfan Forward Ryan Hughes was then brought down in the box and after scoring a penalty against Mynydd Tigers a couple of week’s ago, goalkeeper Hywel “Monk” Hughes volunteered to step up to the spot once again and made no mistake to fire his team in front. However, this again didn’t last long as the Reserves managed to pull themselves back into the game from a corner kick which Dyfed Alston poked home.

Soon after, Pentraeth were forced to take goalkeeper Barry Walker off after a collision and in this undoubtedly changed the game somewhat as an outfielder had to take his place between the sticks.

Llandegfan capitalised on this and took the lead before half time as player-manager Jordan Love scored a beauty when he chipped the keeper from 35 yards out.

Heading into the second half, the game was still very much in the balance and could have gone either way. A decent chance fell to Pentraeth striker John Morton but his shot was saved by Hywel Hughes.

Llandegfan midfielder  Geraint Roberts grafted hard to win the ball back for his side as did left-back Dale Rowlands. Some excellent defending from the home side, in particular by the centre back pairing of Matty Roberts and captain Ryan Williams ensured there was no way through for Pentraeth’s attackers and Llandeg began to hit them on the counter attack.

Ryan Hughes first broke from the half way line to add the fourth goal of the match before a similar break minutes later saw him square the ball to Love who finished neatly and bagged his brace.

The best was saved till last however as the in-form Hughes bagged his second of the day, running through one-on-one with the advancing keeper before brilliantly placing the ball over his head and into the net to complete the 6-2 scoreline and a memorable day for Llandegfan. Check out this brilliant photo sequence of Hughes’ goal taken by Richard Gregson who was at the match on Saturday …

After the match, Jordan Love was full of praise for his team mates, saying: “Today we’ve proved that we can achieve the results needed to progress next season.

“We have had a tough year in terms of trying to find our feet in this division and people have laughed about some of the losses we’ve suffered. Seeing my team win is overwhelming, and I appreciate the support and advice I have received from certain clubs within the league.

“With each game we grow and develop as a team and personally, I’m proud to be part of a determined side who want to improve and achieve great things.”

The result means that Llandeg will travel to Caergybi for the quarter final round of the Bwlch Car Boot Trophy.

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Elsewhere, Bryngwran Bulls continued their winning ways against Valley Athletic and reached their second final of the season with a 2-0 win in the Lucas Oil Cup.

The victory meant that the Bulls had now beaten Valley on three occasions this season and have certainly become somewhat of a bogey team for the league leaders as they are the only team to have kept a clean sheet against them too (twice in fact).

The Bulls attacked Barry Rowlands’ side from the off and fired themselves in front within the opening 15 minutes thanks to a great strike from Nathan Lewis. Just 10 minutes later they added what would prove to be the decisive goal in the match when top scorer James Ryan hit his 27th goal of the season.

Valley’s only real chance came when a lofted ball towards Luke Miles played by Konner Druce was punched clear to the feet of Marc Wilson, who saw his shot saved by Bulls’ stand-in keeper for the day, Iolo Jones.

The second half was a battle for both sides with some very strong tackles going in. The game was mainly a midfield battle and Valley went down to 10 men when Druce was shown a red card for disagreeing with a decision made by the referee.

The last chance the visitors had came when Wilson picked up the ball and following a battle with a Bryngwran defender, was brought down. He got up and though he had won his side a penalty, but after some thinking time the referee signaled it was a free kick, much to the dismay of Valley’s players and coaching team.

Richard Owen’s Bulls side managed to keep a clean sheet against Valley yet again and will no doubt be looking forward to playing in the final of this Cup as well as the Dargie Cup too.

It’s Mynydd Tigers who will be joining the Bulls in the Lucas Oil Cup final after they enjoyed an emphatic 7-0 win over Bodorgan in their semi-final match on Saturday afternoon.

A hat-trick each from the talented duo of Herbie Hofsteede and Ciaran O’Brady and a solo strike from Kieron Bullock ensured progression for Mark Hughes’ side to set-up a mouthwatering clash in the final which will take place at Bangor City’s Nantporth stadium on April 6.

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Finally, Arriva Bangor came away as 4-0 winners against Llangoed Reserves in the only Kon-X Anglesey League fixture of the weekend.

Kevin Jones’ side claimed all three points against Dewi Williams’ team as they kept the pressure on the division’s “Top Four” as the season draws to a close.

A solo goal from captain Liam Roberts and yet another hat-trick from the prolific Scott Hughes ensured victory for Arriva and took the latter’s goal scoring tally to 34 goals for the campaign.