THREE goals conceded in the closing 10 minutes was a cruel end to a battling heroic effort by the young Seagulls Development squad as they went down 6-0 to a full-strength Barry Town United side in the all Wales final of the Welsh Blood Service League Cup at Newtown’s Latham Park.
The team had shown a lot of heart and character to keep the score to 3-0 until the 81st minute, helped by some good saves from first team keeper Jack Crichton – including a first half penalty. Barry, however, took advantage of tiring legs in those closing minutes to take a bit of the gloss off the young Bay side’s performance.
Barry led after only four minutes with a screamer into the roof of the net from the edge of the area by Troy Greening, and were denied a second six minutes later when Crichton dived to his right to keep out Kayne McLaggon’s 10th minute penalty.
The Bay, playing with just the hard-working Hugh Holland up front, stuck to their defensive task well, but Josh Graham beat Crichton to a ball into the area to head Barry’s second goal on 31 minutes and Welsh C international McLaggon added a third from a rebound before half-time.
In the second half, with Will McKinley putting in some good runs from deep, Hugh Holland clipped the bar with one fine effort and forced a save out of Barry keeper Michael Lewis with another, after a strong run from half-way, but they were the only really threats to the Barry goal.
Some heroic defending prevented the South Wales side from adding to their score until the closing stages, when substitute Kyle Jones eventually heading their fourth goal on 81 minutes.
Curtis McDonald got a fortunate fifth with a back header that lopped over Crichton on 85 minutes and then, in added time, Aiden Lewis seized on a rebound to add a sixth after Crichton had a made a fine block from a close range header.
The lads, however, can hold their heads high for the way they played.
“Immensely proud given the situation given the time we’ve had to work with the players, which was 20 minutes on Thursday night,” manager Steve Evans said.
“Football is about technical ability but first and foremost it’s about hard graft and having the desire to work hard and they had that today.
“The discipline they showed to stay in their shape was first class. They’ve done themselves, the club and everybody proud connected with Colwyn Bay today.
“They made it difficult for a really good team. Kends (Barry manager Lee Kendall) has got them playing really good football and he’s done tremendously – Congratulations to Barry.
“It’s a treble for them, wasn’t to be for us but I think ourselves and Barry have set the Cymru South and the Cymru North alight along with a couple of others this season.”
See manager Steve Evans’ full post-match comments on Manager Interview – Welsh Blood Service Cup Final – YouTube
COLWYN BAY: Jack Crichton, Elis McLoughlin (Ben Preater 77), Jack Nightingale (Paddy Judge 90), Will McKinley, Keiran Jones, Hugh Holland (Rob Lloyd 90), Aaron Forbes, Etan Goodwin, Joel Giblin, Mathew Hardaker, Oliver Williams. Subs not used: Sion Davies (G), James Griffith, Frank Kaminski-Kirtlandt.
Attendance: 157
