Football: Misery for Porthmadog FC at TNS

Oct 2 2008 By Dave Jones

TNS 6 PORTHMADOG 0

WELSH PREMIER LEAGUE

PILLORIED Porthmadog fell back to earth with a heavy bump when they were hit for six by the Welsh Premier leaders.

After back-to-back league wins, confidence was high going into the encounter on Park Hall’s artificial surface, but a gift goal just before the break followed by three stunners in 12 second period minutes killed the contest.

"We played okay in the first half, the defence was pretty solid, but we gave them a free goal before the break," said manager Paul Whelan.

"The second half was a bit of a disaster. Their second, third and fourth goals were crackers, you don’t stop them, but we could have done a bit better with the last two."

He added: "It’s hard to play on that artificial pitch, it’s not like real football and a bit like five- a-side really.

"But the TNS lads are used to it and don’t give you time on the ball. I was talking to a few of their players after the game and even they said they don’t like playing on it."

After a couple of hairy moments, Porthmadog looked like they would reach the break without conceding but a Marc Lloyd Williams error let in Alfie Carter to make it 1-0.

Before that, Porthmadog could have taken the lead with a couple of good efforts by Lloyd Williams, the WPL record goalscorer firing across the face of goal after running on to a through ball by Chris Jones and then forcing Paul Harrison into a top notch save.

But it was one-way traffic after the break as Craig Williams, Jamie Wood, Alex Darlington, Mike Wilde and John Toner added further net- bulgers.

Richard Hughes, who returned to Porthmadog from Llangefni during the January 2008 transfer window, has decided to rejoin the Anglesey club.

In a surprise move Port striker Mathew Hughes joined Nantlle Vale days before the transfer window closed. Hughes netted 40 goals to become the Gwynedd League leading scorer last term.