Benevolent Cup semi final Mathern FC Reserves A 2 Caldicot Town 1

A GREAT goal by Mathern FC Reserves winger Connor Hayden booked his teammates a cup final date at the weekend.

With the scores level at 1-1 in the Benevolent Cup semi final, Hayden collected a pass, eluded three tackles in a mazy run which took him into Town’s penalty area before scoring a goal described by keeper Louis Randle as “a worldie”.

To be fair to the keeper, it looked like it would need something a little special to beat him because he was in far better form than earlier in the season when Mathern put nine past him – there again he was playing with a hand injury.

After previous attempts to play this semi-final had proved impossible, both teams had an extra incentive for winning as neither team can be promoted from the East Gwent Senior League, leaving only championship titles and cup finals in which to win silverware.

Mathern, who were without a recognised goalkeeper and their regular central defender due to the early kick-off, started well and spent most of the first 15 minutes in Town’s half.

Played on the 3G pitch at Caldicot School, mostly in horrendous weather, Mathern took the lead through Jordan Barrett who made a near-post run to connect with Wayne Duffield’s cross and head the ball firmly past Randle.

That lead looked slender especially when Mathern’s stand-in keeper Hywel Pugh had to tip a dipping drive over the bar on 35 minutes.

But within minutes, he was unable to get a firm hand to Courtney Davies’ header and Town were level.

After the break, Town camped in Mathern’s penalty area, forcing corner after corner and free-kick after free-kick but they could not find a way through a defence well-marshalled by Cobi Robinson and Alex Watson.

Mathern weathered the storm and then came Hayden’s goal, one that would grace a final, let alone a semi, a view shared by Town manager Andrew Thomas.

“I thought the game was worthy of being a final with great attacking football played by both sides,” he said.

“The surface allowed both teams to play their passing games equally well.

“The two well-worked Mathern goals gave them the advantage but with a little bit more composure in front of the goal, our young side with an average age of 18 would have taken more from the game.

“It was also nice to see such support for the two East Gwent League sides.”

His opposite number Lee Baker saw it differently, however.

“I thought it was a scrappy game,” he said.

“Caldicot came to make it hard for us, which they did by working hard but it wasn’t enough to hurt us.

“We limited them to long-range shots to help give our stand-in keeper a relatively comfortable game.

“Going forward we created chance after chance but couldn’t kill the game at 2-1 which gave us a nervy last 10 minutes, but in the end we got what we deserved, a place in the final.”