Football: More to come from Colwyn Bay

Oct 20 2011

AFTER last weekend’s tremendous win over joint league leaders Stalybridge Celtic, Colwyn Bay boss Dave Challinor is looking for his side to show adaptability as he prepares for another big home game this Saturday against close rivals Corby.

“We had a game plan against Stalybridge which the players carried out brilliantly, as well as showing great desire and a will to win,” he said. “But Saturday will be a totally different game in terms of tactics.

“Stalybridge are a young, very fit side who pass the ball well and have tremendous movement and we had to plan our tactics to try and combat that. Corby, however, are a big, strong, physical side, who like to get the ball forward quickly, so our lads will have to take on board different instructions and employ a different game plan,” he explained.

Ninth-placed Corby come to Llanelian Road’s Red Lion Foods Stadium just one position and two points behind the Seagulls with a game in hand, so it is key match for both sides as they try to close on a fifth-placed Altrincham side who face a tough away game at Stalybridge.

The joint league leaders will be keen to bounce back after losing their 12-match unbeaten league record at Llanelian Road last weekend and a win over Altrincham would give Colwyn Bay the chance leapfrog them and consolidate a challenge for the top five play-off places.

Challinor hopes last Saturday’s success in ending Stalybridge’s 12-match unbeaten league record, will have finally cast off the shadow of their 6-1 home thumping by Altrincham last month.

That started a four-match winless run and the manager admitted: “It has proved to be a massive blow to us in terms of confidence and we have struggled a bit since then.

“But it was  fantastic result against a very good Stalybridge side who will certainly be up there challenging for the title at the end of the season - and hopefully that will finally get rid of any lingering memories of Altrincham and we can start to move on.

“The previous two games (3-1 defeats at Stocksbridge and Hinckley) were unacceptable and the players were told so. But performance wise this (against Stalybrdige) was much more like what we expect from them.

“There is a huge difference in training full-time like Stalybridge do and getting together just a couple of nights a week like us, and some of our lads were out on their feet in the second half. But full credit to every single one of them, because they all put in a real shift to get us the three points.”
After taking the lead in the opening minute when Mike Lea scored from Luke Denson’s low cross, Colwyn Bay had to defend for long periods of the second half against Jim Harvey’s full-timers, but showed great commitment.

The return of Denson and Lea from injury made a huge difference, and keeper Chris Sanna made a couple of outstanding saves to keep his sixth clean sheet of the campaign.

Stalybridge were unlucky when Stephen Brogan’s header was deflected onto the post off home defender Danny Meadowcroft, but Colwyn Bay were still a threat on the break, and Jan Budtz in the visitors goal had to save well from Domaine Rouse and brilliantly from substitute Danny Lloyd late in the game.

The Seagulls, however, sealed victory with a Lee Davey penalty seven minutes from the end after Lloyd’s driven cross was blocked by Greg Wilkinson’s arm in the area.

It was fitting for Davey to score from the spot because he put in some tremendous work on the right, both in defence and attack, after getting his chance due to injuries to Jon Newby and skipper Damien Allen.

Newby is likely to be out for two or three weeks with a hamstring problem, while the club will continue to monitor Allen’s back injury this week before making a decision on whether he can return for Saturday’s game against Corby.

Chris King is also nursing a hamstring strain which forced his half-time substitution last Saturday.