Football: Glan Conwy FC aim for another FAW Trophy final

Mar 11 2010

GLAN Conwy manager Jon Chapman says his players will have to be at their best on Saturday if they are to secure the club’s place in the final of the FAW Trophy for a second time in three years.

Ahead of the semi-final clash with Llanberis at Bangor City’s Farrar Road (2pm ko), Chapman admitted: "We know it’s going to be a tough game because Llanberis have been on a brilliant run of late, which means we’ll need to play to our full potential to have a chance of going through."

The Cae Ffwt outfit, who were knocked out of the NWCFA Cup by Llandudno in last week’s quarter-final, but have also reached the last four of the Barritt Cup, face a daunting last few weeks of the season, but Chapman expressed confidence in the depth of his squad to see them through.

"I think we still have 18 or 19 league games to fit in as well, so it’s not an ideal situation, but we have a strong squad and I know that the players we have available can do a good job for us," he added.

"We were a bit unlucky to lose to Llandudno last Wednesday, beaten 4-3 by a last-minute goal. We came back from 3-1 down and played some excellent football.

"And if we need to go to extra time or penalties against Llanberis this weekend, we are well- prepared. We have done that twice in the last month, in the previous round of this competition and in our last Barritt Cup game."

Glan Conwy will be without central defender Dan Roberts, who has work commitments, and there are one or two minor injury concerns.

Ashley Smith, Joe Williams and Liam Griffiths were the goal-scorers against Llandudno, who had Lee Thomas and Craig Hogg sent off, but Glan squandered several good opportunities to have won the match, and Chapman admitted that the hangover of defeat extended into last weekend’s league visit to Nefyn which finished 2-2.

"The performance there was the exact opposite to Llandudno," he said. "We never really got going, Nefyn battled well, they played some good football and thoroughly deserved the draw.

"I’ll be looking for a vast improvement this Saturday and we’ll need to see it if we are to get anything out of the game."

Aled Stapleton put the visitors ahead at Nefyn after only two minutes, but were quickly pegged by an equaliser three minutes later from Llyr ap Grufydd. The home side then went ahead with a header by Gareth Williams, but Gavin Roberts rescued a point in the 55th minute.