Ammanford AFC arrived at Stebonheath the home of the Reds chasing a seventh consecutive victory.
For some the number seven represents luck but there was nothing lucky about Ammanford’s 90 minutes plus performance which was backed loudly by Ammanford’s magnificent Black and White army of supporters which helped swell the home gate to a season-high of 788 for the JD Cymru South.
The Ammanford team to a man carried out Manager Gruff Harrison’s game plan to perfection and turned in one of their finest performances of the season to date.
The game couldn’t have started better for the visitors when after two minutes played, Ammanford’s strikers Lee Trundle and Craig Frater combined which resulted in Frater unleashing a shot which Reds keeper Scott Coughlan could only parry away, but the ball fell nicely into the path of Ammanford’s Gavin Jones who stroked the ball into the back of the Reds net. 0-1.
Llanelli responded well and passed the ball neatly through the midfield and out to the flanks on both sides of the pitch probing the Ammanford defence.
Ammanford were prepared to let Llanelli play out from the back in their own half and entice them into the heart of the Ammanford midfield where the combative Dale Jones and Mathew Fisher were waiting to try and break up the Llanelli attacks.
Llanelli were restricted to some long range shooting efforts most of which were well off target. The Reds did however manage a few fierce shots on target forcing Ammanford’s goalkeeper Craig Morris into some very fine saves.
Llanelli midfielder Liam Samuel was trying hard to find ways to thread the ball through the Ammanford lines but Ammanford’s centre backs Nich Arnold and Euros Griffiths, supported admirably by full backs Mathew Jones and Richie Lewis, were in no mood to allow the home team to break their lines.
Ammanford held the lead into the break and must have been pleased with their first half defensive play.
The second half saw Ammanford continue to soak up the Reds pressure and start to mount some menacing counter attacks of their own.
In fact it was such an attack that forced an error from the Llanelli defence that saw the ball land at the feet of Ammanford’s Lee Trundle who coolly took the opportunity of skill fully placing his low shot into the Llanelli net to double Ammanford’s lead in the game 0-2.
Llanelli minutes later won a free kick on the edge of the Ammanford penalty area and the resulting free kick struck the inside of the goal post and rebounded across the Ammanford goal line into the opposite side of the net. 1-2.
Ammanford brought on their substitutes and the most influential of these was Tristan Jenkins , a young pacey wide man who arrived at the club from Llanelli in the summer. The impact he had was almost immediate as he gave the Reds defence a glimpse of what he could do but he pulled his cross wide of the goal.
The Black and White army didn’t have to wait much longer as Tristan Jenkins broke away and beat the home defence with ease and struck the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-3.
The Ammanford performance was rounded off in style when Jenkins doubled his tally for the match. The wideman was played through on goal, and rounded Coughlan to tap home into the empty net, sparking mass celebrations on the sidelines.
As the final whistle blew for full time it was Ammanford who were celebrating an emphatic away win with their travelling Black and White army support.
A fine display from all of the Ammanford team and a deserved seventh consecutive win.
