Ammanford’s title hopes took a dent on Friday night as they suffered their first defeat in eight outings at the hands of Afan Lido.
Despite goals from Adam John and Tristan Jenkins, strikes from Ieuan Owen, Cai Owens as well as a brace from Sean Hanbury saw the Reds earn a deserved double over the Black and Whites after defeating Gruff Harrison’s side back in August.
After going over three hours without conceding a goal, it took just 45 seconds for Lido to breach the Town defence.
Some individual brilliance from Owen, who’d just returned from Wales Schools action, saw him outpace the Town defence, cut in from the left wing and rifle a shot high into the roof of the net.
The hosts reacted well and were level within five minutes. Ellis Williams played a delicious cross from the left byline across the area into the path of John. The winger, who scored in the reverse fixture back in August, redirected the ball past Exauce Dimonekene to level the scores.
Both sides were taking advantage of the end to end nature of the match and only superb stops from Luke Martin and Dimonekene at either end kept the scores equal at the break.
Owen nearly got his second when he found himself free inside the box but Martin pulled off an unbelievable reaction stop to stop the in-form youngster grabbing his brace.
Whilst for Town, Jenkins forced a superb acrobatic stop from Lido stopper before top scorer Lewis Reed saw his one on one effort saved brilliantly by the legs of the ex Llanelli keeper.
The second half started in a similar manner as the first ended with both sides creating chances. The home side went close through Jenkins and an effort that struck the post before at the other end, Martin saved well from another Owen opportunity.
The game turned on its head just after the hour with a quick-fire double from Hanbury. After Martin produced a great save from an Owen shot, the rebound fell kindly to the Reds’ full back to tuck the ball home.
The 24 year old grabbed his second of the night with the pick of the goals of the contest. From a tight angle, he delicately chipped the ball over the head of Martin to double the visitors’ lead.
Gruff Harrison sent on Matthew Fisher and Mark Jones in an effort to get his charges back into the game and the latter will feel aggrieved not to have a penalty given after a challenge inside the area went unpunished from referee Alex McInch.
Town were struggling to break down a determined and well organised Lido defence and It took until three minutes before time to halve the arrears. A challenge on the edge of the area was deemed to be a spot kick by the officials. Jenkins sent the keeper the wrong way to reduce the deficit.
The visitors had the last say in the action. After Euros Griffiths’ header was held comfortably by Dimonekene to deny Ammanford a late leveller, Lido went up the other end and after a challenge by Martin inside the area, Owens converted from the spot to wrap up the points their performance deserved and end the Black and White’s unbeaten run.
