Stone Sizzler Helps Send Reds To The Top

Llanelli Town 4 Cwmamman United 1

Being tipped by many as potential promotion candidates, the home side made the best possible start with an emphatic win against opponents who themselves narrowly failed to achieve a top three finish at the conclusion of the 2013-14 campaign.

The Reds controlled matters for the entire first half and keeper Craig Richards was barely tested, with Liam Samuel posing an early threat on the visitors goal when he accepted a pass before making ground towards the target but skewed his finish inches wide of the far post.

Another sortie by the hosts saw Ross Jones finding Steve Stone, but this time Mark Snell in the visitors goal was quickly down to smother his effort.

Samuel was causing the Cwmamman defence all sorts of problems with his mazy runs, and when he broke up the right his cross into the goalmouth was diverted clear by Snell but only as far as Richard Lewis, and from his pin-point delivery into the middle, Stone was found unmarked to power a diving header into the net on 20 minutes.

Eight minutes later, the lead was doubled following some great build-up play involving Jones, Samuel and Declan John, and when the latter had his initial shot parried by the keeper, he was on hand to steer home the rebound.

Snell was being kept fully occupied, denying Samuel when John set up the chance, but he had his defence to thank shortly after when a Lewis free kick into the goalmouth eluded him but was hacked off the line.

Another promising move involving Jones and Mark Napierella led to a near post cross which found Bruno Farkuoh, but his connection flashed just off target.

With their two goal interval cushion, the Reds continued to call the shots after the resumption, with Stone sending Farkuoh clear into the box, but Snell did well to close him down and prevent another potential success.

Nathan McNeil had to react quickly to divert a Lewis cross into the area over his own bar with Stone hovering, but when John was forced off injured after 64 minutes to be replaced by Matthew Lloyd, the Reds lost their edge in midfield, allowing their opponents a much greater influence on proceedings.

And the visitors hauled themselves back into contention on 73 minutes when the old Reds failing of poor defending at set pieces manifested itself again when Andrew Bonomi was allowed to meet unchallenged a near post corner from Jack Medwin and glance his header into the net.

This success spurred on Cwmamman, and what had appeared to be a relatively comfortable afternoon became more fraught for the home side who had lost their earlier composure.

However, six minutes from time a Lewis free kick delivered to the edge of the area led to Jamie Evans powering a header back infield where it was met by Lloyd to drive a sweetly struck shot past Snell from 25 yards.

Despite this setback, the visitors retaliated with Richards pulling off a great save to divert for a corner a well directed effort by Mark Lloyd, and when this came across, Jones was in the right place to scramble it off the line.

Having survived this near miss, the Reds finally wrapped up matters on the stroke of full time when Lewis was brought down just outside the box, and Samuel crowned an outstanding individual display by rifling the free kick superbly into the top corner to seal the win and get his side off to a flying start.

LLANELLI TOWN; Richards; Napierella; Lewis; Jones; Bevan ©; Evans; Samuel; Shannon; Stone; John (Matthews, 64); Farkuoh; Subs. not used; Bonnell;

Martin; Davies.

CWMAMMAN UNITED; Snell; John (Joshua Medwin, 69); Lloyd-Evans (Jack Medwin, 57); McNeil ©; Stokes; Brown; Spring; Hughes; Bonomi;

Shannon (Lloyd, 57); Soroka; Subs. not used; O`Brien; Griffiths.

SCORERS; Llanelli Town; Stone, 20; John, 28; Lloyd, 84; Samuel, 90.

Cwmamman United; Bonomi, 73.

YELLOW CARDS; Llanelli Town; Lewis; Bevan.

Cwmamman United; Shannon; McNeil; Stokes.

REFEREE; James Shiels (Swansea).

ATTENDANCE; 171.