Llanelli Town 3 Cwmbran Celtic 2

On a mission to avenge their only defeat of the season to date – a 2-1 Welsh Cup reverse to their opponents in October – the Reds achieved that aim when the sides met again, this time in the Nathaniel Car Sales league cup, to clinch a home third round tie against Llanwern on Saturday, 10th January.

Following the midweek win over Caerau, the hosts made a number of changes to their starting line-up with Peter Scammell taking over in goal from Craig Richards while both Matthew Hughes and Jak Shannon were promoted from the bench, which was occupied by three youth team players, Nick Holmes, Will Davies and Leon Martin, along with Richards and Steve Berry.

Just two minutes had elapsed before the Reds took the lead when a move up the left culminated in a crossfield ball to Robert Thomas, who finished with a crisply struck shot past Celtic keeper Nicky Church inside his near post. Scammell had to react quickly to block when a loose ball close to goal was met by Andrew Larcombe, while he was called into action again, this time turning away a well directed free kick from Michael Baugh. Church recovered in the nick of time to grab at the second attempt a ball hoisted into the goalmouth by Thomas with Luke Jones hovering to seize on any error, before the visitors levelled matters on 24 minutes.

Bough was again involved, lofting another set piece to the far post where it was met by an unmarked Lewis Grant who directed a downward header past Scammell just inside the upright. When the Reds retaliated, Church did well to keep out a powerfully struck free kick by Richard Lewis, but he was beaten again in the 33rd minute when a Lewis corner was directed back into the danger area from the far post where Jones was on hand to head home from close range.

Just before the break, Scammell had to react sharply to beat clear an effort from Luke Thomas when a clearance fell to him inside the box, while Church did equally as well at the other end early in the second half to deny Jones another success. The visitors were then afforded a golden opportunity to draw level again with the award of a penalty following a push by Lee Bevan on Larcombe, and duly accepted the gift, with Rakesh Patel beating Scammell from the spot on the hour mark.

Nine minutes later, Bevan atoned for his lapse by regaining the initiative for the Reds with a towering header past Church from a Lewis corner, but despite this boost events took a downward turn when they were reduced to ten men in the 77th minute with the dismissal of Jones for a second yellow card, but despite the numerical disadvantage managed to cling on relatively untroubled for the remainder of the contest to clinch their place in the third round of the competition.

The Reds return to league action on Saturday with the visit of Newport YMCA to Stebonheath with a 2 p.m. kick off.

LLANELLI TOWN; Scammell; Napieralla; Lewis; R. Jones; Powell; Bevan ©; Hughes (Berry, 74); Shannon; L. Jones; Thomas; Forkuoh;

Subs. not used; Holmes; Davies; Martin; Richards (GK).

CWMBRAN CELTIC; Church; R. Patel; Crees ©; C. Patel; Luck; Jones (Llewellyn, 46); Baugh; Williams (Hodges, 79); Larcombe; Grant; Thomas;

Subs. not used; Cheedy; Connor; Feeley.

SCORERS; Llanelli Town – Thomas, 2; L. Jones, 33; Bevan, 69.

Cwmbran Celtic – Grant, 24; R. Patel (P), 60.

YELLOW CARDS; Llanelli Town – Bevan; L. Jones (2); R. Jones.

RED CARD; Llanelli Town – L. Jones.

REFEREE; Teifion Cook (Swansea).

ATTENDANCE; 93.