Colwyn Bay 5 Lancaster City 2

IT all began so well. City were 2-0 up after 16 minutes and looked to be cruising.

But then disaster struck: they lost both centre half defenders and the game just slipped away. Alex Jones sustained a nasty calf injury which could see him out for several weeks and Neil Barstow went off minutes later with flu.

With Steve Hartley and Scott Bairstow already injured, it left an irreplaceable gap in City's defence which let Colwyn fight back. And Blues' cause wasn't helped by keeper Mark Thornley parrying shots short which cost city goals.

City started off brightly in the 7th minute when Ged Hennigan pounced on a poor clearance from Colwyn's keeper for his first goal for the club. And they made it two in the 16th minute when Tony McDonald latched onto Mark Dobie's cross. Colwyn scored their first just five minutes later when the ball fell kindly to Gareth Drury who tucked the ball into Thornley's near post. It was shortly after this when City lost their two centre half defenders and crumbled.

Blues fought off Colwyn bravely for a while, but the inevitable equaliser came just before the second half when Marc Limbert's cross ricocheted off Thornley and went in the net.

In the second half City drove forward to try and recapture the lead but their defence always let them down on the counter attack. And that's exactly what happened in the 52nd minute when Colwyn's Craig Lawton's cross hit the post and rebounded for Gareth Drury to score his second.

Lawton extended Colwyn's lead in the 71st minute when he pounced on a poor clearance by Thornley and on the 75th minute he put the game beyond Lancaster with a spectacular goal.

Graham Roberts was through on goal but Thornley dived low and snatched the ball away from him. But his clearance fell to Lawton on the left wing who reacted quickly and thumped the ball into the top left corner from 30 yards.

Team: Thornley, Cheal (Leitch 72), Graham, Davies (Taylor 36), Jones (Marshall 27), Gelling, Boyd, Flannery, Dobie, McDonald, Hennigan.

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