Saints just too good for Pool
THE Welsh Cup’s clash of the day failed to live up to its pre-match billing as Welshpool went out with something of a whimper after failing to really trouble TNS.
After Marc Lloyd Williams had curled a dangerous first-time volley just wide of the far post, fellow frontman John Toner opened the scoring in the 10th minute.
Brett Jefferies sliced his attempted clearance from Mike Wilde's header to Toner who easily beat visiting keeper Danny Jones to fire into the net.
With Scott Ruscoe, Barry Hogan and Steven Beck winning the midfield battle, Welshpool fell further behind just after the half-hour. Dave Cunnah - who was lucky not to be dismissed - handled Ruscoe’s 25-yarder and Lloyd Williams made no mistake from the spot.
Seven minutes before the break both sides came close to scoring within a minute. Calvin Davies saw his effort deflect off TNS defender Steve Evans to hit the angle of post and crossbar and, from the breakaway, Toner found himself one-on-one with Jones.
He rounded the keeper with ease, but his weakly hit shot was cleared off the line at the near post by Mark Thomas.
The miss did not prove costly as TNS quickly added another after the break when Wilde cleverly beat Brett Jefferies from a long throw-in to fire into the net.
But Pool pulled a goal back within five minutes with Jefferies atoning for his defensive lapse by hooking in from a flicked-on corner.
The visitors had their best spell of the game with Gerard Doherty going down well to his right to save a Steve Rogers free-kick, but TNS restored their three-goal cushion to end the game as a contest when Lloyd Williams was on hand to convert a Jamie Wood cross from Martyn Naylor's crossfield ball.
Barry Hogan almost added a fifth when he brought a good save from Jones while Lloyd Williams missed out on his hat-trick when he failed to connect with a Steve Evans header. |
