A brace of starting debuts
It was good to see both Tom Jones and Reece Thompson in the starting XI.
Tom came on in the recent Aberystwyth Town game for his first competitive minutes and this time he went one better, as he was in from the off.
Although having featured in pre-season action, it was the first start for Reece as far as competition football is concerned.
With the bulk of the action in the visitors’ half, naturally Jones was more involved than Thompson, but both can take pride and positives from their performances.
Young players, but they didn’t let themselves or the team down.
Davies off the bench
It was also good to see Owen Davies on the pitch, coming on to replace Gwion Dafydd in the 84th minute. Although on for a shorter period of time, nevertheless like the two previous youngsters, he didn’t look out of place.
He almost got his name on the scoresheet as well, forcing Matthew Wallace into pulling off a good save, and although he didn’t find the back of the net himself, he was fouled for the late penalty that ensured a 4-1 win for The New Saints.
Four goals, four names
It’s a common talking point, where we make reference to the fact that the goals are spread throughout the side.
On this occasion, Josh Daniels opened the scoring with a header, Ben Clark restored the lead with a quality strike, Gwion Dafydd extended it with another header and Adrian Cieslewicz sealed the victory with a late penalty.
Still fighting on four fronts
The 4-1 win against Porthmadog means that The New Saints is still competing in four competitions.
That will mean more midweek games but also, on a very practical level, there are more minutes to go round as far as team selection is concerned.
Although there were changes to both the starting XI and the bench for The New Saints from the previous game, nevertheless it was still a strong match day squad.
When it comes to who is in and who isn’t, it must be a tough one for Craig Harrison sometimes. However, it’s the sort of problem that he will relish.
Three Welsh speakers on the pitch
In the starting XI, we had three Welsh speakers with Gwion Dafydd, Tom Jones and Leo Smith all fluent in the language.
It’s not a statistic that is kept and followed in the same way that goals, assists etc are but nevertheless this was probably the first time it has happened, certainly in recent years.
If anyone can remember, perhaps in the early days, when there were three (or more) Welsh speakers in the side, that would be an interesting memory.
Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter what language is spoken by players, it won’t affect results. However, as the champions of the JD Cymru Premier, we are proud of our Welsh heritage and it’s certainly worth a mention.
Lead image: Brian Jones.
