Goytre - 0

Ystradgynlais - 0

ALTHOUGH Goytre's abundance of missed opportunities against Ystradgynlais ended with the consolation prize of a goal-less draw instead of a dispiriting defeat, club chairman Paul Greenhalgh told the Chronicle that the club feel they have dropped two points rather than gaining one against a team they should have easily put to bed.

Even ending the game with their one hundred percent record of not conceding any goals this season intact, was scant reward for the Plough Road side who lacked the finishing touch on the day.

"We absolutely dominated and played some top-drawer football for the full 90 minutes,"

revealed a disappointed Greenhalgh, "But our lack of killing instinct in front of goal cost us dearly."

Playing at home against a side who have conceded around 18 goals in Welsh League Division Three since the season's start, Goytre expected to perform well and run riot.

The opening of the floodgates looked likely to commence after ten minutes, when Phil Melville played Lee Grimes into space.

However, in the face of an oncoming keeper Grimes just put the ball wide and so began a series of goal-mouth disasters for the home team.

Five minutes later Grimes had a belter of a shot on target, but the Ystradgynlais keeper made a cracking save to deny Goytre any in-roads on the score-sheet.

Goytre's next crack at chipping away at the stalemate came from Kevin Wallace in defence who made a storming run upfield that saw him beat three players before crossing to Andy Walsh.

Unfortunately, with a free header just sitting there for the taking, Walsh just put it wide of the post as Goytre's spell of woe continued.

Into the second-half and Ystradgynlais made a challenge on Goytre's continued dominance of the game, by creating a few half-chances of their own, but which ultimately came to nothing.

Meanwhile Goytre's Andy Walsh had another two shots on goal which he put over the bar, Adam Roberts's effort just went wide, and after a superb ball by Craig Jollife into the penalty area for James Wilkins, playing his first game of the season, to burst onto, you would have thought Goytre's moment had come at last. Unfortunately you'd have been wrong, as in keeping with the play of the day, Wilkins's shot just went wide.

Ironically enough, the last chance of the day fell not to Goytre, but to Ystradgynlais, who won a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area with only minutes remaining.

The Ystradgynlais player hammered it low and hard, but keeper Gareth Williams who had enjoyed the quietest of games, managed to parry the shot. Unfortunately it fell two yards from the goal-line into the feet of a Ystradgynlais player, whose resulting shot was just cleared by a vigilant Dean Taylor.

Greenhalgh added, "It was very frustrating for us to create so much and gain so little, but sometimes these games where you play well but can't make it pay, just happen from time to time.

"It's now just a question of us keeping our heads up and making every single chance count in the next fixture."

This Saturday Goytre face a true test of both their attacking and defensive abilities when they take on Welsh League Division One outfit Bettws in a first round cup encounter at Plough Road. kick-off is at 2.30pm.