Airport fly through (From Barry And District News)

Airport fly through

9:30am Thursday 25th October 2012 in Sport

CARDIFF AIRPORT 3 CADOXTON BARRY RESERVES 1

CADOXTON Barry fielded a mixture of second and third team players for what was always going to be a tricky Barry Cup second round clash with Vale League Premier Division leaders Airport. And they will have learned two things from the encounter. The first is that the Cadoxton Barry Club as a whole is probably able to field a few different reserve combinations capable of matching the top premier sides for skill. The second is that those skills can sometimes count for nothing if you don't have the stamina to produce them for the full 90 minutes.

And that was certainly the case on this occasion as, for 30 minutes, CB's reserves were the better side. Then spells either side of half time saw them starting to concede ground before, for the final 30, they found themselves exhausted and under siege as the Flyers searched hard for a way out of the hole that they were in - namely a goal down to a Fiddler volley.

Bradley was in the thick of things from the start as his early cross was headed just wide. Moments later he found himself in a great position when he latched on to a long ball out of defence, only to shoot wide.

Then, just beyond the half hour mark, Hopkins took an excellent free kick from wide right to find the head of Sydenham who nodded on for Fiddler to volley a left footed shot home over the head of the outstretched Vaughan in the Airport goal.

However, this signalled the beginning of a slow turning point for the home side as, by small degrees, they began to push CB onto the back foot. It took a quality dive from Harker to push wide a well taken Airport free kick from the left to preserve the CB lead at half time.

Though they had a few lucky escapes, for a further 15 minutes CB continued to look capable of retaining their lead - Clarke always around as he tidied up at the back.

But it was an unexpected change of position for him that instantly heralded the Airport equaliser. He moved up front with the idea of giving an ongoing injury a short rest. Immediately, space opened up behind him, leaving Davies stretching under pressure to clear a low cross. But his gallant effort only served to divert it into his own net.

Airport went all out in search of a winner that would take them into the third round, as CB no longer had the puff to produce the skills that had served them so well during the earlier stages of the game. A race for the ball on the right touchline saw the Airport winger handle in keeping the ball in play though, with a number of players in his line of vision, the referee cannot be blamed for missing it. It was jone of those unfortunate things as the resultant ball forward found Hall to put the home side into the lead for the first time.

Airport continued to come forward in waves with former CB favorite, Jermayne Martin, always in the mix. Eventually, CB began to realise that they had nothing to lose in playing higher up the field in search a goal that could earn a spell of extra time - substitute Wells getting in the thick of things on a couple of occasions.

But this type of tactic always runs a risk of getting caught on the counter. And it was no surprise when Airport broke down the left with the exhausted CB defenders unable to get back in time. In came the pass and Hall was there to double his tally.

CB wish Airport all the best in the next round.

SENIOR CUP TWO goals from Connor Macinery and one from Darren Baker were insufficient to keep Cadoxton Barry’s first team in the South Wales Senior Cup as they suffered a 3-5 second round home defeat to Cardiff Draconians.