CADOXTON BARRY FC 2 STANLEYTOWN 1

LOWLY Stanleytown started with some purpose whilst it took Cadoxton Barry a while to get into their usual rhythm in last Saturday's South Wales Senior League Division 2 clash.

So it was that the first 25 minutes turned out to be very much a midfield affair.

Then, just when CB were starting to stamp their authority on the game, they got caught out as a well timed run by Craig Williams sprung the offside trap to see him in a one-on-one with CB keeper Harker - the former winning the contest.

Immediately, an Aiden Lewis corner at the other end was only just stopped from curling in.

The second half started with Stanleytown hitting Harker's left post as CB defenders failed to challenge.

From that point, the visitors began to fade as a threatening force although for a further 15 minutes they continued to look confident in soaking up the increasing pressure, managing to break down CB's forward thrusts before they spelled danger.

A shock defeat for CB was beginning to look like a possibility, but that didn't take account of a couple of moments of magic that James Dawson had up his sleeve.

The first came when he picked up the ball in midfield and shrugged off a couple of challenges with some clever footwork before firing home with a crisply struck shot from fully 20 yards.

The second, though not as spectacular as the first, came when a free kick from the right set up a game of pinball in the Stanleytown defence, but it took Dawson's split-second opportunism to finally convert it into a goal.

Stanleytown did have one more chance when Balderstone sent a shot just beyond Harker's left post, but after that the game looked secure from CB's angle.

A Lewis corner saw Curran head against the bar and near the final whistle a Bradley/ Curran combination saw the ball hit a post.

However, for all their pressure in the last half hour CB were unable to make further inroads into Stanleytown's resolute defence.

By their own standards this will not go down as one of Cadoxton Barry's better performances.

But is was one that they deserved to win, so earning the points when playing below par is something that can be taken as a positive pointer for their end-of-season promotion push to come.