Sully Sports through to second round of Bruty Cup (From Penarth Times)

Sully Sports through to second round of Bruty Cup

8:00am Thursday 30th August 2012 in Sport

SULLY SPORTS 3 PENRHIWCEIBER CONS 2

IN A SIMILAR vein to last season, Sully Sports' South Wales Senior Soccer League side use the early rounds of cup competitions to rotate the squad of first-team players.

In Saturday's first round Bruty Cup clash, Sports brought in six new faces and made three positional changes from the previous game and started well, with the twin strike force of Gavin Beddard and Ed Jones seeing plenty of the ball.

Adey Blake and, in particular, Wes Lamb and Mark Brown put in some great crosses as the visitors defended in numbers. A good finish from Beddard put Sully one up and it took some smart saves to keep out the the home attack.

Young Sam Rees Davies had little to do on his goalkeeping debut for Sports who increased their lead with a great header from Mike Osbourne at the far post. The visitors pulled a goal back with an unmarked header from a corner.

The second half saw Penrhiwceiber come more into the game but they found Hopkins, Brown, Hemmens and Light still in charge. However, a wicked bounce saw keeper Sam struggle to control a spinning ball, and a visiting forward made the most of the opportunity to equalise.

And, for the first time, Sports went off the boil. Alex Long and Stevie McCarthy Campbell came on as substitutes and, as extra time loomed, boss Fowler replaced young Ryan Warden to make an immediate impact with the winner, as he followed up his saved header to beat the keeper.

In all, it proved to be a good look at most of the squad. Sports are through to the next round and are rewarded with a home tie at Swanbridge against AFC Caerphilly on the Saturday before Christmas.

Sully man of the match: Gavin Beddard.

* This Saturday, Sports travel to Merthyr to “The Bont”, home of Penydarren, in a league game. The team will meet at Lidl at noon; a reminder that Sports will play in all red.