Aber have made a habit of going out in the Welsh Cup on days when they forget their ability and drive. Last year, at Llanelli, a woeful performance saw them go out to Cwmbran, the year before they were knocked out by Oswestry. Some might say they should take the hint and concentrate on the Central Wales Floodlit Affair. Some might, but not those here today.

Bangor brought a few down with them, the home crowd was larger than normal though surely well under the 1000+ predicted in some circles. There was no need for the heavy handed police state approach but such were the reverberations from the meeting in December that anything less would have prompted yet more criticism from the Bangor chairman (whose head probably still hurts).

Such was the scene set on this warm Valentine's Day (Zoe got a lego castle but was forbidden from going to this match). The skies turned from blue to grey over lunchtime. But enough with the poetry, hearts were not heavy as the match started, they were keen and both sides launched into an end to end first half that lacked raw passion but made up for it with spectacular saves. Bangor may say that Lloyd-Williams won the match for them but bollocks to that cos it was Dave Williams in goal who kept them in it time after time after time, including a superb save when his own defender put him under pressure and another from a Ryan Nicholls blast. City had chances too, Chris Taylor being the man most guilty of missing clear opportunities, though I doubt that's troubling him now.

Over a half time can of Coke the match was discussed by those in the ground ("Bloody rubbish Gavin Allen etc") and by those on Radio Cymru who decided that if Aber lost now then they would have to look in the direction of Dave Williams. These people could put Mystic Meg out of a job. Aber were nothing in the second half but fiddles upon which Bangor could play their tune. At times it was embarassing, especially after Jock Kane went off and Lloyd-Williams could feed off the long balls like a hawk going after its vermin prey. Craig Dulson got the first with a strong shot on a counter-attack and from that moment on we knew it was all over, though we may have pretended otherwise. The crowd murmured its post-mortems from the sixtieth minute, which can't have helped the team much.

Seven minutes later Lloyd-Williams got the first of his two. Now, only Tomsky held out any hope. Goal Three effectively killed that as, again, Lloyd-Williams ran amock. Glyndwr Hughes was introduced into the battle too late. His goal on 80 minutes was a superb low drive, a rare goal from a reasonable distance from the Bont boy. Within seconds Aber had another chance as Gavin Allen stole the ball but Bangor's defence held firm. It was all over and the final ten minutes drifted away until referee Burge of Tonypandy brought proceedings to a halt.

Bangor will be happy to have avenged their league degradation but I wish they'd stop playing long ball as they seem to have players who can do other stuff. Lee Noble had a good game for them and it goes without saying that their defence was damn fine. But the problems mount for Aber. Serious questions need to be asked about Leigh Vick, who is commited but consistent only in his inconsistency and Dai Parry, whose bad games outnumber the good and who never seems to care. Still, as 'they' say in 'football' (Just doing my 'Rhun' impression), there's always next 'season'.