Today was awful. At half time with the score at 1-1 I said the same thing, so no accusations of sour grapes please. Neither team played with any conviction or obvious ability and certainly with no sense of direction. Cemaes played a young no. 11 called Grahame Austin and I doubt if he had the ball for more than ten seconds in the entire match, for Aber, Rhodri Thomas was ineffectual and the midfield looked pathetically without a clue and were duly walked all over my a skill-less band of reserves. For Cemaes had at least four first teamers out suspended for this game after their 5-1 loss against Rhayader. They played the same way they did during their 6-2 loss here last year and this year walked away with the spoils and Aber’s dignity.

Aber took a just deserved lead on 23 minutes thanks to a well-placed finish from Gavin Allen but the lead lasted less than sixty seconds as a Nigel Nicholas error (that’s how bad today was) led to a cross from the right that was tapped in unmarked. And thus was the first half sorted. Aber had missed a few chances but Cemaes had fluffed some easier ones. Neither team was playing with anything like professionalism, in the sense that I’ve seen Saturday morning boys’ football played with more skill but it was to get worse in the second half.

Cemaes’ tactic is always to sit back and soak up and hit on the counter. This season it’s been going wrong, today it went right and led to the silencing of Andy, the Shed and to Tomsky booing his beloved Green and Blacks off the field. They went 2-1 on 52 minutes and made it 3-1 after John Morris gave away a free kick with a sliding tackle on 57 minutes. That free kick was the one moment of football beauty in the entire match as it sailed over the wall and in, curling and dipping, from the boot of Jon Jones. A K. punch out that landed at the feet of Keith Hagan who chipped it back in was the defining goal of the match on 62 minutes as the few Cemaes fans cheered in disbelief and their players went wild, some Aber fans started leaving and the home team just gave up. Sure, Aber got another goal, Dai Parry’s deflected drive will keep him in the team for at least another month but, once again, his lethargic attitude lost Aber possession and position in the middle of the park. This time Gari Lewis did not play well enough to bail him out, indeed Lewis probably had the worse match, though not by much. Goal five came on 86 minutes after Wyn Thomas’ sliding tackle was not enough to stop the attacker having an easy finish. Thomas had come on for John Morris though if anyone from the back should have come off, it should have been Jock Kane who was having a nightmare of a match and blaming everyone else for it.

All in all, the worst Aberystwyth performance since Barry Town last year and the, terrible, dreadful, unbearable thing about this match is that Cemaes Ynys Môn, who also played like blocked toilets is that they were worthy of their 5-2 win. Even a report this long does not begin to describe how much of a nightmare this match was and how both teams should be expelled from the league for even daring to charge the public to watch this toss.