Second Round 1st Leg
26.11.97 Ebbw Vale 4-2 Aberystwyth Town
Midway through the second half, a local wandered up to me as I stood, away
from the herd, alone at the back of the massive terracing of Eugene Cross
Park, and asked, "What's the score?" I told him that it was 3-2. He asked
me who was playing, I told him that it was Aber Town in the League Cup. He
wandered back the way he had come and disappeared back into the night. He
missed a not uninteresting game of football.
Aberystwyth Town dragged me, Andy, Dixon, Dave, Tomsky, Dai Dogs, Steve
Moore, Martyn Griffith's girlfriend and some bloke from Barry to watch this
one, in communion with about three dozen Ebbw Vale supporters. I suspect
the FAW will blame live European football for the low turnout but I'd like
to think that it was more to do with the distinct lack of interest that
this pathetic competition generates. Most Aber fans would rather the Mid
Wales Floodlit Cup tie against Penrhyncoch would've been played instead of
this.
The match itself saw Ebbw Vale have the majority of the play and run out
deserved winners, though Aber, who played for the most part with ten men
after the dismissal of Gari Lewis (retaliation), did well to restrict their
scoring in the second half. Price gave the home side the lead in the
seventeenth minute before Gavin Allen restored parity on thirty six. Yet
again Aber let the advantage slip within a minute as Eston Chiverton struck
home. The first half wasn't done though as David Webley made it 3-1 before
Griffiths pulled one back for Aber in injury time.
The second half was largely uneventful and it seemed that Aber may have
done a good enough holding job but it was not to be and Ray John scored in
the eighty third minute to seemingly book Ebbw's passage through to the
next round. In the dying minutes, Appy threw on Andy Evans and he was
unlucky not to score from a strong header.
There is still the second leg to be played and at least there should be a
crowd of over a hundred a Park Avenue, regardless of whether Newcastle are
boring the pants off Barca and the watching millions on ITV.
