By Nathan Parker & James Macken
USW 2nd suffered their second defeat of the season as Cardiff University 2nd came away from the Sport Park with a 5-2 victory.
A bright opening by the away side counted for nothing as USW opened the scoring through winger Luke Davidson. A 40-yard diagonal ball from centre half Tom Holland was collected by Davidson who lifted the ball over the on-rushing keeper to give his side the perfect start.
Unfortunately for USW, the lead didn’t last long as Cardiff skipper Nicholas Christensen cut in field onto his less favoured right foot to put the ball past goalkeeper Morgan Davies. Moments later, things got worse for Bobby Briers’ men as Christensen bagged his second with a crisp left-footed strike from 25 yards.
Panic wouldn’t have been at the forefront of the USW players’ minds having put nine past Gloucestershire last week. But after star striker Abdi Noor squandered two opportunitys in front of goal, the frustration was clear to see.
With the home side pushing for the equaliser and Harri Collins’ header just flashing wide from a corner, disaster struck USW.
A poorly timed header back to the goalkeeper by Keane Thomas allowed Dafydd Pearce to latch onto the ball and float it over Davies to make the score 3-1 just before half-time.
With Cardiff in the ascendancy and frustrations growing amongst the USW players, the away side nearly scored a fourth through Joe Todd just before both sides headed into the changing rooms.
The second half saw a slow start as there was little to no action at either end of the pitch. There was a fairly equal amount of possession between the two sides however USW looked the more passionate team as they kept the pressure on to try and comeback.
The drought was broken midway through the second period as Cardiff’s target man Pearce caught the keeper off his line and put them three goals clear.
Cardiff then employed a counter-attacking strategy and an out-swinging cross found the head of Cardiff captain Christensen who headed home to complete a perfect hat-trick.
USW striker Ben Miles managed to grasp a consolation goal for the home side as his strike soared past the Cardiff keeper into the far side of the net.
Star Player: Nicholas Christensen
Coach Ellis Bellamy gave his reaction to Dan Cope after the match:
