by Ioan Thomas
Cardiff Met 5ths recovered from a goal down to beat USW 6ths 2-1 at the USW Sport Park this afternoon.
USW opened the scoring through left winger Emmanuel Soares – but goals from captain Lewis Gray and winger Connor Robins overturned the hosts’ lead.
USW started the game strongly with some great play down the left wing resulting in Soares lobbing the keeper with a half-volley from a cute angle in the third minute.
After the goal, USW continued to build on their quick start and looked to increase the deficit. Soares found another goal-scoring opportunity after some lovely interlinking play with the captain Kieran Mattock but was denied by Met goalkeeper Ben Warne, who quickly rushed from his line.
This period of pressure from USW slowly diminished as Met started to slowly get back into the game after a few glancing headers from centre-back Scott Nichols were denied by the ‘keeper.
In the 29th minute, Met Captain Gray latched onto the end of a deep flick-on and powerfully headed the ball into the net at the back post to equalise.
Met gathered momentum at the start of the second period, scoring promptly. Robins was played in behind with a great defence-splitting ball before cooly slotting the ball into the right corner past USW keeper Friday Mbode.
More chances fell to Met after the goal, with Number 10 Lewis Johnson heavily involved in and around the box. He had a great chance to score with a header but narrowly missed – and in the 75th minute, he had a great effort saved well by Mbode.
Despite Met’s dominance in the second half a great chance to equalise fell to Mattock in the 82nd minute following a corner and he saw his effort heroically cleared off the line by Scott Nichols.
USW 6ths will look to improve on this performance against Gloucester 4ths next Wednesday.