Missed Chances Prove Costly in Caerau Defeat
We suffered a frustrating 3-2 defeat away at Caerau Ely on Monday afternoon, despite creating enough opportunities to come away from Cwrt Yr Ala Road with all three points.
Isaac Powell gave us the perfect start inside the opening minute before Lloyd Oliver restored our lead during the second half, but three Caerau goals after the break ultimately condemned us to defeat.
It was a particularly difficult result to take after we registered 25 attempts on goal, including 11 on target, and passed up a host of clear opportunities throughout the afternoon.
First Half
We could hardly have started the game better. A superb team move involving a long sequence of passes eventually released Lloyd Oliver, whose cross-shot fell into the path of Isaac Powell. Powell made no mistake, finishing to put us 1-0 ahead inside the opening minute, scoring his first stars goal in the process
The goal set the tone for a first half in which we created chance after chance. four huge opportunities were among a number of excellent openings that went begging and on another afternoon we could easily have found ourselves three or four goals ahead.
Caerau remained dangerous on the counter-attack and threatened to exploit space when they regained possession, but Shaun Gardiner was relatively untroubled thanks to some important last-ditch defending in front of him.
The hosts began to gain more of a foothold as half-time approached, winning a succession of corners and applying some pressure around our penalty area. However, despite leading 1-0 at the interval, there was a real sense of disappointment that our advantage was not considerably greater after the number of opportunities we had created.
HT: Caerau Ely 0-1 Treowen Stars
Second half
The second half became a much more even contest. We were not as clean in possession as we had been during the opening period and Caerau punished a sloppy moment when Liam Bishop equalised for the hosts. Caerau broke down the right hand side and zak maher crossed for bishop to finish superbly.
Even after conceding, we continued to create opportunities but again failed to make them count. We eventually regained the lead following an excellent piece of attacking play. Christian Davies produced a fantastic through ball to release Lloyd Oliver, who took a brilliant first touch before finishing superbly to put us 2-1 ahead.
Unfortunately, the lead lasted only moments. Almost immediately from the restart, Dan Griffiths struck to bring Caerau level again at 2-2. The goal was almost a carbon copy of the first and was all too easy for the hosts.
It proved to be a huge moment in the game. After the equaliser, Caerau began to take greater control of the contest and we struggled to regain the momentum we had enjoyed earlier in the afternoon.
The decisive goal arrived in the 89th minute. Josh Graham was afforded too much time inside the penalty area and took advantage, finishing to put the hosts ahead for the first time.
There was still plenty of time left to respond, with nine minutes of added time played, and we continued to create opportunities right until the end. Two more glaring chances came and went during stoppage time as the story of the afternoon repeated itself.
Despite creating 25 shots and putting 11 of them on target, we simply did not take enough of the opportunities that came our way.
FT: Caerau Ely 3-2 Treowen Stars
A difficult one to take
It was an extremely frustrating defeat because there was plenty to like about the performance, particularly during a first half in which our football created numerous clear chances against a very good Caerau Ely side.
The disappointment comes from failing to turn that dominance into goals. At 1-0 we had opportunities to put the game beyond Caerau, while even after the hosts fought their way back into the contest we continued to create enough chances to take something from the afternoon.
Instead, Caerau punished the moments when we were not at our best and showed whilst they have had a difficult start they are still a very good side. The afternoon was made more difficult by another four injuries during the game, taking the current number of unavailable players to eight and adding further pressure to an already stretched squad.
Despite the result, creating 25 opportunities away from home against a side of Caerau’s quality provides plenty of positives. Big response need on friday away at llanelli
