Newtown v AFC Liverpool, 20th July 2019

We met Cymru Premier side Newtown AFC in the preseason of 2019/20.


I met Dave Williams at Southparkway, and had a very pleasant drive down to Newtown in Mid-Wales.

 

This was my first match of pre-season.  We had won all three of our previous pre-season games. On paper, the team who  finished 5th in last season's Welsh Premier League would be a test.

 

The home side struck first, and we had to work hard to stay in the match. I recall a second Newtown goal got disallowed for offside.

 

We did gradually work our way back into the match. Our number 2 showed a good bit of skill to take the ball past a Newtown player. Our number 7 Jamie Sproule (I think) was looking quite threatening.

 

When we did equalise, it was a Callum Schorah beauty into the top corner. And the momentum had shifted. A move down our left saw a Newtown foul go unpunished, where a free kick would have given us a good position. Minutes later we did get a freekick in more or less the same spot, when perhaps we should not have been given one. Ironically, number 2 rose to head home, and we were in the lead.

 

Before half time, Newtown came back. If it weren't for three Lee Carr saves, parity would have been restored. One of them was a one on one.

 

I enjoyed a quick beer with two fellow Reds. A consensus was reached that the special ale had a bit of a vinegar taste. Whilst it was a nice clubhouse and the people were nice, it wasn't very impressive to see a copy of Alex Ferguson's autobiography on the bar!

 

I found a nice bench to watch the second half, with a nice view towards the hills. Having been rather fortunate to be in the lead at the interval, we should have gone 3-1 up quite early on in the second half. A Jon Croasdale header came off the bar from a set piece, and we could not quite force it home from the rebound.

 

As the second half played out, they equalised, we then went back in front, and they equalised again. Their second equaliser saw them split open our defence, but Lee Carr was calling for an offside decision, and Adrian Cork told me after the game that he too thought it was offside. 

 

During the second half, I chatted to a Welsh ground hopper cum LFC fan, who asked me who we would be playing on a particular weekend in December when he would be up on Merseyside to watch the big Reds play Watford. He concurred with me that Newtown would probably show a superior fitness level going into the final stages. We were in fact both wrong. Callum Schorah who wore the Captain's armband in the second half, looked the fittest player on the pitch in the closing stages.

 

Apart from the two second half Newtown goals, Lee Carr was not as busy as in the first half. We looked the more threatening going forward, and had one effort cleared off the line with the Keeper beaten. I think everyone associated with AFC were pleased with the performance and the 3-3 result. Dave did think Newtown may have been able to find an extra gear had they needed to.

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