Kings of the cup upset Queen’s Park perform their magic yet again

FC Queen’s Park 3 (L Davies 40, S Price 75 & 90+2)
Llangollen Town 0
Queen’s Park continued their tremendous season of cup giant-killings with a convincing victory over Llangollen under floodlights at Queensway Stadium on Wednesday night.

The 3-0 result put Dave Evans’ tier 4 North East Wales League Premier Division side into the quarter-finals of the NEWFA Challenge Cup at the expense of opponents who compete in the level higher Ardal North East League.

The Park have now eliminated three tier 3 teams from knockout competitions this term – Rhos Aelwyd in the Welsh Cup, Penycae the FAW Amateur Trophy and now Llangollen.

Wednesday tie at Queensway saw the Park opt for a mixed side as they picked a squad of experience and youth with no less than five Under-18’s involved.

The game started at a good tempo for the Park as both Charlie Rowley and Rhys Hughes settled into a rhythm of passing the ball around the back four and trying to find gaps with forward passes. This meant the hosts had lots of possession but in fairness to Llangollen they defended well and prevented the home strikers from making it stick.

Town were also ruthless in their counter attack, with Benjamin Wilson always looking a threat. Whilst the Park were dominating the ball it was Llan that were producing more shots on goal.

Luckily for captain and goalkeeper Josh Edwards none of these efforts troubled him.

As Ramone Nelson got more into the game he was able to link up with both Liam Davies and Dan Parry. It was Parry who won a free-kick out wide on halfway on the 40-minute mark.

Up stepped Rowley to float a delightful ball into the box that Davies got the faintest of touches to send the Park in at half time one-nil up.

The second half saw an early injury to the home side’s Jack Hanley, who as usual had run his socks off in the first half, so up stepped the first youngster, Liam Lawrence. who wasted no time in getting into the game.

As Llangollen started to impact, a quick treble substitution from the Park unleashed young Jake Harper, Leroy Ngema and Sean Price – and what an introduction they all had.

Attack after attack happened as all the front four pressed the ball and kept turning it over.

Levi Jaques Parry entered the fray and jumped straight in with his normal high-quality distribution.

Reserve regular Price bagged himself two quick goals on the bigger stage. The first was an absolute net breaker having turned the ball over himself and the second came after some great work from the livewire Harper. The goals came on 75 and 90+2 minutes.

Winning manager Evans said: “All in all, this was a great Queen’s Park performance on the back of a couple of defeats and made it nine wins from 11 again Tier 3 opposition.

“Man of the match goes to Callum Roberts at left back for an outstanding all-action performance. Special mention must go to Sean Humphreys in centre midfield along with his name sake Chad. Both gave us the platform to play from and Sean Humphreys’ non-stop stop talking really energised the team.”

FC QUEEN’S PARK
Josh Edwards (C)
Adam Roberts (Levi Parry 81)
Callum Roberts
Andrew Hughes
Charlie Rowley
Chad Humphreys (Jake Harper 69)
Jack Hanley (Liam Lawrence 53)
Sean Humphreys
Liam Davies
Ramone Nelson (Sean Price 69)
Dan Parry (Leroy Ngema-Stamp)

NEWFA CHALLENGE CUP ROUND THREE RESULTS
Holywell Town 3-0 Mold Alexandra
Flint Mountain 1-4 Ruthin Town
Ruabon Rovers 3-1 Holywell United
Llay Welfare v Rhostyllen (Dec 7)
Gresford Athletic 5-1 Chirk AAA
Cefn Druids 5-0 Castell Alun Colts
Brickfield Rangers v Aston Park Rangers (TBA)
FC Queen’s Park 3-0 Llangollen Town