Hi, glad you can join me today on this fourth episode of the second season onboard with Colwyn Bay.

We begin playing against Gillingham for the 3^rd Round of the League Cup.

But before that.. We open up with some good news. Prodigal son is back!

Yes!

League Cup 3^rd Round

Gillingham 1 – Colwyn Bay 2

As he’s cup-tied, Jamie won’t be able to play here so his debut will be against Crewe

Maguire’s sending off could’ve been a major setback as it gave Gillingham a great opportunity to go ahead in the score. However, Martin Hayes failed the penalty and we escape unscathed from that. In the hopes of placing a bit more order into the team, I took Felgate out and placed Hodges to help Browning in the midfield as I brought Coughlin closer to our own area. We picked up a draw in the 90 minutes and with the clock withering away, Graham (who had replaced PIke in the first extra-time) gave us the winning goal to advance into the next round

Game 19

Crewe 0 – Colwyn Bay 3

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Now that I have Jamie Day available, it’s time for a major switch in the formation. Initially I wanted to move to a 23122 when I got to D1 but given the fact that I couldn’t find good Welsh defensive midfielders, I’ll be trying this one

I’ll wait for a few more matches to see if this switch always works like this, but man what a terrific display of football in this match. We were absolutely all over the place, creating 13 shots, of which three ended up in Crewe’s net. Commanding victory at Gresty Road

Windscreen Shield Groups

Colwyn Bay 2 – Preston North End 1

We lead at half time through Rost, but parity is restored 2 minutes into the second half. It ends all-square and extra time awaits. I’m worrying about penalties, but Leónidas wins it 8 minutes from time with his 3rd goal in 2 games.

Football keeps going on and 3 days afterwards we have to play Preston again, this time for the FA Cup.

Meanwhile…

This comes at a bad time. I hope young lad Parrish can hold his ground until Nathan Wigg can return to playing.

FA Cup 1st Round

Preston North End 2 – Colwyn Bay 3

Lineup changes:

Gavin Maguire for Jamie Day (cup-tied). Moved Marc Williams to Jamie’s position

Things were looking pretty comfortable with a 2-0 lead at half-time and a player advantage due to Kidd’s red card. However, Preston were in no mood of giving up just yet and pull one back thanks to Ashbee’s goal. This was complemented by Macken in the 63^rd minute. I tinkered with the arrows a bit, and it gave us a new lease on life as we mounted the pressure on Preston’s goal. Graham finally gave us the lead back with 15 minutes left on the clock, and we kept the foot on the gas trying to close the game. We scrape the win and we’re through to the next round.

Just as I was adjusting to the new formation, this injury delivers a temporary blow to our plans:

Game 20

Wrexham 3 – Colwyn Bay 0

Lots of changes for this match. We are scaling back to our usual 4231 as Parrish and Felgate were called by Wales U21 for a match against England. 

Lineup changes:

Brian Thomas for Wayne Russell
Pat Van Der Hauwe for Chris Pike
Damon Searle for Marc Williams
Eric Young for Gavin Maguire
Deniol Graham for Damien Felgate
Jamie Day for Kit Parrish

A very bad day at the office and a crushing defeat against Wrexham. Not much to say or congratulate here. Anyway, Shrewsbury missed their shot of getting close to us and drew their match against Crewe so we’re still in the lead.

Injuries:

Oh FFS. It doesn’t seem to stop

Game 21

Cardiff City 2- Northampton Town 0

A few changes:

Nathan Wigg for Rusell Coughlin
Tony Norman for Wayne Russell (backup GK on the Wales national team squad)

Gotta love Jamie Day, huh? The match slipping away with Northampton making a push to find a draw, the young lad showed up and thanks to a powerful shot cleared the suspense in the Drill Field air. 3 points at home and MOTM award for him!. The only bad bit was Brian Thomas leaving due to an injury. I hope it’s not very serious.

Phew!

Meanwhile, we picked up an offer from Sheffield Wednesday to get Aled Rowlands on loan.

I said I’d consider. Checking out Sheffield, they are playing Niclas Alexandersson and Di Canio in those roles and their squad looks like they have enough depth therefore I will decline afterwards as I want Aled to find playing time.

Game 22

Hartlepool United 2 – Colwyn Bay 1

Lineup changes:

Ricardo Gabbiadini for Carl Robinson
Aled Rowlands for Richard Barnes

We looked bound to stave off a bad performance by collecting a point from The Victoria Ground but Hunter shot down our hopes. Gabbiadini went out early with an injury

So, let’s see how long he’ll be out.

Give me a break. End of the season for him

A few days later…

Can’t help but laugh.

Before leaving, a quick glance at the standings

We’re doing ok despite the lack of good form in away matches.

And…. we reached the end of the episode, friends

Join me next week for a new episode of this series. See ya 🙂