Early two goals enough to take all 3 points

Remembrance Sunday saw the senior team take on Northop Hall up at Plas Ffrancon. Again for the second game in succession preparations were hampered by a delayed start due to the late arrival of a referee. However, two goals in the opening 12 minutes proved enough to deliver a 2-1 and a sixth league win in seven starts.

The home side began well, creating chances and putting a lot of pressure on the Northop Hall goal. The early pressure and attacks paid off when Jordan Roberts beat the offside trap to neatly finish into the bottom left-hand corner followed by a nice finish from Ceri Lois to make it 2-0 in her last game for a while before a shoulder operation this week.
After falling two behind, Northop rallied and forced Becca into some good stops. Bangor were unlucky not to go 3-0 up when Gwen hit the near post, shot narrowly wide across goal and Lexi had shots blocked but the visitors were not out of it by any means .

The second half started with Northop on the front footand deservedly pulled a goal back within five minutes of the restart from a corner which we failed to clear. Both teams then pushed for more goals and this made for an exciting yet tense game. However the team found a way and managed the game out and were unlucky not to add more goals in the end with their keeper saving bravely at the feet of Lexi and Ffion who came on as a second half substitute following time out with injury. While 1876 got the win nothing can be taken away from Northop Hall who played with true grit and determination and really made us work for the result.

Reflecting on the game manager Jonny Batten commented:
"Firstly I’d like to thank Northop on travelling the long journey for today’s game. The team had a few issues today with players playing out of position and a couple players like Lexi not 100% fit and carrying knocks.

We asked them to start quickly and they did, got the early goals we fully deserved and it helped settle the nerves. So really happy with the intensity shown for most of the first half today - first to the ball and tackle, something we work on a lot. The link up play was sharp down the wings, tidy in midfield, played out from back and used Becca when we needed to. This allowed us to control the game in parts but we also missed some decent chances to increase the lead....but a game at 2-0 with 75 mins to go is never over.

Unfortunately I felt we could and should have killed the game off and it felt like we took our foot off the gas at 2-0. This allowed them back into the game, which fair play to them they took full advantage of and they probably finished the half the stronger to be fair.

The 2nd half started and we lacked the same intensity and were a bit flat and Northop looked a different team and they got the goal they deserved and the match turned messy and too open from our perspective.

We then had some enforced changes with injuries to our Captain Dani and centre half Catrin but the team adapted with striker Chelsea coming on in midfield and did a great job linking the play. So were regained our composure and started get our game going again, kept the ball better and created chances. It was a real positive for us to get Ffion back on the pitch today and get some game time after a spell out with a knee injury and she was unlucky not to score but for some strong keeping and defending from Northop.

But really full of praise to our players for their commitment today. We showed determination and grit to grind out the win against a difficult and dangerous team which was the objective. So we're pleased with another 3 points and now we change focus quickly to concentrate on the quarter final NWCFA cup game away to Llanystumdwy next Sunday. "