Bangor City 2 – 1 Cardiff Met
Sunday 2nd October 2016
Venue: Bangor University Stadium
Attendance: 578
Dan Nardiello’s brace helps City see off Cardiff Met and remain third in the Welsh Premier League.
For Bangor City a win today was pretty vital in order to make sure they didn’t drop down from third in the table and to end their winless run of two draws and two losses in their last four. Prior to the game, City’s Gary Roberts was presented with the WPL Player of the Month award for August before lining up besides his teammates. A crowd of 578 came out to support the team in a rare sunny October afternoon and the Citizens looked ‘up for it’ from the start.
The home team got off to a great start and a number of chances fell to City’s front two, Dan Nardiello and Rodrigo Branco, but were denied by the Cardiff keeper, Fuller, or were judged offside by the linesman. Branco converted from a brilliant Roberts cross but had the goal disallowed for offside.
City were dominating the early stages with a lot of great service coming in from the right wing in particular, thanks to Roberts and Christian Langos, but it was until just before half-time that they took the lead. Another great cross from Gary Roberts and Nardiello climbed highest to head it to the goalkeeper’s left and into the back of the net.
Perhaps rejuvenated by the break, or still fired up from the first goal, City came back out eager to add to their first half tally. Both Langos and Davies had great chances early into the second, with the former’s effort going just wide and the latter’s soaring over the bar.
Ten minutes or so into the half, City decided to bring on a bit of experience with Jamie Reed replacing Branco in hopes of killing off the game. And just minutes into coming onto the pitch Reed got on the end of another great Langos cross but the Cardiff keeper was also there and the ball was knocked over the bar for a City corner.
On the 63rd minute, Nardiello was played in through the middle, fooled the defender and saw his shot hit the back of Fuller’s net for 2-0.
After the second goal the home team found themselves with a good amount of chances but Cardiff seemed to wake up and started to apply a bit of pressure on Bangor’s defence. Despite a solid 70 minutes Bangor’s defence started to look a little shaky and panicked and with Nardiello desperate to get his hat-trick to no avail, the visitors seemed to sense an opening.
Around 10 minutes from time Cardiff’s number 5, Lewis, headed in from a corner to give his team a bit of hope. All it really did though was liven up the Bangor support who’s cheers for their team got louder, encouraging the home side forward.
Jamie Reed had a great chance to put the game out of Cardiff’s sight at the death but the goalkeeper leaped out to punch the ball away before he could latch onto it and when the final whistle went it was a 3 points well deserved for Bangor City.
The afternoon was a great attacking display from a Bangor side that was missing injured Sion Edwards and whilst some of the players will have left the pitch frustrated at not picking up a few extra goals, manager Andy Legg should be happy to see his team go home with the three points and widening the gap between fourth place Rhyl FC.
Christian Langos on the right wing had a particularly good game before being subbed off and if he can keep delivering those crosses into the box Bangor should find themselves enjoying plenty of goals this season. City fans will also be hoping to see more 18 year old Jordan Davies in the squad after a dominant display this afternoon, bounding forward and playing the strikers in for most of the afternoon. His impressive skills on the ball to trick defenders also deserve a mention!
City play Cefn Druids next in the second round of the League Cup on Wednesday before a trip to Newtown on Saturday. They are next at the Bangor University Stadium on October 22nd when they take on rivals Rhyl FC.
