Pre-season friendly
By Robert Nisbet

The Bluebirds won a rather inconclusive pre-season game with two goals in the last three minutes, after a good late surge.
      The side was a mixture of many established players and a few former Academy players, with most of the old hands looking as good as ever: Mark Dodds and Kyle Graves at the back and Neil Thomas in midfield. Derek Brazil had also decided to continue the experiment of playing Steffan Williams wide on the right, with Chris O’Sullivan in central midfield, and these two played extremely well too.
      Four young locals had games as well: Kristian Palmer and the polished Jack Jones at full back, with ex-Newcastle Emlyn player Dorian Davies coming on for a good second half at right back. There was also a promising first showing for striker Vincent Atuyei, who bustled hard at the Cambrian defence for the first half. Luke Robinson took over the striker’s duties for the second half and was instrumental in the winning goal.
      There was little goalmouth action in a cautious first half, apart from a Lee Hudgell shot which the keeper turned for a corner, a strong drive from Neil Thomas and an O’Sullivan free kick which just evaded Atuyei.
      Cambrian started the second half with a couple of long distance efforts from Mike Jones and their busy striker Jason Bertorelli. Then, in the 65th minute, the same player got on to a deep right wing cross and forced the ball in at the far post.
      In the last 20 minutes the Blues pushed three players forward, contending with Cambrian’s five-man back line. But the home side now began to put some quality moves together. Williams’ neat chip put Thomas in and his deep cross was a fraction too long for Robinson. Thomas did have the ball in the net from a Jack Jones cross but was adjudged to have impeded the keeper.
      The equalizer was a cracking goal, as Dodds and Thomas combined to give Williams a chance and he cracked his left-footer in from 15 yards. Three minutes later a Hudgell run and cross gave Robinson the chance to squeeze the ball through from the near post and Thomas rounded off from one yard out.

County: Lee Idzi; Jack Jones, Kristian Palmer (Dorian Davies, 45), Mark Dodds, Kyle Graves, Steffan Williams, Chris O’Sullivan, Jamie Bradford, Neil Thomas, Vincent Atuyei (Luke Robinson, 45), Lee Hudgell. 
Subs not used: Ricky Watts, Rhys Dalling, Rob Morgans.