By Robert Nisbet

After a cautious start the Bluebirds rattled their way to a cracking and convincing win which left Aberaman on the back foot for the whole of the second half.
      The West Wales Properties-sponsored Bluebirds were without the unavailable Kristian Griffiths and Phil Cattlin, but that still left them with a centre-back pairing of Simon Gilderdale and Gareth Elliott and it’s doubtful if there will be a stronger central defence in this season’s Welsh League. The re-shuffle also brought in Ricky Watts at right back and, bang on cue, he delivered a Jehu (West) man of the match performance.
      Several players will have run Ricky very close for that award, not least Gilderdale and Gary Taylor, but in fact we had a hatful of fine individual performances and best of all a really fluent team performance. The whole side passed and ran as a unit and, after a cautious first 20 minutes, the result was never in real doubt.
      Aber have strengthened their squad for this season with the arrival of Lee Jarman and Lee Phillips as player-managers, not to mention the industrious Bobby Briers in their midfield. In fact the first chance fell to Jarman, and Craig Morris did very well to tip over the ex-Bluebird’s header in the 20th minute. But within two minutes Nicky Woodrow’s neat head-on had set up Richard Ryan who drove against the angle of bar and post and the Blues were on their way.
      Both Ryan and Woodrow were struggling slightly with knocks but Woodrow’s persistence and ability in the air bothered Jarman all afternoon, while Ryan’s guile was a constant threat. The two combined for the opening goal in the 35th minute when Ryan linked with Richard Lewis out on the left for Woodrow to get to the cross and send a looping header over keeper Banks.
      So it was just one goal at half-time, but before their fans could start to feel any nagging uncertainty, the Blues blasted the second half open with a spate of sparkling attacks. There was no Route One stuff, just flowing passing football, down the flanks and down the middle. Lewis, who scored 19 goals for Ammanford last season, missed a few chances but he is prepared to get his head down, go for goal and shoot, and he should score plenty more this season.
      Then, in the 53rd minute, Ryan floated in the deftest of lobs from 20 yards, and within four minutes Chris O’Sullivan had cracked in a penalty. Even then the visitors had little chance to counter-attack as the Blues came steaming forward, to add a fourth goal in the 89th minute. A flowing right-wing passing movement delivered to the feet of sub AJ Galdo and he drove in low and hard. There might even have been a fifth a minute later when Banks really had to scramble to reach an O’Sullivan lob and the result was left beyond any possible doubt.
      The Blues have two away games this week, at West End tonight (Wednesday) and at Ton Pentre on Saturday, before they return to the Bridge Meadow on Wednesday 24th August to play the return with Donald Smitham’s West End.
 
County: Craig Morris; Ricky Watts, Dave Evans, Simon Gilderdale, Gareth Elliott, Anton Owens, Chris O’Sullivan, Gary Taylor, Richard Ryan (Gethin Roberts, 85), Nicky Woodrow (AJ Galdo, 75), Richard Lewis.