Having claimed a 3-0 win over St.Asaph in the last fixture, Machno had already sealed top spot and qualification into the quarter final of the much coveted Auxiliary cup.

 

However, this did not dent the blood thirst from the team in their home clash with Conwy Legion United, despite dominating early possession and creating all of the chances, we found ourselves going behind in the 32nd minute from a lucky Conwy goal. An unlucky bobble led the ball to slip through Machno keeper Luke Roberts’s hands and into the path of the Conwy striker who cooly finished. After a couple more chances for Machno, including a near perfect lob from Kev Owen which unfortunately brushed against the bar, the half time whistle blew.

 

Despite being a goal down at half time, as usual all of the lads still felt that they were favourites for the win and an inspirational talk from the gaffer Jo Owen had the boys fired up for the second half.

 

Machno came out with intent and went for Conwy’s jugular from the off with Kev Owen and Rob Lloyd coming close, despite the constant pressure on the Conwy goal it took Machno until the 61st minute to pull back an equaliser coming from none other than top scorer Kev Owen who weaved his way through the Conwy defence before clinically finishing in the bottom corner leaving the keeper with no chance.

 

This set up a tense last 30 minutes with both teams throwing all they had at each other in a desperate attempt to claim all 3 points, Machno were boosted by the return from injury for both Ben Mullender and Rhidian Williams who were introduced with around 25 minutes to go. The breakthrough was made in the 73rd minute when captain fantastic Owen Davies powered a Matt Mullender corner into the top corner leaving the Conwy keeper helpless as he watched the ball rattle his net! Machno were able to see out a tense last 10 minutes and make it 5 wins from 6 in a very tough group.

 

Machno now hope to carry on this form into the quarter finals of the cup and hope to claim some more silverware to add to their already overflowing trophy cabinet at the end of the season!