County held their nerve and achieved one of their best results of the century to edge out the Bluebirds and reach the final of the FAW Premier Cup for the second successive season.  And while nobody will kid themselves that Cardiff City fielded their strongest eleven, there was no doubt that the side they did put out would have been expected to take care of a team from four grades below!

Television viewers might not have seen this as a particularly thrilling encounter because of its comparative lack of goalmouth thrills but it was enthralling for the County contingent which comprised almost half the attendance.  The previous two away performances had been very disappointing and doubts as to which County would turn up were soon dispelled as they looked comfortable on a very good Ninian Park surface.

Inside five minutes Craig Hughes forced a save from City‘s David Forde and while the effort did not extend the Irishman, it was an improvement on the failure to direct anything on target at either the St Albans or Thurrock keepers.  Steven Thompson, who won 16 Scottish caps while with Dundee United and Rangers, led the Cardiff front line well but he was wide with City’s first effort before a neat combination between Richard Evans and Jason Bowen set up a great chance for Charlie Griffin that he surprisingly fired wide.

Television evidence then showed that the County top scorer was wrongly flagged offside on 25 minutes when he was presented with an even better opportunity and at this time, the players from ‘Division Six South’ were more than holding their own.  Referee Simon Evans, who gave a very competent performance, was lenient with Lee Fowler following a rash challenge on Darcy Blake, but the yellow card was sufficient warning.

Andy Gurney, who was chosen ahead of Nathan Davies, gave a couple of signs of his long range shooting potential before giving way to County’s record appearance holder and it was a seamless transition with both Gurney and Davies contributing well to the team display.  City were feeding off scraps with Mark Dodds absolutely magnificent at the heart of the Newport defence which did not put a foot wrong all night, but the Cardiff back line were also impressive despite some classy work by Craig Hughes who gave his usual exemplary effort.

Fears that Cardiff’s superior fitness would start to tell proved groundless though Dodds provided a moment of great judgement to rob former England international winger Trevor Sinclair in the 75th minute as the former Manchester City player was about to pull the trigger.  This was however an isolated threat from Sinclair who had more than met his match in Damon Searle.

The introduction of former Swansea City forward Julian Alsop for Griffin in the 79th minute provided a wake-up call for the subdued home support, many of whose more youthful members are stuck in a time warp, and appear to attend football matches primarily to vent their vitriol and hatred of the opposition.  Cardiff City have performed extremely well recently and it is a shame that most of the younger element in their hardcore support at this match do not appear to get any pleasure from the beautiful game.  Their calls for other areas of the ground to engage in their rather dated head-banging ritual secured support from their chairman and manager in the stand, but thankfully not from either the packed County masses on the Grange End or former Bluebird Bowen, who were easily able to resist invitations to “do the Ayatollah!”

As the match moved into extra time, County were looking every bit the equals of a City side who had some very promising youngsters, in particular 16 year-old right-back Aaron Morris and 19 year-old midfielder Blake who made some dangerous runs at the County rearguard.  As the prospect of a penalty shoot-out loomed larger County broke the deadlock with a 113th minute goal from BOWEN.  The winger squeezed a header past Forde after a lovely pass from Davies had set up the overlapping Searle whose cross evaded everyone in the goalmouth.

County celebrations were stopped in their tracks by an equaliser of high quality.  Glenn Loovens made an unchecked burst forward and his pass to Tyrell Webbe was turned into the path of THOMPSON who beat his namesake with a superb curling shot from the edge of the penalty area into the corner of the net.  Referee Evans signalled a surprising three minutes of added time and in the final seconds of these, Thompson made a great save to deny Kris Leek look-alike substitute Sam Wade.

County fans hoped that the penalties would be taken at the Grange End, but inevitably Evans took the action to the goal at the other end, with the deserted Canton stand offering a deathly background to anyone who failed to score their spot-kick.

First go probably provides a slight advantage and the County faithful saw the reassuring sight of the trusty Bowen move forward to start the proceedings.  Bows did what Bows does from penalties, but Sinclair’s response was equally convincing for Cardiff (1-1).

Next forward was Alsop for County which provided the cue for venom from the home supporters which did not affect the veteran striker who scored with ease.  Blake produced another very assured penalty for Cardiff (2-2) before Evans and Loovens traded perfect spot-kicks to make it 3-3.

If Fowler was nervous about the task of scoring against the side he briefly played for in 2003, he showed no sign of it and neither did the impressive Wade for Cardiff (4-4).  It was now, as a famous manager would have said, ‘squeaky bum time’ and County fans were probably happy to see the commanding figure of Searle place the ball on the spot for the fifth kick.  His relied on power rather than accuracy but his left-footed shot thudded off the crossbar to appear to hand the tie to Cardiff.  Steven Thompson strode forward for City but his poorly struck kick was well wide to send the tie into sudden death.

Former City player and Cardiff resident Lee Jarman smashed his kick into the net and youth player Jack Carlile was next in line for the home side. 

A father of a Cardiff player in the stand turned to his County supporting neighbour and said: “This boy takes all the academy penalties and I’ve never seen him miss.  I’d put all our houses on him.” 

Just as well he didn’t, because Robbie Fowler’s tally of tenants would otherwise be increasing as a nervous looking Carlile hit a weak spot-kick which Thompson saved diving to his left.  Celebration time for County, but there should be a word of praise for the excellent organisation of the courteous and professional stewards employed by City.  It was a shame that the more tribal elements in both clubs’ support tried to meet for less cordial discussions after the game.

City: Aaron Morris (a mature display at right-back and he looks a good prospect for the future).

County: Mark Dodds (An almost unanimous choice of County fans after a superb display).

Special Mention: Damon Searle (He certainly deserved to be on the winning side).