It has been a tough campaign for the Pennies in Adran Premier but a league point gained away against one of the best sides in Wales has lifted the spirits and the self belief at Pen-y-Pound, writes ANDREW KENNEDY.

One of the features of Adran Premier is its two phases, and as the end of January comes around there is FAW determination to complete any unplayed Phase 1 matches.

In the case of the Pennies, that resulted in a tough ‘week’ of three matches in eight days.

The first of these was on Sunday, January 29, when a draw was achieved at Cardiff Met – an encouraging upturn in form and one of the best Pennies performances of the year.

Four days later (Thursday, February 2) there was a home fixture against Pontypridd United Women FC, and just three days after that came a trip to TNS at Oswestry.

The two fixtures had previously been frozen off and both of the opposing squads needed points to secure the last available position (4th) in the Championship Conference section of Phase 2.

Cardiff Met are second in the league so the away point for the Pennies was hard fought for and surprised many onlookers.

And it was a buoyant squad that lined up against Ponty–pridd’s Dragons, albeit without forward Ellis Lunn, wing-back Caitlin Davies – both injured versus Met – while no-nonsense defender Ffion Simmonds was forced to miss a match after a red card.

On the up side, a real boost came with midfielder Olivia Barnes returning from long-term injury as part of the starting line up, but as a defender, and playing the full 90 minutes (for the first time since October 9).

Another notable was Menna Churcher – from last season’s AWFC U19s – starting on the bench but playing 35 minutes.

A draw or win would see ‘Ponty’ claim a Championship Conference place, but that hope was already vulnerable with just three minutes played when Pennies’ top scorer Alana Murphy capitalised on a defensive error, driving the ball past the Archers’ goalie, Eleanor Brook, to take the lead.

Ponty’s task became all the more difficult 23 minutes later when Alison Witts was shown a red card for an off the ball incident with Elena Scrivens.

But the visitors were still a handful to contain, with some physical challenges, and the Pennies were particularly under pressure in the second half.

Goalie Charlotte Hastings was in fine form though, not least a save at 54 minutes at full stretch to deny Olivia Francis a 25-yard strike. A goal line scramble at about 78 minutes was another dangerous moment, but cleared and Aber saw out a 1-0 win.

Pennies’ team boss Josh Anderson said: “It wasn’t pretty, but credit to my girls, we took three losses in terms of players before the game through no fault of their own, and I’ve had to shuffle it round a bit and throw people in where they’re probably not comfortable in playing.

“The biggest thing for me today is that we showed desire, we showed character, we worked together as three separate units and the girls were outstanding.

“Did we play pretty football? Absolutely not. Did we create an awful lot of chances? Probably not either.

“So that’s something I’ve got to look at now obviously, building on into the next game and into Phase 2 – how we can become more creative. But for me the important thing is that it’s our first three points, and was it deserved – yes, it absolutely was.

“For me, one of the biggest things I’m telling the girls at the moment is belief – they’re good enough, I know that, I’m just trying to embed that into the girls.

“We’ve had a great result, we drew against Barry, drew against Met and now picked up three points against a good ‘Ponty’ side, so there is a lot of good to take.

“There are things we can tidy up on as well – and that’s scoring more goals – but if we can keep them out at one end, you know, two clean sheets on the bounce now, for me that’s outstanding, but the girls have got to take credit for everything that they’ve done today.”

Genero Adran Premier

TNS Women FC 4

Abergavenny Women FC 0

The win for Abergavenny on Thursday night meant that The New Saints needed to beat Abergavenny by four goals to be in the Championship Conference – and they saw to it that the intensity was high in the first 45 minutes, and all against the Pennies carrying some knocks from two tough matches in the previous 7 days.

Two of the chances hit the back of the Abergavenny net, the goal scorers being Lucie Platt (22 mins) and Helen Evans (31 mins) – the goals were at close quarters, so difficult to keep out.

Beyond half time, the Pennies kept more at bay but a 72nd-minute Izzy Redding header from a corner set the scene for the possibility of the four goal win, and Helen Evans duly delivered the best of the goals at 88 minutes, from the edge of the 18-yard area and going in off the post.

Despite the distance of 90+ miles stadium to stadium, the Pennies had five keen teenage subs on the bench and all got some time on the pitch.

Notably this included new arrival Megan Chambers, who was with the erstwhile Port Talbot Ladies FC U19s last season.

The four-goal win for TNS means that Cardiff City, Cardiff Met, Swansea City and TNS make up the Championship Conference, and Pontypridd United, Aberystwyth Town, Barry Town United and Abergavenny WFC are in the Plate Conference.

Within each group each team play the other three home and away.

While the Championship Conference will be a very tough place to gain points, the resurgent Pennies will hope to gain points from any of the teams within the Plate Conference group.

There is a brief break now for two weekends, the first Plate Conference day being February 26 withan away match at Barry Town United: 2pm kick off at Jenner Park, CF62 9BG.