A sun drenched Belle Vue saw the first ever match between Rhyl 1879 and Bangor 1876 yesterday. There may have been few goals but the crowd will have been entertained by a closely fought and entertaining friendly.

The match began perfectly for 1876 as Jamie Petrie scored in the 3rd minute with a tidy right footed finish after a series of passes. The blues continued to press after the goal as they passed the ball confidently.

Bangor almost doubled their lead several times in the first twenty five minutes; the first chance came when a free kick from the left wing drifted across the face of the goal, the second chance came from the resulting corner and accompanying goalmouth scaramble and the third chance happened when a flowing move down the right wing ended with a Corey Jones shot that hit the post in the 21st minute.

The remaining portion of the half saw more of a balanced contest as Rhyl created several decent chances from free kicks that either narrowly missed the goal or were cleared. 1876 could also commend our custodian in green Mark Hawkins for the great goalkeeping that denied Rhyl an equaliser.

For their part 1876 continued to press forward and set pieces continued to act as possible goal creation tools but there were no further goals for either side in the half.

HALF TIME – Rhyl 1979 0 Bangor 1876 1

Within five minutes of the restart Shaun Lock almost scored the blues’ second goal but his powerful effort flew narrowly wide of the upright. As the minutes passed 1876 created other chances; Les Davies took a powerful free-kick hit the Rhyl wall and Chris Jones created a decent chance for himself but Rhyl’s keeper saved his shot.

For the majority of the match the crowd was presented with the proverbial end to end clash as both sides propelled the ball towards their opponent’s goal. For example, between the 60th and 65th minutes a succession of dangerous free kicks from Rhyl were answered with a succession of corners from 1876.

In the 72nd minute a chipped pass almost resulted in a chance for Cameron Barry and this was shortly followed by a potential far post header but Rhyl’s keeper held firm on both occasions. When Rhyl replied with their own attacks 1876 displayed the sort of calm defending that put you in mind of Jim Baxter at Wembley in 1967.

The last 10 minutes saw our keeper Mark Hawkins make some more good saves and our much changed defensive unit display some dogged determinations under Rhyl’s pressure, Tom Clarke in particular showed an assured touch. The last notable incident of the match saw our keeper calmly catch a Rhyl cross from the left

We’d like to finish this report by thanking Rhyl 1879 for their hospitality and wish them the best of luck to them for their new season.