On a cold saturday afternoon, Ross mens 1sts travelled down to Llandaff and Caerphilly, in which the previous matches played against their opponents had ended in draws. Ross started well and were out of the blocks like a rocket and within the first few minutes were 1-0 up, with passing play eventually finding M.Rudge down the right flank, squaring the ball across the Llandaff area leaving A.Williams to slot home in an empty goal. Ross continued their good possesion play until a break by Llandaff led to a cross into the Ross area leaving L.Raasch in goal with no chance of saving the eventual shot that flew into the bottom left hand corner. It stayed 1-1 with Ross having the lion's share of possession with the occasional burst from Llandaff. Half time came and Ross were wondering why they weren't winning at this point.

Second half started pretty much the same as the first, with Ross passing the ball about with fluidity, eventually finding a foot in the D which led to a short corner being dispatched by T.Walton. K.Franklin joined the scoring with a great effort from the edge of the D, relieving the pressure on his side with a two goal advantage. Ross thought they could hold on for a victory.

Ross seemed to rest on their laurels and within five minutes Llandaff were back in it with a tap in, after the Ross defence had stopped, feeling that the striker had used the back of his stick in the process. Llandaff had their tails up and pressurised every loose ball and were soon level after a lapse in concentration. Ross looked down but not out and started to calm it down, playing some good possesion play. This led to a sideline ball taken quickly by Ross, finding trust captain T.Walton in a bit of space who charged through two Llandaff players and scorched what looked like the winner past the free standing keeper. Ross just needed to hold on for eight minutes to make it a hard earned win. With two minutes remaining Llandaff had levelled the game with the unluckiest deflection off S.Warner's stick, which Raasch couldn't hold out. Ross, still wanting the win, scored with what seemed like the winner through K.Franklin but the umpire had somewhat seen the ball hit his foot in the process and awarded a free hit to Llandaff, which the Ross team couldn't believe and with the final whistle left Ross feeling like they've been cheated out of a win.

Ross are at home to Neath on Saturday and with performances improving a win is bound to come.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.