City play down favourites tag; Students on verge of remarkable feat
Bangor City will play host to Cardiff Met on Saturday afternoon with European football and a significant pot of prize money at stake in the Dafabet Welsh Premier League Play-Off final (5.15).
The winners of the season’s curtain-closer will net €215,000 in prize money from entering the qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.
Gary Robert’s second-half free kick sealed Bangor’s place in the final as they edged past Newtown 3-2 last Saturday.
Bangor City entered the play-offs as favourites after finishing fourth in the table but caretaker player/manager Gary Taylor-Fletcher doesn’t see either side having a clear advantage going into the final.
“It’s a final, there are no favourites or underdogs,” he told the FAW. “Anything can happen, we’re certainly not going to put that tag of favourites on ourselves because I don’t think there are any in this situation, we’ve seen it so many times before.
“We certainly won’t be going into it expecting that it’s going to be easy for us, because it absolutely won’t be. My job this week has been to keep everybody focussed, everybody switched on and aware of the dangers Cardiff pose us and how we can go about imposing our own style on the game.
“It’ll be a great game of football, and as long as we do what we’re capable of and give a good account of ourselves then hopefully the result goes in our favour, but there’s certainly no favourites because they’re a really good, energetic team who are coming into a bit of form themselves so they’ll be well up for it and perhaps wanting to prove a point.”
City are looking to qualify for Europe for the first time since 2014 and Taylor-Fletcher acknowledges Cardiff Met will be a tough hurdle to overcome.
“They’re a young, energetic and very organised side. They look as if they’ve changed a few things since we last played them and they’ve had a couple of great victories against Carmarthen as well as a solid draw against Connah’s Quay so it’s not going to be the same game as it was last time we played them, we know we’re going to have to work very hard to get a win.
“They seem to have upped their work-rate and found a way to mix their play up a little bit, they’ve been going a bit longer in the games I’ve seen instead of just trying to get it down and pass – both of which are things they’re more than capable of doing to a high standard – so it is going to be a tough game for us.”
Cardiff Met left it until the death to secure their play-off final spot.
Midfielder Charlie Corsby’s winner deep into added time against Carmarthen Town leaves the students within touching distance of Europe in just their first season in the Welsh Premier League.
Under Dr Christian Edwards, the side have enjoyed a remarkable rise through the Welsh League system.
“At the start of the season our aim was to stay in the league, and we thought we’d be there or thereabouts, but I think it has been a great credit to the coaching staff and to the players how we’ve adapted our playing style and overcome whatever challenges have been put in front of us,” said club captain Corsby.
“Certainly last year in Welsh Division One, we could get away with imposing our preferred style against most teams, whereas this year – particularly at the start of the season, and in Phase Two perhaps – we were punished for the little mistakes we made when using our own style, but we’ve adapted, we’ve learnt, and we’ve developed quite quickly.
“Sunday was a culmination of all of that really, where we were able to put into practice what we’d learnt over the season, which was important on the day, but also important for us all as part of the team and as we look to build going into next year too,” Corsby added.
“I definitely do have to pinch myself sometimes, I think, especially if you look back to when I first came to Cardiff three or four years ago and we were in Division Three, yet now here we are in the Dafabet Welsh Premier League.
“Reaching the WPL in itself is a fantastic achievement, but now to have reached the Top-Six and to be one game away from a European adventure is incredible, it’s such a special thing we’ve accomplished together and nobody can take that away from us.
“That being said, we’ve got this far now so we’re not going to go into this game lying down – we may not be favourites, but we’ll make sure we do everything we can to win the game. I couldn’t put it into words what it’d mean to reach Europe, but we’re fully focused on Saturday, it’s a huge opportunity for us and we need to make sure that we grab it with both hands.”
Featured image courtesy of: Bangor City FC/Welsh Premier League