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Caerphilly Athletic have been unexpectedly knocked-out of the league cup by Afan United, who play two divisions below the South Wales Alliance League Premier Division side.

The pair met at the Centre for Sporting Excellence, which should have made it easy for the hosts to show-off their footballing superiority.

Afan had other ideas however, Daniel Lloyd’s sublime strike inside the opening 30 minutes left Caerphilly reeling, before a punch-up between the players made the job twice as hard for the hosts, who were down to ten after losing Ellis Meecham.

They did manage to pull one back thanks to Rhys McCarthy, but the visitors had the final say thanks to goals from Jack Underwood and Travis Monks-Landeg. 3-1 to Afan United.

Kick-off

Despite the two division gap, you wouldn’t have known it after ten minutes played.

Jack Underwood was the obvious threat for the side from Port Talbot, and he had an early chance after splitting the two centre-backs. His headed effort went wide, but it should have been a wake-up call.

Afan continued to be the aggressors in the early stages of the match. Another half chance fell to Joshua Jones on the edge of the area, but his shot was palmed away by Christopher Alexander comfortably enough.

For Caerphilly, they looked off it. Credit to Afan, they pressed well high-up the pitch, but the hosts couldn’t progress the ball further than midfield.

It should have been 1-0 to Afan after 20 minutes, and if there was goal line technology at the Centre for Sporting Excellence, it might have been.

Underwood in-between defenders again, this time struck with his left foot; a close range volley. The keeper could only watch as his shot thundered off the underside of the bar, off the line and out. It looked close to over from the side line, but there was no real way to tell.

The three man press from Afan was causing Caerphilly problems. Their full-backs were pressing on however, and if the hosts could find a ball in behind them there’d be space down the flanks.

The truth was however, Afan looked the better side, and they got their just reward through a superb strike from Daniel Lloyd.

Caerphilly captain Jonathan Davies was second to a header on the edge of the box and the ball fell to Lloyd who caught it flush on the half-volley. The ball looped up and back down over the head of Alexander before he could even blink. A great goal.

There was no real reaction from Caerphilly after going one down. It was very quiet out on the pitch with the hosts needing a spark.

The game got very scrappy with about ten minutes to go in the half. There were several injuries and some big tackles that threatened to take the game in a different direction.

Caerphilly’s Sam Watkins saw yellow for his late tackle, only to hit the bar from a header a few moments later.

There was another card shown shortly after, this time it was red. Ellis Meecham given his marching orders for an off the ball shove.

Tempers were quickly at boiling point, and before Meecham had even left the field, a brawl broke out between the two sides. Punches were thrown by both sets of players and who exactly was to blame though was difficult to say amidst the madness of it all.

Referee Marco Griffiths came to the same conclusion after the fighting eventually stopped. He warned both sets of players and the game carried on.

A mad end to the first 45 minutes. Down to ten, it was going to be a very difficult second-half for a side who struggled with 11.

Second-half

Underwood started the second-half as well as the first. He should have made it two after splitting the defenders once more. This time his close-range shot was blocked.

Caerphilly were doing their best to get the ball forward, but the task was made difficult by being a man light.

The visitors were killing as much time as they could with only 50 minutes played. Goal-keeper Rory McCreesh was booked for time wasting and given a stern warning by the referee to get on with it.

The Caerphilly bench were doing their bit, appealing for everything and frustrating the Afan players.

Their pressure paid off when Afan substitute, Kelan Connelly, was shown a blue card for dissent.

The blue card is part of a trial campaign from the Football Association of Wales, where players are sent to the side line for ten minutes if they use offensive language, for example.

Now that both had ten on the pitch, it was Caerphilly’s chance to get one back.

After a few decent efforts, the hosts finally made one count when a free-kick from Christopher Crane hit the wall and landed at the feet of Rhys McCarthy.

McCarthy still had work to do, but finished well across goal to bring his side level. From nothing, Caerphilly were back in the game.

It had taken a bit of carnage, but the hosts suddenly looked up for it. With 20 minutes to play however, Afan were back to full strength.

They made it show shortly after. Caerphilly perhaps a bit ambitious in committing bodies forward with a man less, paid the price when Lloyd broke free down the left.

He’d been great all afternoon, and delivered a quality ball to Underwood who lunged at it to side foot home from the centre of the box. 2-1.

The hosts never recovered from that one. The players looked exhausted out there.

Afan grabbed a late one to cap-off a brilliant game from their point of view, coming into this one as underdogs.

Connelly made up for earlier his ill-discipline, threading a nice ball through to Travis Monks-Landeg. The striker finished well into the bottom right to send his side through to the third round.

No league cup for Caerphilly this year. Perhaps a good thing considering their step-up into the top division of the South Wales Alliance League, which they’ll return to after an away game against Cardiff Airport in the FAW Amateur Trophy on Saturday October 28.