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Aber Valley have been knocked out of the Welsh Cup following a 2-0 defeat to Swansea University at Aber Park.

It was set to be a tough Saturday afternoon for the hosts, up against an Ardal South West side with plenty of quality.

An early goal from the visitors meant an uphill struggle for Aber, who despite fighting hard in the second-half, conceded a second goal and exited the competition.

Kick-off:

Aber Park can always be a difficult ground for travelling sides, and Swansea would have wanted to get the opening goal sooner rather than later to settle themselves down.

They didn’t have to wait too long. Following an injury to an Aber player down the right, winger Joshua Cole soon exploited that space, fizzing a ball across to Casey Coughlin in the middle.

With time to shoot, his effort took a slight deflection on the way through, enough to beat Niall Reed and make it 1-0 to the visitors.

Aber almost answered straight back down the other end when a cross to an unmarked Zak Thomas had to find the back of the net. His header went just wide however.

Despite being a division apart, Aber were holding their own and put a few nice passing combinations together.

They did struggle to win the ball off Swansea on a few too many occasions though, with the visitors notably taller and bigger.

Aber were ‘handed’ a huge break when a corner onto the head of Noah Osborne was directed goal bound and past the keeper, seemingly onto the hand of an Aber Valley defender.

Despite swarming the referee for a penalty, Joseph Gibson had a chat with his linesman and decided against a spot kick.

This started a good spell of possession for the travelling side, who had another effort through Coughlin soon after – saved smartly down low by Reed this time.

The first shot on target for Aber came at around the 40 minute mark. A ball rolled into the feet of Thomas on the edge was caught well enough, but dealt with comfortably by Luca Smith in goal.

Thomas had his third and final chance of the half when another header at the back post should have probably found the net. Wide again though as the whistle went for half-time.

Second-half

It was a better start to the half from the hosts, with target man Scott Armitage doing well to hold the ball-up, but didn’t always have the runners around him.

Christopher Crane had a snapshot just inside the box, but his effort was straight at the keeper.

Set pieces still looked a concern with all of Swansea’s height, but credit to Aber, they managed to clear most.

The home side had the odd half-chance now and then as they hoped to build some pressure. A swing from captain Owain Davies was well over though when it fell to him on the edge.

Swansea looked to get themselves back on top by getting the ball down and playing football. Surprising on that pitch, they played out from the back consistently and did a pretty decent job.

Building on that possession, another excellent cross this time from Dylan Williams found the head of Coughlin unmarked in the centre of the box.

Thumping his effort into the ground, it was past Reed and Swansea were 2-0 to the good with 15 minutes left in the tie.

Aber Valley pushed hard to get back into the game, knowing just one goal could mount the pressure onto the visitors.

It wasn’t to be though, with Swansea managing the game out well to claim a fairly comfortable victory.