By Josh Thomas
Ryan Howells was that old standby “over the moon” after he scored the winning goal to claim his first silverware for Fairwater in the Harris Parker Spooner Super Cup Final on Tuesday night.
Fairwater FC needed a late goal from Howells to overcome Caerau Ely seconds’ resistance and win the game 2-1 for Casey Warren’s men.
Rasul Abdul had earlier opened the scoring for Caerau Ely with a long-range effort, before Ryan Hocking levelled the score with a fine strike from just inside the box.
“I am over the moon to finally get some silverware,” said Howells. “I’ve been with the club for two seasons and I am so delighted to get my first trophy with the club.
“Fair play to Caerau Ely, they are an outstanding team and they deserve to be in our league. Hats off to them, they were quality and pushed us to the end.”
The left back, who scored the winning goal from free-kick, said it was a “stroke of luck” but felt his team dug deep to get the win.
“Normally, I don’t take them that close. But, luckily, the players who usually take the close ones were off the pitch. So, I had the chance to take it and I just thought, ‘I’m going to place this’ and it went in the corner.
“I think we did deserve the win. It was just one of those hard games. Not much was going our way but, yeah, just happy with the win.”
Howells was full of praise for Jalal Goni’s men from Caerau Ely who will see themselves playing in division one after being crowned division two champions in 2017/18.
“They are a brilliant team. They have a lot of potential for the future and I can see most of those boys getting into the Welsh League.”
Howells praised his manager Warren for his dedicated work on and off the pitch and was confident that his team, who finished second in the Premier Division, could go one better for the upcoming season.
“He’s a brilliant manager and he’ll do anything for every player on the pitch.”
“He’s such a dedicated man, he does everything for the club and runs countless teams across the whole club.
“We are aiming for the league this year. We want to get to the Alliance league and we think we are good enough to be in the higher leagues.’
“We will just see how this season goes, with our first game on Saturday against St Mellons. They have come up from the league below and are going to be no pushovers.”