On a cold but sunny January afternoon, Airbus welcomed Holywell Town to the Hollingsworth Group Stadium in Round 2 of the Welsh Blood League Cup.

With Airbus being the holders, the WingMakers were keen to keep themselves in the hat for the next round and with that in mind Mark Allen made two changes to his starting line up. Josh Stevenson and Blaine Hudson come in to replace Kieran Evans and Tyler McManus.

Airbus got us underway for the first half with the sun shining over the Airfield.

The home team had the first chance of the half on 6 minutes as a lovely waited through ball from George Peers was into Danny Warren’s path, and his shot was saved by John Danby in the Holywell goal.

The first yellow card of the game was shown in the 9’ as Jake Cooke was booked.

12’ Airbus were awarded a corner and a Jordan Evans delivery found Kaiden Cooke and the youngster was able to dance his way through the defence and bring a save from Danby.

Jordan Evans had a chance of his own 10 minutes later as he carried the ball into space towards goal and his shot was saved comfortably by Danby.

Shortly after, Holywell won their first corner of the game and Airbus dealt with the danger well as they cleared the lines.

Half an hour gone and the visitors had their first clear cut chance of the half. Jack Sconce picked the ball up in the middle of the park and created room for himself to get a shot off, but his shot sailed over the crossbar.

A cross-field ball from Nath Williams found Danny Warren on 33’ who fired the ball into the box and it landed just wide of the post.

4 minutes before half time, Airbus broke the deadlock. Kaiden Cooke flew down the right wing, as he passed numerous defenders before firing his cross into the box and there was Danny Warren at the back post to guide the ball in.

This goal was enough to give Airbus the lead going into the half time break. At half time Airbus made a substitution with Dan Collins replacing Jordan Evans.

Airbus had the first chance of the half through the heavily involved Kaiden Cooke. The No.10 sent a curling effort towards goal which was saved by Danby.

From the resulting save, Holywell went down the other end with a clear-cut chance but Keighan Jones was just as equal to it.

52’ minutes and Danby was called into action, this time with a double save. Cooke found Mason Blackwell-Jones with his cross and Blackwell-Jones shot was parried by Danby. The ball fell to the feet of Cooke and the Holywell ‘keeper did well to recover and deny the Airbus winger.

Just after the hour, Airbus doubled their lead with George Peers’ 9th goal in 9 games.

Cooke drove into the box and picked out Peers with his pass and his first effort was saved by Danby and the rebound fell to Peers and he made no mistakes with his second chance and gave Airbus a 2-0 cushion.

With 20 minutes remaining, Kaiden Cooke and Mason Blackwell-Jones were replaced by James Davies and Ieuan Jones-Wellstead.

Not long after the substitutions, Holywell were reduced to 10 men as Jake Cooke received his second yellow card of the game.

79’ Airbus crafted a well worked move, which saw Jones-Wellstead find Peers, whose shot was saved and Holywell struggled to clear their lines. Peers and Warren followed up with chances but were unable to convert their efforts.

With the 90 approaching, Airbus created another chance. Peers’ pass found James Davies on the left and his shot was collected by Danby.

With injury time added, Airbus weren’t done and they earned themselves a corner. The delivery was met by the tall frame of Blaine Hudson, but Danby was equal to Hudson’s effort.

The referee blew time on the game and goals from Danny Warren and George Peers saw the WingMakers progress to the next round.