“Every cloud has a silver lining,” or so they say. Despite allowing a full two hours for our journey, my friend Morris and I still arrived 20 minutes late for the match thanks to extremely heavy traffic on certain parts of the A55 on Bank Holiday Monday, writes Treflyn Jones.

Buckley Town 1 Porthmadog 1, JD Cymru North

The consolation, however, was to eventually find ourselves in the picturesque and homely surroundings of Globe Way, surely one of the more attractive grounds in the JD Cymru North.

Craig Papirnyk reacts to draw at Buckley on Teledu Port

It was also rather nice to hear the words “you haven`t missed much,” and that neither keeper had been seriously troubled hitherto.

On the half hour mark, however, Port’s Danny Brookwell was put clean through on goal only to be foiled by a disputed offside decision.

But, seven minutes later, the same player was brought down in the box and referee Elwyn Parry pointed to the spot and up stepped Shaun Cavanagh.

His very firm and seemingly well-directed shot was kept out by Ryan Goldston’s truly excellent one-handed save – probably one of the best pieces of goalkeeping you will see all season.

At this stage, the game was still fairly even in terms of territorial advantage although it was Port who seemed marginally more dangerous in the final third of the pitch.

Shortly before the break, Cavanagh put Rhys Alun through on goal on the left flank but his first-time left-footed drive went narrowly wide of the far post and 0-0 it remained at the interval.

Port looked the more potent outfit for much of the second half but could they breach a tough Buckley rearguard?

Well, on 49 minutes, Morgan Owen made a powerful burst into the box but his effort was blocked by a defender’s heel.

Just before the hour mark, Cavanagh latched on to a great pass by Luke Smith and rounded the keeper. It seemed as if he just had to score but somehow, the keeper recovered his ground and the shot was again blocked.

It wasn’t all Port though as Matt Wallace in the visitors’ goal had to be super alert to back pedal quickly and divert a ballooning ricochet over the bar.

On 75 minutes, however, Port deservedly opened the scoring courtesy of Telor Williams.

After sterling work by Morgan Owen followed by a deft defence-splitting pass, Williams drove unerringly past Goldston to put Port ahead.

Then, it was Buckley’s turn to turn up the heat as a dangerous looking volley by Connor Littler went narrowly past the upright to Matt Wallace’s relief.

The luckless Cavanagh could well have put the game to bed but he seemed to mis-time his attempted lob over the onrushing Goldston from just outside the box and this proved to be a miss that Port would eventually rue.

It was in the 85th minute that Buckley conjured up a rather farcical equalizer.

Substitute Sam McCormick seemed to rather mis-hit his free kick from outside the box. The ball travelled tamely along the ground but it evaded everyone including the unsighted Wallace who dived the wrong way thus allowing the ball to nestle in the central part of the net .

This was an absolute sickener and came too late for Port to recover sufficiently to find what would have been a deserved winner on the balance of play in the second period.

Before the match, most Port supporters would have been happy with a draw away from home but the faithful throng had to make the long journey home dreaming of what might have been.

Porthmadog entertain Ruthin Town at Y Traeth in the Welsh Blood Service League Cup on Saturday, 2.30pm.