Roath Park Galaxy shaded victory against Herbrandston in a match played in memory of former player Matthew Price who died last year.

This special match would have made the popular young sportsman chuckle as a game in his memory was played in front of a large crowd at Herbrandston Sports Ground.

Even the weather conspired to help as the sun shone and people came to help raise funds for the Cardiac Unit at Withybush Hospital.

Gate money and a raffle produced the magnificent sum of almost £900 which was increased to four figures by a generous donation from Granicol boss Modesto Galdo, who has been a great stalwart, former player, manager and sponsor of Herbie.

With the Roath Park Galaxy team including a majority of players who are from Herbrandston but domiciled in Cardiff, it was appropriate that Matthew’s best friend Ollie West should play in goal for the Galaxy and receive the splendid trophy from Elaine Marshallsay, Matthew’s mum.

The game was as competitive as Matthew would have liked, with the Galaxy taking the lead with a well-taken goal from Mike Young before Herbie had chances for Sean Williams, Marc Gelona and Alex Galdo. It seemed that Martin Langdon’s superb header would level matters but he was given offside - and the visitors doubled their lead, against the run of play, when Nico Giannuzzi powered through to fire his shot past Gareth Marshallsay.

Nico and his brother Carlo were joined by other brothers in Richard and Adi Jenkins.

The second half followed a similar pattern as Scott Reid, Justin Clark and others had shots saved by Ollie West, defying a knee injury to show his goalkeeping prowess, before Daniel Munn finally scored for Herbie with a superb volley from outside the box.

It set up a grandstand finish in a match well refereed by Helmut Reinhardt, who was also a Herbrandston player before he took up the whistle, but there were no further goals and although Galaxy won, most pundits felt a draw would have been a fair verdict.

The teams will now meet in Roath Park, Cardiff, next season for the magnificent trophy, which will always remain in Herbrandston, and hopefully more money will be raised in Matthew Price’s memory for a worthy cause - ‘Pricey’ would have liked that!

Herbrandston: Gareth Marshallsay, Adrian Rees, Sean Williams, Daniel Munn, Leigh Galdo, Ashton Plunkett, Simon Mathias, Marc Gelona, Craig Nicholson, Martin Langdon, Alex Galdo, Ryan Davies, Justin Clark, Darrell Devonald, Scott Reid, Neil Davies, Daniel Armstrong. Management: Phil Frank, Andrew Williams, Lee Phillips.

Roath Park Galaxy: Ollie West, Martin Twigg, Richard Jenkins, Adam Galdo, Adi Jenkins, Rhys Thomas, Carlo Giannuzzi, Nico Giannuzzi, Ryan Britanney, Michael Young, Mark Jones, Simon Warlow, Neil Jeffries, Simon Thomas, Lewis Stait. Acting manager: Steve Batty.