STEVE HALLIWELL had no complaints as Gresford Athletic bowed out of the competition courtesy of a 4-1 defeat at Porthmadog.

Ifan Emlyn Jones made Porthmadog’s early dominance count as he scored directly from a corner, but Gresford regrouped and went in all-square at the break.

After Jake Eyre had a penalty missed, Jack Chaloner levelled proceedings eight minutes before the interval.

But Gresford were unable to trouble the Porthmadog defence in a one-sided second period, the home side easing into round three with goals from Ilan ap Gareth, John Owen and Sion Parry.

And director of football Halliwell accepts that Gresford were second best on the day.

“It was a really poor performance and the result wasn’t unfair,” he said.

“For the first 20 or 25 minutes Porthmadog tore us apart, but they scored a joke of a goal on our part straight from a corner.

“We were on the back-foot, but we regrouped and after Jake’s penalty was saved we’ve managed to scored through Jack.

“That last 20 minutes of the first-half was the only part of the game we dominated though and we couldn’t get out of our half after the break.

“It was terrible. A really poor performance and it’s getting repetitive at the moment.

“It doesn’t help that we’ve got some experienced Cymru North players missing and that doesn’t help, neither did Jordan MacCarter pulling up in the warm up.”

Porthmadog boss Sion Eifion Jones took to Twitter to voice his delight at a job well done.

He wrote: “Much needed win! Into the hat!”

Llandudno were also 4-1 winners as they saw off fellow Cymru North outfit Llanfair United.

Paul Griffiths’ penalty gave Llanfair an interval lead, but Llandudno roared back with Aron Jones (2), Danny Hughes and Dan Stephens on target.

Jack Kenny, Jack Higgins and Alex Jones struck as Prestatyn defeated rivals Bangor City 3-0, while Bangor 1876 were beaten 2-0 by Ruthin, who struck through Kevin Evans and Llyr Morris.

Guilsfield are also safely through as they won 5-1 at Llannefydd. Chris Cathrall was the star of the show, scoring four, while George Clifton added the fifth.