Monmouth Town narrowly slumped to their second successive home defeat against title challengers Pentwyn Dynamo in a dire affair at the Sportsground last week. The Kingfishers were again without five key players though a mixture of injuries and no shows and gave seventeen year old Dan Spence a first start as centre half and included the returning Ross Kennedy on the bench and for most of the game looked relatively comfortablel against  a strangely toothless Pentwyn team looking to regain top spot. Admittedly, Town also looked challenged in the molar department as Bowen once again foraged fruitlessly as Town struggled to get any decent ball to the lone front man and often looked unable to get near enough to support him even if they did.  Perhaps it's a measure of the team's progress that Town must be disappointed to lose a game they might have won and in truth the midfield battled gamely against a Pentwyn midfield packed with wiser and cannier older heads. Spence looked to the manner born with a polished performance and Dorrington , so often , maligned gave a good account of himself while Harris was his usual robust self.  The first half was really a case of defending well and hoping that some Rogers magic or the pace of Ford could unlock the exposed visiting defence but Ford was well shackled by Fowler the Dynamos left back and Rogers had clearly left his wand in the changing rooms. For the largish crowd is it was no better in the second half with few chances created by either side and the game looked ot be petering out into a scoreless encounter when the wind and a poor throw by Jenkins put Dean Palmer in all sorts of trouble and he gave away a free kick on the edge of the area. The tricky free kick bounced in front of a struggling Jenkins and his fumble was followed up by five Pentwyn attackers with no defender in sight and Stephens poked the ball home.  Town did open the defence a little better after that as Ford joined Bowen in attack but in Bowen's only real sight of goal he shot straight at the keeper and Palmer's curling effort with five remaining sailed harmlessly wide.  And that was pretty much that but Nick Oxford refused to be too downbeat. "To be honest with the injuries we have and the other players out for a variety of reason we were always going to struggle to get anything out of the game. I thought we deserved a point but no more than that and I was pleased with the way we defended. Jenks has lost some of his confidence after the horrific injury he received against Llantwit Fardre but we have no choice but to soldier on and keep having some faith in our younger players. I want us to be positive and look forward to the April fixtures and to start enjoying ourselves. We can be a bit miserable at times!  Next  Saturday Town are away at third from bottom Ystradgynlais and will be looking to leapfrog other Gwent teams in the weeks to come.