AFC Porth 3 Monmouth Town 2

The Kingfishers' three game winning run came to an abrupt end at championship chasing Porth used all of their experience and know how to see out a fairly even game in the Rhondda Valleys.

Town had travelled confident of getting some sort of result such was the contrasting nature of their fortune from the first meeting back in November.

Then, Town were struggling to end an awful start to the season with new Manager Andy Beattie packing the defence and looking to stop leaking goals.

This time out the young Kingfishers were looking to continue their rich vein of scoring form and when Bowen glanced in from Palmer's cross after nine minutes it looked as though another good result was on the cards.

Ironically that the half was reached with the lead still intact had a lot to do with the home team's profligacy but their was still some credit that could be given to Town's defensive back line although the returning Harris was made to work hard to keep out the Porth right side.

Although the game ebbed and flowed evenly, Tranter and Bowen were getting little change from the Porth rear guard and when Smith accepted an invite to challenge on the hour his mistimed tackle was punished with a penalty by the referee.

Town were behind barely ten minutes later when Palmer was hustled off the ball and the resulting cross evaded three more defenders before finding a striker at the far post to tap home.

Town's best spell of the game followed as a number of half chances were spurned and clear opportunities passed up when scoring might have seemed easier.

Town found themselves overcommitted looking for the leveller and were exposed for the third goal with five minutes remaining and although Smith had time to pull another back from the spot after Tranter had been pulled down it was too little too late to save a point.

Joint boss Robin Pick was philosophical after the game "To be fair they were the better side today and used their experience to win the game.

"We've played better in the second half and a couple of mistakes have cost us but it's important that we stick at and learn from this."