A LATE second-half Josh Maksimovic strike earned the Kingfishers a valuable point away from home in their first league game of the season at Trethomas Bluebirds, reports DAN KEANE.

The Kingfishers were looking to build upon their win the previous week in the JD Welsh Cup against Tredegar Town, and were boosted with the return of key players Lewis Davies and Mitchell Palmer who missed the cup match through suspension.

Trethomas came fourth in the league last season as well as winning the Ardal South League Cup, and are fancied by many to challenge for promotion this time.

The Kingfishers lined up as Dan Keane, Lewis Davies, Billy Wheeler, Ash Ford, James Greaney, Curtis Hurley, Mitchel Palmer, Josh Maksimovic, Iwan Mooney, Sam Beckett and Joe Beckett.

The early stages were frantic like any season opener, as both teams looked to settle into the match.

Monmouth started the brighter and maintained possession well and caused Trethomas problems with their pace in wide-areas through Iwan Mooney and Sam Beckett.

The first clear chance came to the Kingfishers when Beckett beat his man with a direct run and ran to the by-line before squaring the ball to Maksimovic on the penalty spot, who hit it first time only to see his shot go agonisingly wide of the post.

Trethomas grew into the game and started to cause the Kingfishers their own problems as they troubled Town`s defence with their direct approach, pressing Monmouth in high areas and turning their back four with constant long balls in behind.

The hosts had a great chance to break the deadlock after 25 minutes when their midfielder played a ball through the Monmouth defence for their striker to go one-on-one with Town keeper Keane, who came out and narrowed the angle to produce a good save.

Bluebirds’ physicality from set-pieces caused Monmouth several problems and they had another good chance on the brink of half-time as a corner was flicked to the back-post only for the resultant header to go wide of the post.

It was 0-0 at the break, and after the restart Trethomas besieged the Monmouth defence with balls into the box.

And five minutes into the half their dominance payed off as they broke the deadlock.

A corner was cleared out to the Trethomas full-back who fired across goal to find Tom Rutherford at the back-post for a simple finish into the net.

The Kingfishers responded well to going behind and maintained possession better and started to get their midfield three on the ball more, playing into wide-areas where they looked to cause overloads around the Trethomas box.

They were beginning to look a real threat and should have equalised after 65 minutes when Sam Beckett`s cross found brother Joe whose header forced a fine save from the Trethomas keeper who tipped it over the bar.

Through their midfield rotations and combination play in playing between the lines, Monmouth continued to cause problems, and on 72 minutes they got their reward, Palmer playing a ball through to Maksimovic who cut on to his right-foot before firing into the bottom right-corner of the net.

Both sides then searched desperately for a winner with neither side content with a point.

Trethomas had a great chance in the 82nd minute when a cross into the back-post needed a point-blank save from Keane to stop the header finding the net.

But deep into stoppage time Monmouth could have snatched it, after a brilliant one-two between Maksimovic and Sam Beckett saw the latter go one-on-one with the keeper, but put the chance agonisingly wide.

Monmouth head coach Steve Davies said: “I thought first-half aside from the first ten minutes we played poorly and struggled to keep the ball for large parts of the half.

“Trethomas are a very physical side and we didn’t win enough second balls within the midfield.

“But after going a goal down in the second-half I thought the boys showed good character and responded well to going behind.

“I felt we were the better team in the second half and on another day could have won it right at the end`.

The Kingfishers were playing Tredegar Town away in their second Ardal South East match last night (Tuesday, August 9) before travelling to play on Wales’ highest football ground at newly-promoted Blaenavon Blues this Saturday (August 13), kick-off 2.30pm.

That’s followed by a derby clash next Tuesday night (August 16) away to Chepstow Town, kick-off 6.45pm.

Meanwhile, Monmouth Town 2nds kicked off their campaign at Goytre on Friday night, Sam Williams and Alex Hammerton putting them 2-0 up before the hosts hit back to win 3-2.