Gwent Premier League Premier Division

Wattsville 1 Monmouth Town FC 9

THE Kingfishers didn’t hold back in their quest for promotion to the Ardal South East League, hammering nine goals past their lower-placed Sirhowy Valley hosts as they continued to march on at the top of the table.

It was the home side that delivered the first chance of the game on Saturday though, Monmouth’s new goalkeeper Lloyd Watkins given a test from a free-kick but comfortably claiming the ball.

And the Kingfishers opened the scoring in the 19th minute thanks to Brad Phillips, Mitchell Palmer delivering the ball into the box to find Lamin Ndure, whose pass across goal wasn’t intercepted by any of the Wattsville defenders before finding the striker who made no mistake.

Wattsville again pushed from the restart, with Kalab Tewelde producing a shot from the edge of the box, which was again claimed by the Kingfishers’ new No 1.

But the visitors' doubled the lead in the 30th minute, Dan Macdonald’s corner met by Rob Laurie, who sent the ball up into the air for Jack Meredith to head home for 2–0.

That opened the floodgates, with the Kingfishers netting two more goals before the halfway mark, the first being a second for Phillips, when former England Schools cap Dan Macdonald played a great through-ball to Ndure on the wing, who found the attacker in the perfect position in front of goal.

The fourth and final goal of the first half came from Ndure himself, the 19-year-old latching onto the ball after Jake Perrella’s shot was saved, and confidently putting the ball into the back of the net for 4-0.

And after their strong first-half performance, Monmouth kept the momentum going after the break, Ndure netting his second of the game with a great strike from outside the box four minutes into the second period.

After joining his brother on the field, Ebrima Ndure followed suit 10 minutes later on his first appearance for Town since November, making it 5-0.

The visitors' clean sheet soon disappeared however, as Wattsville’s Garin Davies converted from the penalty spot for 5-1.

Four minutes after conceding, Ebrima Ndure whipped in a cross to find his brother at the back post with plenty of space to complete his hat-trick and make it 7–1.

The Kingfishers then won a penalty of their own. Macdonald stepping up to take it as usual and beating Luke Morris in goal for 8-1.

The ninth and final goal came in the 78th minute, Ebrima Ndure finding space in midfield and once again playing the ball through to brother Lamin, who made the most of Morris rushing out to chip the ball over him to make it 9–1 to Monmouth with four goals to his name.

The win leaves the Kingfishers two points above Newport Corinthians at the top of the table, although the city side have five games in hand.

Monmouth Town 2nds were also in action, but suffered a 2–0 loss at home against Undy AFC 3rds in East Gwent One.

Monmouth 1sts will be back in action this Saturday (March 14) at home to seventh-placed New Inn in what is set to be a crucial game for their promotion hopes.

Meanwhile, the reserves travel to face Underwood FC.