East Gwent League Division One - Caldicot Castle A 6 Chepstow Town A 1

CALDICOT Castle faced a tough examination of their title credentials when Chepstow Town visited on Saturday.

The visitors kept them at bay for much of the first half and although Castle enjoyed most of the possession, they were unable to make the breakthrough.

Twice they looked to have taken the lead but were denied each time by Town’s keeper Alistair McDonald who dived bravely among flying boots to smother the ball or leapt to turn a goal-bound shot over the crossbar.

But Castle kept plugging away and after good work by Richard Lund on the right, they were awarded a corner.

Man-of-the-match Joe Shaw-Jones swung the ball over, Jake Withey flicked it on at the near post and Steve Edwards threw himself full length to head the ball past an unsighted keeper,

Minutes later Lund collected a neat pass from Shaw-Jones, skipped past a challenge, dodged McDonald as he came out and scored into the unguarded net.

In the second half and defending the castle end, Chepstow were put under heavy pressure as Castle boss Joe O’Brien used his substitutes at the right time to turn the screw.

“I felt Chepstow’s players would run out of steam and we kept asking different questions of their defence.

“Rick Woodland made it 3-0, Craig McCluskey did well to stay on his feet after three or four tough challenges to make it 4-0 when his shot deflected off a defender and looped over the keeper.

“Steve Edwards scored his second with another diving header and when we won a free kick just outside the box, Steve curled his free kick around the wall for his hat trick."

Carl Bailey grabbed a consolation goal, lobbing the ball over Castle keeper Dave Hayward to O’Brien’s disappointment.

“It was gutting to not get a clean sheet but it was good for the lads to get the rust out of their legs after the Christmas period,” O’Brien added.

Bob Cypher