Amateur Cup Round Two

THREE East Gwent clubs eased into the Third Round draw with victories at the weekend, despite the recent rain and blustery winds.

East Gwent Senior League side Underwood had striker Josh Downing’s hat-trick to thank for their 3-0 win at North Gwent side The Oak, although their ability to adapt to the pitch and weather conditions played a key part according to manager Craig Johnson.

“We were playing against the wind in the first half but thanks to a fantastic defensive display we kept them out and led 1-0 at half time,” he said.

“In the second half, playing with the wind, we dominated and two further goals from Josh put us in the next round.”

Meanwhile, Gwent County League sides Caldicot Castle and Mathern FC also won their ties but Sudbrook CC’s run came to an end at Tredegar.

Castle boss Alex Hart was pleased to win a scrappy game, 2-1 at home to FC Boilermakers.

“We started strongly but didn’t take early chances and it was quite late in the first half when we went ahead through James McKeon,” Hart said.

“We had a second ‘goal’ ruled out, wrongly in my view, when a Joe O’Brien free kick was headed home by Craig McCluskey but we kept going and Craig doubled our lead when he pounced on a long clearance and lobbed the visitors’ keeper.

“The goal seemed to spur them on more than it did us and our keeper Dave Hayward made some excellent saves before we failed to deal with a corner and they scored.

“That made the last 10 minutes hard as they created chances but we defended well.

“We have really dug deep in our last two games – the sort of attitude we need to grind out wins in the league.

“But we need to take more of the chances we create and with a massive game against Rhymney on Saturday, that’s an area we can improve upon.

Mathern made heavy weather of beating West of St Julians 3-2 and had to come from an early reverse to progress further.

They went a goal down when Max Dennis rifled the ball home from the edge of the area but a towering header from Luke Farley levelled before Mark Organ put the home side ahead in the first half.

Wayne Duffield nipped ahead of his marker to nod home the third from a free-kick and that should have been game over but a penalty scored by Chris Williams gave the visitors renewed hope of forcing extra time.

Neither team was able to finish chances created although Mathern keeper Jacob Tyson and his opposite number Dan Williams made good saves to prevent further goals.

Sudbrook CC boss Daryl Cann said two scrappy goals ended his side’s involvement with Chris Phillips scoring for the Mill Lane side.

However, Cann is now concentrating on Saturday’s visitors, promotion hopefuls Villa Dino.

“It’s a massive game for us but we’ll have our full squad available and we are all raring to go.”