Ton Pentre 0 –

Monmouth Town 2

TWO late goals from Eliot Evans were enough to grab the points for the travelling Kingfishers in a gritty game at Ynys Park.

The champions were lifted by news that the home keeper would be suspended for the game given that his heroics have denied them on their last visit to the ground during last season title run in.

However, they were without key players themselves as Clare, Laurie, Hunt and both Ford brothers had to sit this one out, leaving manager Smith as the only outfield replacement.

The home side, buoyed by their recent form and win over Taffs Well looked the more eager for the first ten minutes, but their game was direct rather than penetrative and easily absorbed by Alderdice and Ben Evans, who were superb throughout. 

A makeshift central midfield of Sam Palmer and Joe Loftus struggled to win the aerial battle and were on the receiving end of some sharp challenges, but Cleaves and Evans had more joy on the flanks.

At times MacDonald and Harrhy once again looked sharp whenever they connected with each other, setting up Evans for a couple of early strikes.

Ton did have some openings of their own and spurned a great chance on the stroke of half time when the striker shot straight at Blackburn with an open goal at his mercy.  

The game ebbed to and fro and, although quality was hard to come by on a deteriorating surface, there was no little endeavour as Ton racked up the yellow card count.

With half an hour to play, a yellow was converted to red as one too many aerial challenges ended with an elbow in the head for Palmer and the advantage switched decisively to Monmouth.

That they failed for a while to take it said a lot about Ton's resistance but also a lack of guile at times from the Kingfishers, but as Alderdice stepped into midfield the screw turned tighter.

Evans switched inside with Palmer moving to the flanks and within minutes it was Evans who dragged the defenders in and smashed low beyond the keeper.

Smith then replaced the injured MacDonald which gave some initial impetus to proceedings but Ton threw any caution to the wind and for ten minutes laid siege to the Town goal with series of corners repelled by last gasp defending and always the threat of the breakaway.

Sure enough as the clock ticked down a swift break led to Smith playing Evans in and he finished to claim all three points for Town as the referee controversially but correctly overruled an offside flag.

Town now face nine games to claim a top six finish and qualify for next season's Word Cup which features the top 24 clubs in Wales in a floodlit competition.

But first of all they face Tredegar Town today (Wednesday 11th March) in the Gwent Senior Cup semi final which the Kingfishers last won in 1940. The game kicks off at 7.30pm at Tredegar's Leisure Complex ground