Goytre United 4-3 Monmouth Town

Two defeats in four days dealt a hefty blow to Monmouth Town's Welsh League title hopes but co-boss Barry Burns was looking to rally his troops for the Easter Monday showdown with Tata Steel, who badly need the points to avoid relegation.

Last Wednesday (30th March) the Kingfishers slipped to only their second league defeat since last August despite a stirring comeback from 3-1 down which looked to have nicked a point for the title chasers.

The home team were unrecognisable from the side that put up a tame showing at the Sports Ground just a fortnight ago while Town were forced to shuffle the back four which had kept three clean sheets with Jacob Guy missing through injury and speedster Elliot Ford unavailable.

It took just three minutes for Goytre to score as a slip by Aaron Davies let in Ryan, who calmly slotted past Blackburn. Two minutes later it was one a piece as Rob Laurie rose unchallenged to loop a header in from a corner.

Goytre then looked much the more accomplished, fizzing the ball around midfield forcing Town to chase shadows as the diminutive Sam Wade pulled the midfield strings.

On 20 minutes and against the run of play MacDonald found himself clean through but the normally deadly striker brought a save from the Goytre stickman and the rebound was blazed over by Lee making his first Town start.

On 35 minutes it was 2-1 when Cox eluded his marker to plant a good header under the bar from a corner.

Goytre came out in the second half by far the quicker again with Hyde replacing Palmer for the visitors and within five minutes were 3-1 up as Wade played a number of passes, tricked his way beyond all of the Town defenders and set up Shugars for a point blank finish.

The Kingfishers replied with a well worked goal as MacDonald and co finally outfoxed the blanket defence and Harry finished and just three minutes later, good work by Hyde let in Harrhy who rolled in the open goal. 3-3 and Town suddenly found a bit of rhythm that too often stalked on a poor final pass or was repelled by a sound defence.

They kept probing but didn't really threaten until the 85th minute when a Dean Palmer cross-field ball was intercepted, sent first time straight down the middle of the park and Stevens, on as substitute, outmuscled the centre back pair of Davies and Evans to bury the winner with his first piece of action.

Cambrian & Clydach 2-0 Monmouth Town

After that, a visit to current Welsh League Champions Cambrian & Clydach was always going to be difficult and so it proved as Town, this time missing Guy, Evans, Davies and Sam Palmer, went down 2-0, failing to score for only the second time this season.

Town's co-boss, however, was confident that the defeats represented merely a blip in an otherwise successful first season in the top flight and was insistent his charges would bounce back in the game against Tata Steel.

"At any time to get anything from Cambrian would be a good result and it wasn't to be," said Barry Burns.

"But we've lost just three since September so I'm not worried. It's still a long way to go and although we obviously want to finish top of the pile, the only way to do that is chalk the games off. One by one. Week by week."

Monmouth Town 1-1 Tata Steel

A last gasp equaliser by relegation-haunted Tata Steel completed a miserable Easter for the Kingfishers.

Missing a number of key players shouldn't have been a major impediment for the Town, who were looking to get back on track, but a lack lustre display meant the solitary penalty by Dan MacDonald never looked enough to keep a spirited Tata at bay.

Town are now fifth but still in touch with leaders and now need to win away at third-placed Porth before a run of six home games brings down the curtain on a still promising season. They will have to be better than this.

Town return home in a Sunday game on 14th April – the start of five home games which will determine the destination of the Welsh League title.

Town's reserve team kept up their hunt for honours with a 4-3 home win over Chepstow Town with goals from Liam Wilson (two) and Chris Hyde (two).