BOTH East Gwent-based clubs bowed out of this season's competition but they ensured their Division 1 opponents had to battle hard to take their place in the hat for Saturday's semi-finals.

Mathern held their opponents for a scoreless first half and went ahead early in the second half thanks to a Luke Farley goal.

Until then, Mathern were more than a match for Marshfield but found it difficult to score a second goal which would have seen them home.

But, in the dying moments of the second half, a breakaway on the left resulted in Mathern keeper Josh Harding conceding a penalty and the equaliser.

With extra time and the dreaded penalty shoot-out looming, Mathern boss Dean Thomas  made some important substitutions.

He replaced Harding with Oli Aleman who has saved a number of penalties this season and sent on Wayne Duffield who normally takes penalties for Mathern's reserve team in the East Gwent Senior League.

With no further score during extra time, Thomas' tactics seemed to have given the home side advantage when Aleman saved two of Marshfield's penalties.

However, the visitor's keeper also performed heroics and the shoot-out went into sudden death and Mathern hearts were broken when Shane Murphy's penalty struck a post.

Thomas admitted he was "gutted" at losing in that way but said he was proud of the way his team performed.

"We outplayed a first division side for most of the game and were very unlucky to go out on penalties," he said.

"To finish sixth in our first season in Division 2 is a good achievement, but it says a lot for our players' attitude that they were disappointed with not finishing higher. "There's a lot of quality in this club as a whole and it's a very youthful side as well,  so all looks good for next season."

At Blackrock, manager Paul Lovell said his players perform better when they play better opposition.

"PILCS opened the scoring and maintained a half-time lead and they scored again early in the second half," he said.

"We were competing well and matching them and then a headed goal by Ben Smith reduced the deficit and set up a nail-biting finish.

"Our hopes were dashed in the closing minutes when a cross from wide on the left drifted over our keeper.

"We are disappointed of course but we performed well as we always seem to do when we are playing better teams."