Monmouth 5-1 Bridgend

Monmouth Town's Kingfishers continued their unbeaten run with an emphatic win against league strugglers Bridgend Town to go joint second in the Welsh League – a point behind the leaders AFC Porth.

A superb opening saw Jack Alderdice thumping home a fine header after only five minutes and when Nick Harrhy slalomed passed the visiting keeper after only 15 minutes it looked like the start of a landslide for the home team as they blitzed the former Welsh giants with a dizzying array of attacks and angles.

Harrhy unfortunately put the ball the wrong side of an open goal and allowed the visitors a chance to regroup and claim an equaliser against the run of play with a fine low finish across Blackburn returning in the Town goal.

Bridgend then proceeded to miss chances of their own as the Kingfishers attacked with an abandon missing in the previous weeks with Ford looking back to his flying self, MacDonald shaking off the effects of a hamstring strain to orchestrate sweeping moves and Harrhy making light of the muddy pitch to glide into channels and carry the ball with menace.

The trio teamed up for the second with MacDonald sliding in Ford whose superb low cross was met by Harrhy who skilfully beat the keeper before prodding home.

If the previous week's game against Ton Pentre was a lethargic encounter this was breathless and the third goal just before half time put Town firmly in command as Jacob Guy's header back across goal set up Nick Harrhy for an emphatic header for his second of the game.

Bridgend to their credit weren't lying down and rolling over as they had in previous games, most notably a 7-0 reverse at Cambrian, and actually had the better of the game for long passages.

Most of that was after another fantastic move ended by Sam Palmer's composed low strike had made it 4-1 with just 50 minutes on the clock.

As they had shown in the past couple of months, defensively the Kingfishers are made of sterner stuff with Evans and Guy largely unruffled even by the excellence of the marauding and experienced player-manager Mattie Davies, and Blackburn pulled off a number saves from distance and one low down smothering the ball at the attacker's feet.

Alderdice was also having his best game since his return from injury, Laurie was just enjoying the muck and nettles of the battle as usual, while Davies seemed to have shaken off his many aches and pains and was enjoying his right back role as Spence contributed in a topsy turvy game for him.

For more on the team, see page 56 of this week's Beacon (7th November).