TON SUFFER FIRST DEFEAT OF SEASON
TON Pentre suffered their first league defeat of the season following a woeful performance at Ynys Park and in the process handed Haverfordwest County their first victory on their return to Division One.
The Bulldogs’ performances up until this point had been encouraging but in this match against a team who were relegated from the Dafabet Welsh Premier League last season, they failed to fire.
In the opening 10 minutes, it appeared to be business as usual for Ton Pentre as some excellent attacking play resulted in Rob Blatchford being put through to have a shot at goal. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Blatchford sent his shot wide.
It all started to go wrong for Ton Pentre in the 13th minute of play when they failed to defend a Haverfordwest County corner. When the ball was sent to the near post, Bluebirds defender and captain Sean Pemberton headed home for 1-0.
In the second half, the Bulldogs raised their game ever so slightly and began to create chances to equalise. In the 65th minute, a searching cross into the Haverfordwest box from the right wing found the run of Gavin Morris.
His diving header was exquisite but the connection with the ball was probably too clean and despite having power behind it, James Gwilt managed to make a good save in the County goal.
Ten minutes later, Ton Pentre found the break- through they were looking for when a mistake by the Haverfordwest midfield saw the ball fall kindly to Leon Jacka. Having noticed that Gwilt was off his line, Jacka dinked a sublime chipped shot over the goalkeeper and into the net.
There was a sense that the tide was turning in this match and Corey Shephard nearly gave the Bulldogs the lead in the 86th minute with an incredibly close effort, however, Haverfordwest went down the other end of the pitch to score the winning goal. Rhys Darling forced the ball over the line for the Bluebirds following some lacklustre defending.
The Bulldogs were left disappointed in defeat and manager Lee Phillips kept his team locked away in the changing rooms following the match to address the performance.
Ton Pentre will look to overcome this disappointment when they make a trip to Aberavon to play Afan Lido on Saturday. The match kicks off at 2.30pm.