DIVISION THREE

PANTEG ......................... 3 CAERAU ......................... 0

CAERAU felt the force of another Gwent storm, as Panteg comfortably won the day to prevent the Riverboaters steaming back to the top, writes Tony Poole.

A week before Christmas, the Riverboaters hit the rocks at lowly Trede- gar, sinking 3-2 in one of the surprise results of the season on the circuit.

And this latest setback has Caerau in second spot, albeit a point behind Trethomas Bluebirds with four games in hand.

But it’s the likes of STM Sports and Llantwit Major that might well provide the biggest threat to the Riverboaters claiming one of the two promotion spots come May.

In the run up to the Caerau clash, Panteg an- nounced the arrival of goalkeeper Mark Randall and defender Callum Hodges, who came in from Division One club Risca United.

They had already signed last year’s top AFC Porth goal scorer, Nathan Doe, and are the only side this term to beat Llantwit Major in the league.

It was against this background that Caerau headed east and their minibus suffered a breakdown, resulting in the kick-off be- ing delayed by a quarter of an hour.

But it was Panteg who soon made up for lost time with a crisp Ben Walker strike giving them a 23rd-mnute lead.

The killer blow came on the stroke of half time when Luke Dyke doubled the lead, leaving Caerau with it all to find.

And all the money piled on Panteg once Doe made it 3-0 on 65 minutes with the associated three points duly point to bed.

Things did perk up a little for Caerau once Liam Davis came on, but generally they couldn’t cope with Panteg attacking intent.

To get their promotion bandwagon back on track, Caerau must now dig deep in order to show a major improvement.

And that must be triggered on Saturday in a top-of-the-table clash with third-placed Ely Rangers at the Riverboat.