AFC Porth - 3
Goytre - 1
GOYTRE played second-fiddle to top of the league Porth for most of Saturday's away encounter and paid for it with a 3-1 defeat.
The visitors started poorly by giving away an unnecessary free-kick on the edge of the penalty area in the second minute, and only a fingertip save by Goytre keeper Gareth Williams curtailed any early embarrassment for the Plough Road outfit.
From then on Goytre were reined in their own half for long periods as the home team dominated, and if it were not for their poor finishing of their forwards, Porth would have finished the game off a lot earlier.
A rare mistake in the Porth defence gave Graham Mason a chance on goal which came to nothing after he failed to connect with the ball properly.
Porth deservedly went 1-0 up when a long ball caught Goytre's defence flat-footed, and a desperate tackle by Kevin Wallace resulted in a penalty which was comfortably put away Porth.
Worse was to follow for Goytre as they fell further behind when a Porth player went unchallenged as he headed the cross onto the underside of the crossbar.
Although the ball was cleared by Simon Ritter, the referee deemed it had crossed the line and awarded the goal, despite the heated protests of Goytre.
Into the second-half and Porth were quite content to defend their lead for the first 20 minutes as Goytre began to make in-roads on the game.
Lee Wadden had the best opportunity, but his tremendous shot was just pushed around the post by the Porth keeper.
As Goytre pushed more men forward looking for the goal, they paid the penalty when a quick break by Porth split the visitor's defence for Craig Wells to bag his second goal after taking the ball around the keeper and side-footing it into the net.
Goytre's consolation goal came when sub Andy Walsh was pulled down in the box for Darren Haines to send the keeper the wrong way with a well-taken penalty.
Goytre will now look to take stock and not make the mistake of producing another performance in a similar vein when they entertain a much-improved Risca side at Plough Road this Saturday. Kick-off is at 2pm.