Abergavenny Thursdays - 2

Crickhowell - 2

HEADING into their match against Crickhowell confident of a result, the Thursdays slipped up big time in the first ten minutes as they literally handed the visitors two soft goals on a plate.

Club secretary Chris Wilkins told the Chronicle, "No disrespect to Crickhowell, but there currently bottom of Gwent County Division Three and haven't won a game all season.

"So it was a bit of a shock to concede two goals so early on, especially when you look at the team that manager Phil Hemmings fielded on the day.

"We had a nice quality mix of both youth and experience on the park, with which we expected to quite comfortably beat Crick, but it just wasn't to be. After the first two goals we were always playing catch-up."

In the aftermath of the flat-footed Thursdays defence being caught on the hop so early on by an underestimated Crickhowell, the score remained 2-0 until the interval.

In the second-half however a different Thursdays side seemed to take to the pitch and grab the game by the horns.

In particular, Shaun Moss, who was making his season's debut for the first team had an impressive outing.

As the clock ticked down the Thursdays' Andrew Hammet clawed one back for his club, and a cross come speculative shot by Mark Williams led to the Crick keeper accidentally just rolling the ball over his line for an own goal.

In the final analysis, although the Thursdays dominated and scored two goals of their own in the last 45 minutes to level the game, they were bitterly disappointed not to have made a lot more of the chances that came their way.

"It's the same old story," revealed Wilkins, "We push it over, we push it wide, the keeper saves, and so on, and so on.

"It's been that way for most of the season. We have the quality that creates these scoring opportunities, but we're just not producing the telling touch that finds the back of the net.

"I think one of the biggest problems we've had to date is that we've had a lot of Saturdays without a game, so we haven't had the opportunity to get five or six consecutive games under our belt and build the necessary momentum needed to play the fast, flowing, confident football that wins you matches."

The Thursdays will now hope that some of that crucial momentum is on hand to fuel their fire this Saturday when they play a table-topping Llanwern RTB side away.