JD Cymru South

Abergavenny Town 1 Pontardawe Town 2

ABERGAVENNY Town FC headed out for another Friday game under the lights of the Pen-y-Pound stadium last week, hoping for help from the home crowd to get the three points they desperately wanted, reports JAMIE WOODS.

Only two minutes into the game and they immediately had the spark they needed to ignite the crowd, when a handball in the box from Pontardawe resulted in a penalty, which was cooly slotted home by the captain on the night and man of the moment Rhys Schwank, taking his tally to nine in all competitions this year.

Abergavenny grew in confidence with the early goal, and continued to push for a second but were unable to break down a resilient Pontardawe defence.

And the away side then started to settle after their shaky start and after a steady bit of possession football they found themselves with a free kick on the edge of the Abergavenny box on 15 minutes.

A well-struck shot went straight into the wall, but fortunately for them and unluckily for the hosts, it fell straight to the feet of their number 7 Joe Lloyd, who put the ball past Ethan Ross at full stretch.

One-one early on, with both sides having a go and creating chances, Alex Holmes next fired over from the edge of the box, followed by Paulo Merenghi finding space behind the back four but pushing his shot wide.

Ethan Ross then made two great saves in the Aber goal to see out the half and keep the home side level at the break..

With no changes by either side at the break, chances soon appeared again after the restart.

And with 60 minutes on the clock, the all too familiar happened for the Pennies, Pont marksman Lloyd finding the gap and slotting home to make it 2-1.

Aber again had a fight on their hands having held the initiative early on.

Manager Danny Elliott with a youthful bench started to ring the changes bringing on Rio Evelyn and Zac Duke, who both entered the fray with great energy to help find the goal that Abergavenny so desperately needed.

They continued to push forward in search of the second when a Schwank free kick from 25 yards out clipped the top of the wall.

In a last throw of the dice another attacking change saw local lad Alex Long coming on with 10 minutes to go.

And after some nice play down the left and a little one-two inside the box, he found himself with a one-on-one with the keeper who pushed a great strike onto the bar with the ball bouncing back down towards the goal.

To Aber eyes, it looked in, but the referee and linesman waved play on, a prime example of the luck you have when you’re fighting for points at the wrong end of the table.

Was there to be one last chance late on, though?

Town thought so when Schwank picked up the ball 25 yards out and drove at the last defender, getting into the box and rounding him, only to be taken out.

Yet again nothing was given, and the whistle for full time went shortly afterwards, ending another frustrating night for the home side that could have been a positive result from another battling performance, but wasn’t to be.

But Abergavenny go again a week on Friday at Carmarthen (December 1).