The star of this show had to be the UWIC Inter Cardiff goalkeeper, for if it were not for Richard Hallam, Ton Pentre would have clawed their way back from 2-0 down. This loss most certainly puts the Rhondda Bulldogs out of Welsh League Division One title contention as UWIC push forward their credentials and must be viewed as the championship favourites. This entertaining midweek match under the lights at Ynys Park started to go wrong for Ton Pentre, in a game that they had to win, in the first 15 minutes.

The home side found themselves 1-0 down after Dan Lock struck an incredible freekick into the top left-hand corner from outside the box. The perfect strike caught out both the Ton Pentre defenders and goalkeeper with neither having any chance of redirecting the ball away from the goal. The only complaint is that the referee made a mistake in giving the freekick against Ton after a 50/50 tackle between Neil Davies and Lee Bridgeman of UWIC.

Jamie Michaels saw his headed certainty cleared off the UWIC line after he was found by a Ceri Harding cross. Ton Pentre gained possession once again from the clearance when Craig Thomas played the ball through to Michaels whom failed to score.

Ton were then dealt a cruel blow when the referee awarded an indirect freekick in the Bulldogs area after he viewed Davies's actions to be a back pass. It was a harsh decision as the ball bounced unintentionally off the players' leg forcing John Howe to jump on the ball to stop it from going into the net. UWIC took the kick and shot it directly into the Ton goal with absolutely no indication of it hitting any of the home players on its journey in. The referee awarded the goal while the Ton players protested. It was a clear lack of concentration on the referee and his assistant's part. They plainly got it wrong.

With the Rhondda Bulldogs 2-0 down, and although a little subdued, they still pushed forward trying to find a way back into the game. Carl Thomas had an attempt to lob Hallam but his effort went over the bar.

Five minutes from half-time the referee failed to blow for several fouls committed on Alex Lawless but the freekick was not needed in the end as he used his skill to get away from his challengers to pass to Andrew Hughes. The Ton captain struck the ball but lack of luck took it over the cross bar.

The whole of the second period saw Ton dominate as they went looking to change their fortunes. The Rhondda Bulldogs won corner after corner in the opening stages of the half with a Carl Thomas header forcing Hallam to parry over the bar.

A mistake by Davies nearly provided UWIC with a third but both Martin Randall and Luke Hardy missed the ball, which whizzed right in front of them with a gaping goal inviting them in.

The home defence then let Bridgeman through on goal but he missed the chance to put the game well beyond Ton's reach.

After this slight lapse it was all Ton until the end of the 90 minutes. Hughes beat offside but couldn't shape himself right to shoot on target.

Bulldogs player manager, Kevin Richards, then replaced Craig Thomas, as Ton gave no rest to the UWIC defence.

Carl Thomas hit a powerful strike goalwards as 70 minutes passed but Hallam was equal to his effort and strongly held onto the ball.

Moment's later Thomas had another chance but his endeavour along with Hughes's too was unable to penetrate the goals, however, a corner was won.

The corner was curled into the far post and looked set to go in but Hallam pulled off an exquisite one handed save that denied Ton a goal.

Three minutes from time after another corner Ton finally hit the back of the net but it would be nothing more than a consolation as the referee blew his whistle to award UWIC all three points after three minutes of injury time.

Before this match UWIC press secretary, Clive Harry, announced on the Welsh League mailing list, on the internet, that the club had withdrawn their application to the Welsh Premier due to them being unable to obtain a sufficient standard of ground for the competition. They were due to play at Cardiff Athletics Stadium; however, the stadium authorities were not looking to attract anymore teams to its ground. This therefore leaves only Neath and Ton Pentre as the only teams to apply for promotion.

Ton Pentre turn their attentions away from the league on Saturday 1 February as they travel to Garw to play in the third round of the league cup with a 2pm kick off.

Ton news and views can be found on the teams official website maintained by Porth firm AiGN at tonpentreafc.com.

Ton Pentre: John Howe; Lee Tapper; Jason Roberts; Neil Davies; Nathan Prygodzicz; Andrew Hughes; Alex Lawless; Craig Thomas (Kevin Richards, 69mins); Carl Thomas; Jamie Michaels; Ceri Harding. Subs not used: Tom Billings & Ian Davies.

Match report by Rob Dowling.