Motaquote Welsh League Division One
28/02/04: Caerleon 1 - 4 Ton Pentre

THE Welsh League fixtures sent Ton Pentre to Cold Bath Road to play Caerleon for the second time in just over a week. The outcome didn't differ too much from the home encounter as the Rhondda Bulldogs took all three points scoring four goals in the process.

Although the score line suggests that Ton perhaps dominated this match, it certainly was not the case in the first half. When Jason Roberts lost possession to Caerleon's influential Kristian Hancock, Nathan Prygodzicz was forced into making a vital challenge to deny the home side's striker a one on one with Ton goalkeeper Marty Ellacott.

Ton were not looking convincing in both defence and attack, so when the Bulldogs took the lead the goal appeared to come from nothing.

Kerry Harding's battling spirit saw him fortunate to find the ball break for him when the Caerleon defence failed to clear it down pitch. After running in field he sent the ball into the box where Carl Thomas got a headed touch to move it onto Ian Shepherd. He turned well, using his body to shield the ball from the defender, and fired high into the net.

Caerleon, however, equalised five minutes before half-time when their striker ran through on goal with the Ton defence calling for offside. As Ellacott rushed off his line the referee awarded a penalty judging that the Ton 'keeper had brought the player down. Ben Graham scored from the spot giving Caerleon hope of revenging their loss at Ynys Park with the score 1-1 at the interval.

As the 50th minute approached Andrew Hughes looked fired up and ran the ball forward to the outskirts of the Caerleon box. He capped off some great play when he passed to Thomas in the box for the Ton striker to toe poke his team into the lead.

Thomas looked as though he had scored a brace a little while later but his goal was ruled out by the referee's assistant on the far side for offside. He was judged offside again seconds later when he ran onto a through ball. Then immediately after it was third time lucky as Alyn Jones sent a pass across pitch to Thomas who shot from outside the box beating Mark Evans in goal low to his left.

Ton wrapped up the goal scoring ten minutes from the end with Jones grabbing the fourth completing an excellent second half performance from the Rhondda Bulldogs.

March 6 will see Ton Pentre play host to Briton Ferry at 3pm, a team that beat Ton controversially 3-1 back in November.

Ton Pentre: Marty Ellacott; Ian Shepherd; Lee Michaels (Lee Tapper, 61mins); Jason Roberts; Nathan Prygodzicz; Andrew Hughes; Neil Davies (Tom Billings, 83mins); Dean Morris; Carl Thomas; Alyn Jones; Kerry Harding (Kristian Orchard, 81mins).

Match Report by Robert Dowling.