Motaquote Welsh League Division One
24/03/04: Maesteg Park 1 - 1 Ton Pentre

TWO men saw red before half-time as Ton Pentre were held to a 1-1 draw at Tudor Park against Maesteg.

Once Ton Pentre got themselves going they began to look very useful when attacking the Maesteg goal. Fantastic battling from Andrew Hughes saw him win the ball back from Maesteg in their half during the 13th minute of play. After passing the ball to Kristian Orchard he made a forward run for the return ball. On the edge of the Maesteg box he shot but hit wide.

After this Ton's linkage play began to look sublime with Hughes, the Ton captain, at the heart of most the moves. But it was Maesteg who scored the first goal.

Sweeping play across the pitch saw the ball end up with Lee O'Brien on the left wing. He sent what looked like a cross into the box that went over Jon Howe and clipped the far post before crossing the line. It was a deceptive ball that Howe couldn't do anything about.

Ten minutes after this in the 40th, a fight broke out between Maesteg and Ton after Atif Bashir caught Dean Morris a little late. The fracas, that just about saw every player involved the incident, was remedied with both players being shown red cards for their part.

The Rhondda Bulldogs hit back with a goal almost immediately in the second half, in a match that would prove to be a stalemate.

Neil Davies won the ball in midfield and brought it forward to pass possession to Hughes on the edge of the Maesteg area. His fantastic strike beat Leon Cosker in goal as the net rippled for 1-1.

Ton looked the more likely to score in the half as they continued to plough forward throughout looking for the win.

It looked as though Hughes had given Ton the lead in the 72nd minute when it appeared he had lobbed Cosker. Although the ball had hit the back of the net, it had gone over the cross bar and through to roof of the net from the outside, as it had come away from the goalposts.

As full-time approached it was apparent that neither team was going to win this match and Ton will now look forward to their game against reigning Welsh League Champions Bettws at Ynys Park at 3pm on Saturday March 27.

Ton Pentre: Jon Howe; Kristian Orchard (Lee Tapper, 56mins); Neil Davies; Mike Jones; Nathan Prygodzicz; Andrew Hughes; Shaun Fackerel; Dean Morris; Carl Thomas; Alyn Jones; Kerry Harding (Ian Shepherd, 80mins). Substitute not used: Lee Michaels. Sent off: Dean Morris, 40mins.

Match Report by Robert Dowling.