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Ton Pentre's title ambitions were dealt a severe blow at Tudor Park as Maesteg Park Athletic put their recent bad form behind them to record a fine 1-0 win over the Rhondda Bulldogs.
A controversial second half sending off was the turning point in this Division One encounter with former Maesteg player Steve Conaty receiving his marching orders from the referee.
Ton Pentre made a bright start to the match with Alyn Jones looking sprightly despite the striker being played out of position on the left wing. His trickery confused the home team's defence on more than one occasion but Ton Pentre were unable to find the net.
The Bulldogs had the odd first half scare as they battled against a strong wind at Tudor Park. Robert Walters was proving to be handful for Ton as he battled hard to split the Bulldogs defence and open up opportunities for Maesteg Park to score. However, between goalkeeper Marty Ellacott and the defence in front of him Maesteg were unable to find a breakthrough.
Following the half time interval neither team dominated the match or created good goalscoring opportunities, however, the complexion of the game changed in the 58th minute when Steve Conaty (who had picked up a yellow card earlier in the match) was shown what appeared to be a straight red card. Mystery surrounded the referee's decision as nothing of substance appeared to have happened and there were no protests from the Maesteg players or home fans to any kind of misconduct.
With both teams bemused the match re-started with Ton Pentre forced to finish the game with 10 men.
Moments later Ton should have taken the lead when from a freekick the ball arrived at Mark Crutch's feet in the penalty area. He cleanly struck the ball and it appeared to be going in but the goalkeeper pulled off a great save to tip the ball over the crossbar.
In the 72nd minute Maesteg took advantage of their extra man as good build up play stretched Ton across the pitch finishing with a goal from Paul Jones who struck across Ellacott's goalmouth to make it 1-0.
Ton brought on both Dwayne Mardenborough and Raith Plant for extra fire power up front and even pushed Crutch forward from defence as they desperately searched for an equaliser.
The Bulldogs best chance of drawing level came in the 90th minute when Plant was presented with a clear header on the edge of the six-yard box but he was unable to direct the ball on target as all three points went to Maesteg.
Ton Pentre: 1. Marty Ellacott (Captain); 2. Mark Crutch; 3. Alyn Jones 4. Paul Evans; 5. Scott Hayward; 6. Lee Matthews; 7. Ryan Shugars; 8. Steve Conaty; 9. Ryan Jenkins; 10. Dale Price; 11. Jamie Michaels
Subs: 12. Raith Plant (Jones, 83); 14. Dwayne Mardenborough (Hayward, 77); 15. Kristian Orchard (Jenkins, 60)
Goals: None
Cautions: Conaty, 39; Hayward, 52; Matthews, 56; Crutch, 78
Red Cards: Conaty, 58
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