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Ton Pentre slumped to a crushing defeat at the hands of Garden Village who, whilst aiding their chances of Division One survival, dragged the Rhondda Bulldogs towards the relegation mire.
After taking all the points at Ynys Park, Garden Village sit at the top of the five team drop zone and are three points off Ton Pentre with a game in hand. However, the bottom of the table is incredibly tight and as every game is played teams will switch positions. The fates of Ely Rangers, Dinas Powys and Caerleon have already been decided as their relegation has been confirmed.
A win against Garden Village would probably have been enough to ensure Ton Pentre’s Division One status but they were dealt a massive blow a few days before the match when goalkeeper Leighton James was ruled out for the rest of the season through injury. With the transfer window closed the Bulldogs are unable to sign another keeper despite a request for special dispensation to the Football Association of Wales.
In the match against Garden Village, it all started to go wrong for the Bulldogs during the 21st minute when Derrick Jenkins capitalised on a vast amount of space in the Ton box to give the visitors the lead.
Ton could and probably should have equalised in the 40th minute when Alyn Jones was released up the left. He sent a lovely cross into the box where Wayne Antionazzi was making a diagonal run before connecting with a diving header. Although making good connection with the ball he was unable to direct it low enough as it skimmed over the cross bar.
Early in the second half Ton put Garden Village under substantial pressure in search of an equaliser but were enable to breakdown their defence despite efforts from Lloyd Toghill and Chris Jones, who appeared to have just the keeper to beat only to be denied by a superb sliding tackle.
Garden Village went 2-0 up following a failed clearance by Matthew O’Keefe, who had taken over from Andrew Hughes in goals at half time. As he looked to send the ball up the pitch he kicked it straight at Ashley Richards and after hitting his back the ball lobbed O’Keefe and fell into the back of the net.
Richards scored a more conventional goal in the 77th minute when he was able to run clear of the Ton defence to put the ball past a helpless O’Keefe.
Garden Village rounded off a stunning result with a fourth goal five minutes later when Marc Lloyd scored from outside of the box.
The Bulldogs now turn their attention to the home match against fellow relegation battling rivals Bridgend Town on Friday, 14th May 2010 at 7.30pm. Bridgend Town knocked Ton out of the Welsh Cup earlier in the season and the Bulldogs also lost to them in the away league fixtutre.
Match report © Ton Pentre AFC Press
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