Welsh League Division One - Monmouth Town 3 Haverfordwest County 2

WITH the football season coming towards an end Monmouth Town FC had seen themselves in a relegation battle, however four points in the last two games against relegation rivals Cwmamman United have given the squad some belief going into the final three fixtures. 

Last Saturday’s home fixture against Haverfordwest was going to push that belief as their opponents sat in second place, pushing for a promotion place into the Welsh Premier League.

The Kingfishers got off to the worst possible start, conceding in the first five minutes to a Steff Wills half volley from the edge of the box, but the belief that has been evident in recent weeks was on show again, as the team settled in a good pattern of play with wingers Brad Flay and Lewis Davies asking the Haverfordwest defenders plenty of questions.

However Haverfordwest’s second came soon after. When a corner went all the way through to the back post it was Steff Wills again who met it, heading home for his second goal of the game with five minutes left in the half. 

For all of Monmouth’s possession and patient play it was a direct run from Mitchell Palmer on the edge of the Haverfordwest box that got a goal back within two minutes, to keep the home side in the game.

A change in the Haverfordwest formation for the second half seemed to unsettle them and more possession and chance were being created by the home team.

A quality corner from Mitchell Palmer was met with a powerful header from Rhodri Lewis to level the scores with 10 minutes of the second half gone, and the game started to open up with Haverfordwest pushing forward. Larrson Brown, making his first start at first team level, was having a great debut, but his afternoon was cut short by a blood injury which saw him being replaced by another under 19 player George Antony.

Then Monmouth took the lead. Good work in midfield by Kazeem Kareem set Lewis Davies away on the right wing and his cross was met by Brad Flay coming in from the opposite side, whose header beat the outstretched hand of the goalkeeper to give Monmouth a well-deserved lead.

The excitement was about to go up a couple of notches for the spectators watching in the spring sunshine, as Monmouth rode their luck over the next 15 minutes. With the visitors piling on the pressure, Monmouth goalkeeper Asa Kirkland was called into action with a series of quality saves from the Haverfordwest attacking line.

Then with just 10 minutes to go from a Haverfordwest corner the referee gave a penalty against Monmouth captain Rob Laurie for a push which seemed a soft decision, but Kirkland dived low to his left and saved the penalty to cheers from the crowd, as the Kingfishers saw the game out for a well deserved important three points.