MONMOUTH Town came away with a hard fought 1-1 draw at Ton Pentre last Friday.

Manager Andrew Smith made one change to the side that narrowly lost out to league leaders Goytre United in extra time the previous week, with Ben Evans returning to centre half in place for Jacob Guy.

It was the Town that started the brighter and found themselves in good positions without really forcing the home keeper Howells into any meaningful action. However, the home side grew into the game and the visitors struggled to maintain any real composure with rushed and sloppy passing from both defence and midfield areas. 

On thirteen minutes, the home side took the lead when their wide midfielder was allowed to progress into the box and fire a cross into the six yard box where the striker made no mistake to fire past Blackburn in the Town goal.

With the home side dominating, the Town were restricted to a few set pieces from wide areas, which they continued to waste. It was a frustrating first period for the Town, who had shown some signs of a recovery following a poor start to the season. Despite the errors and continued lack of composure, Ton failed to really create any clear cut chances and Blackburn wasn’t called into action too often.

Smith made his feelings known during the interval and was swift to make a double change with Richard Greaves and Kazeem Kareem replacing Joe Loftus and Aaron Davies. Town went more direct and looked far more energetic and dangerous going forward. Sam Palmer was unfortunate when his strike from 25 yards rebounded down off the cross bar. To their credit, the home side defended resolutely and looked dangerous themselves on the break.

Just before the hour mark, the visitors drew level when Ford was taken out in the penalty area and Nick Harrhy placed his spot kick past the keeper. Clearly in the asscendency, the Town smelt blood and went out for the win. An under-hit back pass nearly put Greaves through and, as he knocked the ball past the onrushing keeper, his decision to stay on his feet when clipped backfired as the ball rolled to far away to produce an opportunity. After the game, the official agreed that, had he gone down, he would have pointed to the spot and sent the keeper off.

The town continued to probe and force their way into good areas. Harrhy and Ford both had strikes saved and, after an Ashley Ford cross seemed to strike the hand of an opponent, felt aggrieved not to be awarded another spot kick.

Despite the dominance of the visitors, the home side themselves created chances and could, and probably should, have won the game in stoppage time when new signing Sam Small slipped inside Ben Evans only to fire the ball over the cross bar.

Manager Smith was philisophical after the game. "It’s a strange one really. We feel we’ve been dominant enough in the second half to win the game but are equally aware that we could of lost it right at the end. So, a point each is probably a fair result.

“I’m pleased with the character we showed to get back into the game but our first half performance is up there with one of worst performances of the last five years, and that’s no exaggeration. After beating Britton Ferry and a decent performance against much fancied Goytre United, I thought we’d turned a corner.

“We need to get some consistency to our game. Thats what good sides do. They turn out eight out of ten week in week out and thats what we need to start doing. We’ve lost one in the last six now but need to start turning draws into wins, hopefully starting Saturday at home to Garden Village.”