Presteigne St Andrews picked up another three points as they beat visiting Newbridge 5-0 in their Spar Mid Wales League meeting at Llanandras Park on Wednesday 17 February.
While the scoreline sounds convincing, in truth the game was far tighter that that would suggest, although Tim Broome’s side deserves credit for turning the screw when the visitors’ heads went down for a spell in the second period.
Gareth Mansell put the home side ahead from the penalty spot after around 15 minutes when Sam Williams was brought down in the area – few complaints from Newbridge and Gareth scored with ease.
But any thoughts Newbridge might roll over after this proved ill-founded – Nicky Cadwallader in the home team’s goal made fine saves from Steve Morgan, and then from an Adriano Girolami header from a left-wing corner, before he produced a fine tip-over from a shot from the edge of the area.
Presteigne also produced other first-half chances – Max Powell fired wide following a corner, while Danny Tolley was at full stretch to meet a Nick Evans cross, only to see his shot come back off a post.
Newbridge started the second half well and were first to everything for the first 1o minutes or so, but Presteigne then scored the crucial second goal – Danny Tolley’s excellent right-wing cross picked out Nick Evans who still had a fair bit to do before beating Luke Brimfield for 2-0.
Newbridge heads went down for around 15 minutes at this point and Presteigne rattled in two more goals – Sam Williams’ quick throw picked out Joey Price who stepped inside a challenge before firing home, while Nick Evans beat the offside flag to round Luke Brimfield and make it 4-0.
Goal five was a cracker – Gareth Mansell scored a gem of a free kick from the edge of the box and, although Newbridge lifted their game again and had shouts for a penalty for handball, Nicky Cadwallader in the home team’s goal wasn’t kept too busy in the closing stages.
A decent win for Presteigne, but Newbridge will have headed home thinking there was never five goals between the sides and, while the home side was very good value for the win, it would be difficult to argue with the visitors about the scale of the victory.