Swifts crash (From Western Telegraph)

Swifts crash

Narberth 3 Monkton Swifts 2

Monkton's double dreams were shot down in flames by Narberth in a stormy Senior Cup semi-final on Saturday.

Swifts manager Benno Jones may have blamed referee Jonathan Twigg for the defeat but the champions were second best throughout.

Benno's frustrations centred on an injury time 'equaliser' which was ruled out for a foul on the keeper.

It certainly seemed like a harsh decision and Twigg was forced to send Benno from the touchline following his vocal protests.

But the heated finale should take nothing away from Narberth who were excellent.

Things didn't look good when regular keeper Huw Davies was held up at work and had to be replaced by Adie Jones. But Monkton were unusually subdued and failed to really test the stand-in keeper.

Richard Nash gave the Bluebirds the lead after seven minutes when he met a cross from Morgan Preece with a neat volley past Craig Reardon.

After 25 minutes striker Wayne Howells doubled Narberth's lead, latching onto Nash's knockdown and outmuscling his marker to bundle the ball home.

They were full value for their lead and it could have been more. Defender Richard Henton went agonisingly close when Reardon dropped the ball at his feet, substitute Dai Gillard fired straight at the keeper went through one-on-one and, after a scramble in the box, a Narberth head forced the ball onto the inside of the post in first half injury time.

Huw Davies made it for the start of the second half and needed to be in good form as the wounded Swifts moved up a gear.

But it looked all over when Gillard scored a third for Narberth on the breakaway with a little over ten minutes remaining.

Swifts defender Richard Hughes had other ideas, however, and fired in a cracker from 25 yards just a minute later.

That galvanised Benno's boys and things got very exciting when Huw Davies was sent off for hauling down Stephen Davies in the area.

Davies picked himself up and easily dispatched the penalty past Wayne Howells, the third Narberth player of the afternoon to don the gloves.

After a number of close calls the Swifts did get the ball in the net once more but the referee's whistle came to Narberth's rescue. They'd survived the onslaught and deservedly so.