Dafabet Welsh Premier

Haverfordwest County 1

Carmarthen Town 2

THE Bluebirds’ chances of survival receded further after a disappointing local derby which showed some skill and a fair measure of commitment on both sides, but which was tinged by the end with far too much niggling and ill-will.

On a rather chilly afternoon and on a hard pitch, the game was slow to get the cold out of its bones, but after an uneventful first 10 minutes the Blues were hit by a poor goal when, in the 12th minute, the Old Gold threaded the ball through the Blues’ defence too easily and Daniel Sheehan was able to shoot past Alex Connell from12 yards.

Having put themselves up against another hurdle, the Blues then made a good job of fighting back. They had two-thirds of the rest of the first-half play. They came close a few times, notably when Luke Borrelli met a ball in from Jason Bertorelli and volleyed just over. But there were many times when it wasn’t really the finish which was lacking but the final ball in, so the Blues remained a goal down at half-time. There was one real flicker of possibility though, when the Old Gold’s Kieran Lewis was sent off in the 28th minute after a second bookable offence.

Early in the second half came a flurry of scoring. Carmarthen’s Dave Vincent headed in from a 53rd minute corner but within 40 seconds Ricky Watts found a huge gap in the visitors’ defence and darted in to restore the one-goal gap.

Again the home side pushed forward for the goals they needed but there was a similar pattern to the first half as the final ball didn’t quite reach the attacker’s foot. Declan Carroll had a couple of good cracks at goal and sub Alfie Stottor made a couple of good runs, but it wasn’t to be the Blues’ day. At the other end Sam Rodon and Dale Griffiths had both picked up yellow cards early in the second half and this maybe explained an air of uncertainty in the defence when the Old Gold did break.

The three minutes of time added-on saw on off-the-ball clash involving Greg Walters and Kyle Bassett. Bassett, who was already on a yellow card, but the furious Walters had to be drawn away by team-mates. Within two minutes, after Lee Idzi had been yellow-carded for time-wasting, Bassett was taken off in a 92nd-minute substitution. And so ended one of the less inspiring local derbies.

This Saturday the Bluebirds travel to play Bangor City.

The Ball sponsor on Saturday was Mr Neil Watts (dentist) and the Programme sponsors were the Valero Refinery.

Haverfordwest County: Alex Connell, Ricky Watts, Kristian Speake, Sam Rodon, Dale Griffiths, Sean Pemberton (Greg Walters, 59), Kieran Howard, Nicky Palmer (Tomos Wellington, 82), Declan Carroll, Jason Bertorelli (Alfie Stottor, 70), Luke Borrelli.