Haverfordwest County overcame their League Cup defeat on Tuesday to win 1-0 against Cymru Premier third placed side Newtown AFC, thanks to Alhagi Touray Sisay’s first home goal in over a month.

Sisay scored the only goal of the game when a pass over the Newtown defence by Alaric Jones was controlled by the striker with his first touch, and smashed underneath Dave Jones with his second.

The game was the most entertaining, and could have easily ended 4-3, 5-4 or even 3-0 to either side, thanks to great chances, better saves and top quality performances.

Sisay started the game as he meant to go on, as only two minutes into the game, he saw a shot blocked from close range.

It wasn’t just Sisay who started brightly for the home side, as Kyle Patten and Ben Fawcett also had shots blocked within the first ten minutes.

The first half was where most of the Bluebirds’ chances came from, as Sisay continued to show his class, having a further effort blocked only moments before having a long-range goal chalked off for offside.

The best chance was a golden one which came late on in the first half when Fawcett’s cross missed everyone and went to the far post, where Scotcher ran on for what looked a certain goal, but scuffed his shot over the bar.

It wasn’t so much the quantity of chances which Newtown had in the first half, but the quality, as they came so close time and time again, hitting both the post and crossbar on separate occasions.

It was Nick Rushton who hit the post for the visitors with a shot he took while slipping, minutes before his chip over Gajda clipped the top of the crossbar.

The danger man however was James Davies, who was at the centre of almost all of Newtown’s attacks, the first and best of which was when his tight-angled ferocious shot went narrowly wide of the far post.

Davies was also close when Williams’ cross hit the side of the winger’s body rather than his front, otherwise Newtown could have easily taken an early lead.

Newtown’s number 11 had another great chance when Gajda was out of goal, but good defensive reactions meant Davies couldn’t get the ball into the box until Gajda had returned.

It was also common to see Newtown crosses ending up over the crossbar, as the intended targets kept getting underneath the ball. Davies, Shane Sutton and Callum Roberts all headed off target in the first half.

This continued into the second half, as Newtown showed their quality and piled on the pressure from minute 46, as Sutton headed two chances over the bar in the first ten minutes.

Davies again showed his class, instantly latching on to a mix up in the Bluebirds defence, but his reactive shot was palmed away in a top class save by Gajda.

The pressure kept coming for that equaliser, as Rushton curled an effort over, and another top class save from Gajda was required from Aaron Williams’ low hard free kick.

However, County had a brief spell on top where chances fell to them, the first (and most shocking) of which was when Jack Wilson attempted a 65-yard shot from his own half, which, although the correct power, ended up wide.

Within 30 seconds, Wilson had another opportunity when Jones misread the direction of the ball, and had to run back in order to stop Wilson doubling the lead.

Again, it was only moment after when the home side produced a superb counter-attack, ending up with Fawcett on the right, whose drilled shot across goal was just wide.

Despite strong pressure from Newtown into the dying minutes, the last great chance also fell to the home side, when Lewis’ venomous 20-yard effort produced the best save of the game by Jones who leapt to stop it going right into the top corner.

The three points keeps Haverfordwest County in ninth place, but now the Bluebirds are only one point from the top six.

Next up for County is a trip to Cymru Premier runaway leaders TNS, who sit seven points clear at the top of the table.

HAVERFORDWEST COUNTY AFC: Gajda, Scotcher, Jones, Watts, Fawcett, Wilson, D Rees ©, K Rees, Sisay, Lewis, Patten

Unused subs: Le-Grice, Humphreys, King, Davies

NEWTOWN AFC: Jones, Roberts, Mills-Evans, Sutton, Rushton, Evans (Mwandwe 58’), Davies, A Williams, C Williams ©, Hughes (Rowland 77’), Walker

Unused subs: M Williams, Taylor, Edwards, Thomas, Arsan