Port Talbot Town 3 Haverfordwest County 0

This scoreline really did flatter Port Talbot as the Bluebirds competed very well and put up one of their best displays for some while.

With a quarter of an hour to go, the Blues were trailing by just 1-0, having earlier missed a golden opportunity to go 1-1, but were then hit by two cruel late goals, each of them a deflection and each carrying cruel luck.

Early exchanges were largely end-to-end, and largely even, until Talbot started to mount a little pressure from the half-hour mark onwards.

In the 35th minute, Robert Folland set Mark Dodds free on the right and the striker went round and behind the Blues' defence in a very good run before firing past Gary Haman from an acute angle.

In the view of Deryn Brace, the Blues had rather the better of the second half and could so easily have equalised halfway through that session, when Tony Wallis won a very good ball in the centre circle and sent a searching pass through to Rhys Griffiths.

For two-thirds of the way, Grifffiths did everything right.

He dummied his man perfectly and lined up his shot on a yawning target. Then, inexplicably, he could only manage a weak grubber shot which was easily pouched by the Talbot keeper.

The two goals which finished matters off were cruel strokes of fortune. Following a corner, Gary Davies' shot hit a post, bounced out and bounced back in again after striking the unlucky Wayne Price.

Deryn Brace felt this was particularly unlucky for Price who, for Brace's money, was the Bluebirds' man-of-the-match.

There was a similar fluke element to the third Talbot goal in the dying minutes. Ex-Bluebird Gary Twynham did well to work his way into space but then his final shot seemed to be going nowhere until it took a wicked deflection off Wayne Jones and left Haman stranded.

Deryn Brace refused to castigate his team after this effort. Port Talbot did go back to the top of the table after this win, behind TNS only on goal difference, and are certainly a strong side, but Brace felt that Bluebirds matched them for most of the way, and that the final scoreline in no way reflected the evening's game.

Next Saturday the Bluebirds are away to Garw in the third round of the Welsh Cup. A bus will leave the clubhouse at 10.45 (for a 2.00 kick-off). Meanwhile, fans will like to be reminded of the home game with TNS on Saturday 23rd November.