Panteg cruise to 4-0 victory (From Free Press Series)

Panteg cruise to 4-0 victory

PANTEG produced one of their best performances of the season on Saturday as they beat Garnlydan AFC 4-0 in Gwent County League Division One.

And coach Paul Thomas hopes the good form will continue as his team faces a series of tough matches over the next few weeks.

Next weekend, they host local rivals Blaenavon Blues in the league and then they play unbeaten Division Three team Monmouth in the Gwent Amateur Cup.

"The next two or three games could go a long way in shaping the rest of our season so they are very important to us," admitted Thomas.

Saturday's match against Garnlydan was moved to Panteg after their opponents were banned from playing at home following crowd trouble earlier in the season. And Panteg took full advantage of the switch by firing in four goals and keeping a clean sheet.

It was the defensive effort that most pleased coach Paul Thomas. "We don't keep many clean sheets so this was a terrific effort. The boys defended well as a team but left back Paul Morgan was particularly good on Saturday."

The home side couldn't have wished for a better start as striker Lee Morris pounced to score in the first minute of the game.

Garnlydan then threatened to get back in the match but excellent defending kept the visitors at bay to keep the score at 1-0 at the break.

The second half saw Panteg double their advantage when centre forward Mark Taylor netted. Panteg's third and fourth were both scored by second half substitutes. Lee Gwilliam, back from suspension, came off the bench to make it 3-0 and then 16-year-old Niall James completed a good day at the office for Panteg with a fourth.

Coach Thomas said: "If we continue to play at this level, we can go into every game with confidence."