East Gwent Senior League

Division 1

Mathern FC A 0 Sudbrook CC A 1

SUDBROOK CC set up a winner-takes-all clash with Underwood next month when the destination of the title and promotion to the Gwent County League will be decided.

For the second Saturday, Mathern put up a good show but fell to one of the two title contenders, with the vital goal coming soon after the start of the second half.

Last week's winners Underwood now need to win all of their remaining five games including their match at Sudbrook CC, knowing that any points dropped in any of those matches will hand their rivals the crown and the coveted promotion out of the East Gwent Senior League.

Sudbrook's Daryl Cann, who shares managerial duties with Jason Brimble, revealed that his men were disheartened after losing 3-2 at Underwood in their second league game of the current campaign.

"The lads were gutted to have not taken something from that game but I just told them 'we will just have to win every game from now then lads' and that's exactly what we've done," Cann said.

"I'm so proud of the lads this season and we are all looking forward to the game of the season in two weeks time."

The win over Mathern came via a disputed penalty scored by Keenan Perrett but Cann said he thought the narrow scoreline flattered the home side.

"I was really happy with our performance - we had a few key players away but still looked solid!

"Mathern never really looked like scoring and I don't think the scoreline does us justice but we didn't capitalise on all of our chances."

Both sides hit their opponents' woodwork and Mathern had keeper Adrian Lovett to thank for a fine save from a Rob Thorn shot early in the first half.

Thorn also thumped a free-kick against the home side's crossbar but Sudbrook had their goal frame to thank after Rob Wood's shot beat Sudbrook keeper Steve Hepple but deflected off an upright.

As expected, Mathern's manager Lee Baker saw it differently and refused to be negative about losing 1-0 at home for the second week.

"We had some of our third team drafted in because of injuries to regulars and we still competed against one of the title contenders, restricting them to only a handful of goal chances and the penalty was harsh, in my opinion," he said.

"If the ref considered the tackle was worthy of awarding the penalty, he should have sent off our player because he was the last man, but he didn't."

It was true that there were some rumblings among the visitors during the half-time team talk and a side that had already scored 111 goals, seemed to find it hard to create many chances against a defence in which Scott Hollow was outstanding.

"Scott was definitely my Man of the Match because he kept Rob Thorn quiet, which isn't easy.

"Maybe on chances they should have won by more but they didn't out-play us or create a lot and a draw would have been a fair result.

"Without Matt Phillips, Sudbrook aren't the best team in the league, but with him, they are."