Gwent FA Challenge Cup round-up

THE remaining local interest in the Gwent FA Challenge Cup fizzled out at the weekend when Mathern FC lost 1-0 at home to Newport Corinthians and promotion-chasing Brynmawr survived some scary moments before beating Caldicot Castle 3-1 in Round 2, writes Bob Cypher.

Given a bye in the first round, Division 2’s Mathern went down to a scrappy goal scored just before half time by the Division 1 side’s Kieran Finnety.

Corries had originally been drawn at home but their pitch was deemed unplayable and, prompted by their manager Steve Rogers, they asked to play the tie at Mathern.

“Our pitch was like a marshmallow,” Rogers said. “I know Mathern’s pitch is quality so it was an easy decision to make.”

The match was a fairly even affair with both sides enjoying periods of pressure and creating and wasting chances

The hotly-disputed goal that settled it came just before half time, Kieran Finnerty prodding the ball home and despite Mathern’s protests that he was offside, the goal was given.

After the break, the action swung from end to end as Mathern searched for an equaliser and Corries searched for the second goal to kill the game and the way the visitors celebrated at the final whistle showed the game was always finely balanced.

Meanwhile, despite going ahead at Brynmawr with a fine solo goal by Craig McCluskey, Castle were unable to produce a cup upset.

Castle boss Dave Adamson said he was encouraged match was a distraction from our real aim which is to stay in this league,” he said later.

“But I was encouraged by the way the lads performed and I think if I can keep the spirit high for our remaining games, we may avoid relegation.”

Castle received an extra incentive when they heard that bottom club Sebastopol had resigned from the league although that is still to be confirmed.

“If that’s the case, we would be bottom but the teams above us would be a lot closer because they have played and beaten Sebastopol so they would lose those points while we lost 2-1 there and still had to play them at home,” Adamson explained.