County and East Gwent round-up

BOTH East Gwent clubs crashed out of the County Motors Cup at the weekend when Mathern and Sudbrook suffered 3-1 home defeats, writes Bob Cypher.

Mathern were beaten by West of St Julians with Elliot Greening again on target for the home side while Sudbrook's defeat was at the hands of Division 1's AC Pontymister.

Sudbrook manager Daryl Cann scored his team's goal - his third in three games since recovering from a lengthy injury lay-off - when he took a pass from Neil Windsor in his stride, rounded the visitors' onrushing keeper and stroked the ball into the unguarded net.

"It was a very disappointing result," Cann said later.

"We had a really good first half, but we were poor after the break.

"We caused them all sorts of problems in the first half running between the lines and we felt a little hard done by to only be leading by one goal at half time.

"In the second half we started very much the same way but our defence switched off and within 15 minutes we were 3-1 down.

"Unfortunately, we paid the price for sloppy challenges which resulted in them catching us on the break and we also conceded a penalty.

"Although we took the game to them for the final 15 minutes, it all came to nothing. "

This weekend, Mathern have a great chance to get back to winning ways when they visit lowly FC Tredegar while Sudbrook will be looking to make it a clean sweep at current leaders Wattsville.

The Mill Lane side have enjoyed victories over Wattsville this season in cup and league clashes but Wattsville recently beat fellow title chasers Abertillery Excelsiors so it will be no easy task to gain three points on their opponents' home ground.

Sudbrook are currently third behind Ynysddu Welfare.

Meanwhile, in the Monmouthshire Windows East Gwent League, only one match took place in the two divisions, Rockfield Rovers winning 7-1 at Tintern Abbey.