Monmouthshire Windows East Gwent League

CALDICOT Castle are back in pole position in Division 1 following a 5-0 home victory over Tintern Abbey, writes Bob Cypher.

Ciaran Adamson gave Castle an early lead, heading a corner past Abbey keeper Stuart Williams, but despite an overall supremacy against an Abbey side that struggled to raise a team, the home side were unable to increase their lead thanks to some mediocre finishing and some neat handling and timely interventions by Williams.

At only 1-0 down, the half-time message was “keep going and use the wings where the pitch is better”.

But although Abbey resisted, two goals by Rick Woodland and a goal apiece by Steve Edwards and Richard Lund saw Castle over the line.

Castle boss Joe O’Brien was pleased to have kept a clean sheet, especially as the pitch became “chewed up” in his words.

“The game was very one-sided and we had it under control from the off,” he said later.

“I think Tintern were lucky to finish with 11 players as some of their challenges were reckless.

“We created more chances in the second half and found it easier to get down the flanks with Joe Shaw-Jones and Jake Withey piling on the pressure and finding space to provide a stream of crosses.

“Rick Woodland managed to get on the end of two of them to nod home and Steve slid in bravely to get his goal.

“Lundy got himself back on the score sheet for the first time in a couple of weeks.

“Although he hasn’t scored many goals recently, he's remained a key player for us with his work ethic and team play.

“It's nice to come through with a clean sheet as Tintern drew with Thornwell this season and we didn't know what to expect from them with the pitch being heavy.

“I feel they wanted to rough us up more than play us in a football match for most of the game.

“We don’t have a game next Saturday but we are away to Underwood on Tuesday April 3rd to continue our quest for the league. Hopefully, Underwood will do us a favour on Saturday when they visit Thornwell.”

Tintern’s Darryl Reynolds saw the match differently, however.

“I felt we stayed in the game well during the first half, but the way they scored their second deflated us,” he said after the match.

“The fitness of Castle allowed them to adapt to the poor conditions better which meant we were never really in the game from that point.

“We have been struggling to field a full team for a number of weeks but it has to be remembered we lost eight players this season due to injury, moving or work commitments, meaning we have barely fielded the same team from week to week.”