CROSS KEYS slumped to a fifth Principality Premiership defeat from their opening seven games as leaders Aberavon left Pandy Park with a victory for the first time since they last achieved that feat five seasons ago, writes Geoff Champion.

Adventurous Aberavon punished Keys, scoring no fewer than six second-half tries to make it seven wins out of seven and consolidate their position at the top of the table.

After trailing 7-5 at the interval, the Wizards made nonsense of the greasy pitch and tricky handling conditions to switch the ball from forwards to backs in great style.

Left wing Stef Andrews grabbed a brace of touchdowns while fellow wing David Evans, number eight Chris Davies and replacements Ben Davies, David Pritchard and Luke Joseph also crossed the try line.

Outside-half James Garland kicked two conversions, but the man who really caught the eye was flanker Lee Purnell who was outstanding in attack and defence.

Acting skipper Darren Hughes opened the scoring for Keys with a 19th-minute try while another impressive back row man, Josh Skinner, grabbed another 12 minutes after the restart. Full-back Josh Prosser added the conversions.

Keys continued to be without their influential skipper and flanker Scott Matthews who injured an ankle at Llandovery on October 8.

Full-back Richard Carter was given the honour of leading Aberavon on to the field to mark his 300th appearance for the Wizards.

Aberavon battered Keys with wave after wave of attacks but the visitors failed to convert all this pressure into points.

When Keys finally managed to establish a foothold inside the Wizards’ 22, Hughes was on hand to exploit a powerful forward drive to grab a try which Prosser converted.

Six minutes later, a powerful Keys surge saw Hughes crash over the line again but this time the referee ruled he had been prevented from grounding the ball.

Back bounced Aberavon and a smart passing movement down the right ended with Andrews powering over for an unconverted try to make the interval score 7-5 in Keys’ favour.

But the Wizards swept Keys aside with five tries in the last quarter of the game.

Cross Keys: J Prosser; M Powell, L Andrews, B Nightingale, J Unwin (N Williams 63) (J Leadbeater 69); James Thomas (N Trowbridge 63), O Leonard; L Smout (G Carpenter 65), D Hughes (capt) (E Shipp 67), R Cornock, D Hodge, S Williams, T Lampard (N Hudd 70), J Skinner (M George 73), I Jones.

Scorers – Tries: D Hughes, J Skinner; Cons: J Prosser (2).

Aberavon: R Carter; D Evans, Joe Thomas, R James, S Andrews; J Garland (Stef Williams 78), J Flynn (D Pritchard 54); R Jenkins (M Burgess 76), I Davies (L Davies 76), A Jeffries (J Thomas 76), I Moore (capt) (B Davies 54), S Williams, L Purnell (L Joseph 54), C Davies, J Tomalin-Reeves.

Scorers – Tries: S Andrews (2), D Evans, C Davies, B Davies, D Pritchard, L Joseph; Cons: J Garland (2).

Referee: Sean Brickell (WRU)

Star man: Lee Purnell (Aberavon)