PONTYPOOL’s promotion hopes are now hanging by a thread after they lost their winner-takes-all Swalec Championship clash at Bargoed Park, writes Carl Field.

The win for Bargoed – their 11th on the spin – secured them promotion to the Principality Premiership along with Merthyr and Swansea while this crushing setback leaves Pooler’s hopes in tatters.

Having now completed their fixtures, their fate is now out of their own hands with RGC 1404, who are seven points behind Louie Tonkin’s side, with games at Cardiff Met and Glynneath still to play.

Following on from last weekend’s heartbreaking home defeat to RGC, where Pooler missed their chance to go up, they began with intent here and were determined to put that right.

They made the perfect start inside two minutes as scrum-half Aaron Quick offloaded to wing Pat Lewis to storm over in the left corner, although full-back Clayton Gullis’ attempted conversion from the touchline fell just short.

But back came Bargoed with a spell of sustained pressure in the visitors’ 22 and, despite some strong defence from Pooler, the hosts got their reward after 12 minutes with their try scored by No.8 Lewis Weyman, with fly-half Calum Jones’ conversion attempt falling short.

Pooler suffered a blow midway through the first half when they lost skipper Ben Parry to injury.

It meant a reshuffle with loosehead Jamie Jeune shifting to hooker while ex-Newport Gwent Dragons prop Aaron Coundley came off the bench.

Bargoed edged 8-5 in front just shy of the half-hour mark thanks to Jones’ penalty.

Gullis’ penalty directly in front of the uprights on 34 minutes levelled it up although Pooler were, at times, guilty of shooting themselves in the foot as they gave away countless penalties for various infringements inside their own 22 – although the referee kept his cards in his pocket.

Jones booted a further two penalties before the break to put Bargoed 14-8 ahead at the turnaround.

Gullis missed the chance to pull Pooler back to within three points when his penalty five minutes after the restart sailed wide.

With the game headed into the final quarter and with their hopes slipping away, Pontypool began to apply real pressure.

Outside centre Dan Robinson broke on 65 minutes but was held up while lock Derryn Jones was knocked into touch as he went for the line moments later.

With time ticking away, Jones’ fourth penalty six minutes from time put Bargoed 17-8 up and with it may well have gone Pontypool’s hopes of returning to the Premiership – which will be ring-fenced for the next three seasons.

Scorers: Bargoed – Try: L Weyman; Pens: C Jones (4) Pontypool – Try: P Lewis; Pen: C Gullis.

Bargoed: J Purcell; L Hudd, L Prothero (P Price 80), D Humphries, A Norton; C Jones, J Pizey (M Hutcheons 80); R Morgan, I Jenkins (L Lippiet 80), K Brown, G Rogers, D Lynch, A Coupe, L Meades (capt), L Weyman (R Coombs 57).

Pontypool: C Gullis; J Hurley, D Robinson (R Dyer 6-9 blood), S Tu’ipulotu, P Lewis; S Mills (T Hancock 75), A Quick (R Dyer 70); J Jeune, B Parry (capt) (A Coundley 20), G Harris, A Brown, D Jones, G Rusby-Davies (M Thomas 66), R Nash, B Sparks.

Referee: Sean Brickell (WRU)

Pontypool star pick: Aaron Coundley