Ledbury Town left Forest Road with all three points after scoring two late goals to win a close fought match.
Kevin Jones battling with Ledbury’s centre half.
Several Saints players with their head in their hands after another chance goes begging.
The Saints could have been two up inside the first five minutes with chances falling to Kevin Jones and Tom Weaver both players going close with their efforts. It was the visitors who opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Valderrama broke down the right and beat the out rushing Ian Jones to the ball, his cross giving the Ledbury striker a two yard tap in unmarked in the centre of the goal. 0-1.
The Saints saw plenty of the ball but found the visiting defence hard to break down, the equalising goal came in the 29th minute, good work down the left flank from Gavin Williams saw him find striker Josh Wisniewski who turned in the box and shoot first time, the goalie made a great save but to no avail as the ball fell to Jones who finished well from an acute angle to make it 1-1.
The Saints went 2-1 up in the 41st minute after a Tom Weaver cross was met by Wiliams who nipped in front of his marker to finnish well with his right foot. As the half time whistle approached Ledbury broke down the right hand side and a cross was met by an oncoming midfielder to make the half time score 2-2.
The early parts of the second period were lacklustre by both sides, sub John Daw had a good effort saved just before The Saints went back infront when Mike Havard rose at the back post to send in a thumping header from a Williams corner for 3-2. At this point it looked like the hosts would extend their lead, Jones and Wisniewski combined with the latter hitting the post with a curling effort from 20 yards, two minutes later good work by Daw saw him beat two players and then burst through the middle with The Saints having a three on one situation but the youngster held on to the ball too long and a recovering defender tackled him.
In the 80th minute a long hopeful free kick from inside their on half saw Preedy send a looping header over Jones to make the score 3-3. The Saints were now throwing everything at Ledbury looking for the winner and once again the visiting keeper pulled off a great save from Wisnieski by tipping his pile driver over the bar. The sucker punch came with just a couple of minutes to go when a Saints defender was caught in possession, a cross from the right found the big Ledbury centre forward some 25 yards out, he hit an unstopable shot giving Jones no chance in the home goal. The Saints tried to get something out of the game in the last couple of minutes but Ledbury held firm until the final whistle.
A poor display compared to last week, maybe a few thought it would be easy after we beat them away last week. I thought our two frontmen did well as did our manager Sean Hackett who chose Josh Wisniewski as our man of the match.
Team- Ian Jones, Graeme Keeble(Sam Bradley), Mike Havard, Josh Davies, Phil Davies, Gavin Williams, Steve Goodwin, Stu Davies(John Daw), Tom Weaver(Jake Atkinson), Kev Jones, Josh Wisniewski.
Next up Talgarth Town in The Radnorshire Cup. Wednesday Sep 15th k.o. 7.30pm at Forest Road.