Abertillery Excelsiors  1
Unknown (29')

Garden Village  3
Marc Lloyd (53'), Ashley Richards (65' & 89')

Welsh League Division 2
Saturday November 5th, 2005

Three second-half strikes ensured Village of victory at Abertillery after having to come back from a goal down to win a league match away from home for the first time since the end of August. Abertillery had taken a first-half lead but goals from Marc Lloyd and Ashley Richards (2) were enough to see off the Gwent side, who had a man sent off during the game.

There was no Andy Mumford in the team after he had played the previous week against Tredegar, Chris Thomas returned from suspension, Marc Lloyd was back after working with the Swans and there was a first start for former Swansea City goalkeeper Simon Cole - who joined from Aberystwyth a few weeks ago - in the absence of Mark Snell.

The game, played in horrible conditions at Woodland Field in Cwmtillery, started off slowly but Village had their first clear-cut chance on 14 minutes when Jack Jenkins brought a good save out of the home goalkeeper.

On 23 minutes energetic forward Derrick Jenkins was brought down and had to be taken off after a heavy foul from an Abertillery defender. He was taken to hospital and it emerged that he may have damaged ligaments in his ankle. Shortly afterwards Abertillery took the lead with the aid of some poor defending, which allowed their player to go through on goal and comfortably slot the ball underneath Cole.

Ashley Richards sent a header over the top from a Dayle Selvage corner just after the half-hour but the main talking point of the half, and indeed the game, came on the stroke of half-time when the referee reduced the home side to ten men. One of the Abertillery strikers was alleged to have raised his arm and struck Steve Bater in the head when play had already moved away from them. The linesman flagged and alerted the referee of what he saw which left the man in black with no choice but to dismiss him.

It was without a doubt a very poor Village performance in the first-half but Bob Lloyd's half-time team-talk must have had a very positive affect on his players as they came out and looked a completely different team in the second period.

The visitors were back on level terms just 8 minutes into the half when Marc Lloyd slid the ball underneath the goalkeeper from close-range to score his first of the season and just over ten minutes later they were in front thanks to Ashley Richards, who converted from a Dayle Selvage cross which was cleverly left by Marc Lloyd who was situated just in front of the striker.

Jack Jenkins had a shot cleared off the line by a defender on 72 minutes after intercepting Simon Cole's long clearance down the pitch but Abertillery gave their visitors a scare four minutes later when they cracked the post from a free-kick on the edge of the area.

Two minutes from time Steve Bater had a glorious chance to wrap-up the win when he was left alone in the 6-yard box but could only volley Marc Lloyd's by-line cross over the top and less than a minute later the home 'keeper was beaten again but the shot, from Ashley Richards, bobbled inches wide of the target.

Richards, though, did claim his second of the afternoon and the goal that put the game beyond Abertillery in the final minute. He neatly chipped the goalkeeper from around 12-yards out to score his sixth goal of the season and for Village to register a win in the league for the first time in four weeks.

Village: Simon Cole; David Evans, Steve Bater, Jamie Mansell; Marc Lloyd, Steven Evans (David Rimmer 80'), Chris Thomas, Paul Bromage, Jack Jenkins; Ashley Richards, Derrick Jenkins (Dayle Selvage 23').

Not Used: Craig Blake.