Gwent County League Division Three - Sudbrook CC 3 Caldicot Castle 1

TABLE-toppers Sudbrook retained their place but were forced to come back from a goal down when Caldicot Castle came to Mill Lane.

In a match which saw five Castle and four Sudbrook players cautioned and Sudbrook’s Ben Miles sent off for a studs-up tackle, the neutral might think this was a dirty game with players kicking lumps out of each other, but that was not the case.

Sudbrook assistant manager Drew Main admitted his team had taken the opposition lightly.

“We started very slowly and perhaps we were guilty of underestimating Castle,” he conceded after the match.

“But we controlled it from 20 minutes onwards and were never in any serious danger of dropping points again,” he added.

“It was a laboured performance at first but we welcomed back a number of players who have been missing in recent games and it was good to be able to name players in their regular positions so the team resembles the team we had earlier in the season.”

Manager Daryl Cann said it was significant that following the defeat the previous Saturday, the entire first team squad turned up to training, eager to set the record straight and show the defeat was a one-off, below-par performance.

Castle started brightly with Connor Bryant and Tim Battersby in good form and creating chances.

After seeing one effort slide the wrong side of an upright, Joe Shaw-Jones was celebrating minutes later as he gave the visitors the lead, prodding the ball home from close range.

Sudbrook’s equaliser was controversial because Castle felt Jamie Green had fouled their keeper Dave Hayward as he jumped to collect a corner, Steve Hepple forcing the loose ball home at the far post.

Keenan Perrett made it 2-1 before Castle’s Paul Evans limped out of a tackle and was a passenger for the rest of the game

Things went from bad to worse for Castle after Miles brought down Regulski and was dismissed.

The story of the second half was very much the same as the last 25 minutes of the first half although Castle were always looking for the equaliser until Kieron Nesbitt scored the third and decisive goal.

Castle’s assistant manager Alex Hart conceded the sending-off seemed to affect his team more than it did the home side.

“Regulski struggled after the tackle which was reckless but not malicious,” he said.

“Sudbrook dominated even with 10 men and the injuries we were carrying impacted on us. Towards the end we had only six fit players on the field.

“They deserved the win and although the game was fierce it was played in a good spirit.”

In the other games in the county league Luke James scored for Severn Tunnel in their home defeat by Rogerstone.

“It was a very poor game and a bad day at the office,” admitted Tunnel’s co-manager Marcus Jenkins.

In Division Two, the match at FC Tredegar was switched to Mathern where the home side took full advantage, Billy Jeffery netting a hat-trick and Ieuan Diyaolu completing a 4-0 victory.