Gwent County League - Caldicot Castle 5 Coed Eva Athletic 3

BRILLIANT sunshine played a huge part as Caldicot Castle became the only local team to take three crucial points on Saturday.

Castle skipper Craig McCluskey won the vital toss and chose to attack the castle end, meaning Coed Eva’s keeper had to contend with the bright sun in his eyes as it sank lower.

“We warmed up in that goal and we realised it would be a problem for defenders and the keeper so when I won the toss I decided to play into that goal,” he explained later.

His decision bore fruit early on when Joe O’Brien’s 35-yard free kick into the penalty area sailed over the blinded keeper and into the net.

Despite the setback, Coed Eva came back and equalised within minutes but Castle restored their lead when Rick Woodland rose to head home – the bright sunshine again appearing to cause the keeper to miss his attempt to clear.

Castle launched a series of attacks and looked dangerous on the break with keeper Dave Hayward bombarding the visitors’ defence with a series of accurate throws and kicks.

But once again Athletic equalised, their striker beating the offside trap and scoring into an empty net after evading Hayward’s attempt to save.

The keeper redeemed himself minutes later, deflecting a goalbound shot for a corner before Richard Regulski restored Castle’s lead.

His free-kick, from a similar distance to O’Brien’s, again evaded the keeper to make it 3-2 and McCluskey gave Castle breathing space when he despatched the fourth just before half-time from the penalty spot

In the second half and with the sun less of a problem, Coed Eva launched their own assault on the home goal but Castle kept things tight to please manager Dave Adamson.

”We’ve been working on our communication and keeping compact in training recently, and it was good to see the lads have taken it in,” he said.

“Coed Eva did score a third with 15 minutes to go but Joe O’Brien made it 5-3 when their keeper’s goal-kick went straight to him and he headed it back over his head and into the net.

“Even though we conceded three I was very happy with the way we defended

“They really came at us in the second half but apart from the goal we kept them out. We’ve still got a lot more to do to get out of the danger area but that was probably the most satisfying performance of the season as, from the back to the front, they worked their socks off as a team.”

The three points took Castle to 11th place in the 16-team division but they face a tough test at third-placed Brynmawr this Saturday.