MATHERN manager Colin Jeffery’s pre-match request proved prophetic as his team surrendered the lead three times in an eight-goal thriller.

Writing in the club’s programme, Jeffery hoped for “a good, exciting game with plenty of goals”, although he probably envisaged the majority of those goals would be in the opponents’ net.

With the Mathern pitch looking immaculate in bright sunshine, hopes were high that they could consolidate their position at the top of the table.

Those hopes were reinforced when the home side were awarded a hotly-disputed penalty after 20 minutes when a goalbound shot struck a defender’s arm.

Whether it was deliberate was doubtful and with the Wasps’ bench vocal in their condemnation, the referee chose to hold up play while he explained his decision to the Wasps’ manager.

Luke Farley was made to wait several minutes before he outwitted Wasps’ keeper. Dave Pearce, sending him the wrong way to score.

But the referee decided there had been some infringement and Farley was made to retake the spot-kick, coolly repeating the treatment, firing low into the corner.

Before Mathern could increase their advantage, Wasps equalised but Ieuan Diyaolu restored the home side’s lead, finishing off a good move.

Again, it was short-lived and the score was 2-2 at the break.

Wasps went ahead soon after but this time Mathern responded quickly, Mark Organ equalising with a superb goal, winning a race with Pearce for a long pass before chipping the ball over the onrushing keeper from the right touchline.

Organ scored his fourth goal in three games to put Mathern ahead for the third time but the advantage was short-lived as Wasps equalised again.

“We are still experimenting with our best line-up,” Jeffery admitted later.

“We started with an attacking formation and a back four who have been pretty solid.

“I sent on new signing James Trigg and pushed Shane Murphy forward after we lost Billy Jeffery at half-time through injury.

“James had a good solid game when he came on and it will take a few games for our new signings to gel together.

“We need to improve at the back with regards to communication. We have two quality goalkeepers who have strengths and weaknesses so it’s a period where we are still experimenting.

“We have plenty of pace in the side and Mark Organ has scored four goals from right midfield and has looked really sharp.

“I believe the Wasps game was two points dropped as we dominated most of the game but the positive is, we are still unbeaten.

“We have Neuadd Wen at home on Saturday. They won 11-2 on Saturday so they will test our back four but with everyone available we should have a strong squad.”