Spencer Youth and Boys 1 Mathern 3

AFTER three defeats and a home draw with bottom club Mardy, Mathern turned the form-book upside down by winning 3-1 at leaders Spencer Youth and Boys on Saturday.

Before the match, Mathern manager Colin Jeffery admitted he would have been happy to gain a point in what seemed to be a home banker so he was absolutely delighted to come away with a famous victory.

“The team exceeded my expectations with this victory,” Jeffery said.

“We dominated most of the play and the only moment of doubt was when they pulled back to 2-1 after Luke Farley’s two goals.

“But Dan Drake killed them off with a fine strike and in the end, as Spencer admitted in a tweet to us, we could have won by a bigger margin.”

Farley, who missed a penalty at home to Mardy seven days earlier, was the first to step forward when Mathern were awarded a spot-kick after tricky winger Billy Jeffery was scythed down.

The player showed he was not one to hide as he calmly fired the penalty past the home keeper although he admitted later that he was far from calm inside.

“I was nervous, of course,” he said. “But it’s the best way to get over missing a penalty. No way was I going to hide!”

That goal settled Mathern and they pressed their hosts all over the pitch, refusing to allow them to settle and Farley added his second on 25 minutes.

Despite Mathern’s dominance, Spencer pulled one back before the break and as Jeffery predicted, they came out all guns blazing at the start of the second period.

“They were playing with renewed effort and passion but we stifled their efforts by raising our workrate and our will to win,” the manager added.

The killer goal came after some good work by Billy Jeffery on the left who eluded his marker before crossing to the far post.

Farley headed the ball back for Drake to sweep home.

“We deserved the win because our back four was solid throughout the second half although our keeper Jacob Tyson pulled off an excellent save to deny Spencer a second goal.

“Our midfield pairing of Lewis Cutajar and Elliot Greening worked tirelessly to stop Spencer’s midfield building anything positive and Mark Organ worried their defence every time he had the ball.

“It was a fine all-round team performance!”

Mathern now face a month on the road with visits to New Inn (26th), a cup match at local rivals Blackrock Rovers (October 3rd), Ynysddu (10th) and Cefn Fforest (17th).