Swansea 4-4 PENARTH

Despite ultimately beating their old rivals to the De Cymru & The Marches title last season, the two teams played out a couple of feisty encounters, re-establishing a very fierce rivalry whilst splitting the series with one win apiece.

Penarth started the mid-afternoon fixture the sharper and were quickly on the scoresheet as Joe Thomas carried the ball deep into the opposing 'D', before finding Chris Baker, who expertly dispatched a low reverse-stick shot to notch a team-leading fourth goal of the season.

The high intensity that Penarth were playing with then kept their hosts under pressure, and it wasn't long before the visitors doubled their lead. This time, following a great passing move around the back line, Marcus Powell fired the ball into the 'D' and onto the stick of Phil Lane, whose neat deflection flew past the Swansea goalkeeper and into the top corner of the net.

Despite briefly being reduced to ten players due to a moment of indiscipline, Swansea managed to survive the continued Penarth pressure, keeping themselves in the game when it could easily have got away from them. The reward came just before half time when, following an intense ten-minute downpour, the home side found their way onto the scoresheet to take themselves into the half-time break just one goal down.

Despite being pegged back, the second half followed a similar pattern, with Penarth playing at a high tempo and Swansea doing all they could to break play down in their defensive third of the field. Given the apparent Penarth dominance, therefore, it was something of a surprise when it was the hosts that got the next breakthrough, with a smartly taken goal at a penalty corner evening up the tie at 2-2.

Losing their advantage appeared to be the prompt for Penarth to raise their game even further, and they were rewarded with a quick riposte as Baker picked up the ball at midfield and beat his marker before finding Lane in the 'D'. Despite still having work to do, the centre forward duly doubled his tally for the game, scoring on his reverse side after beating the solid Swansea 'keeper.

Again, history seemed to be repeating as, having regained the lead, it wasn't long before Penarth got another, this time courtesy of a clever Jack Jopson deflection after good work from Thomas.

The sense of deja vu would continue through the remainder of the half, however, and that wasn’t good news for the visitors. Despite being in control, and having an extra man advantage following more ill-discipline from the Swansea side, the Bears let the hosts back into the game, as a quick counter-attack brought the hosts back into the game at 4-3 and, as before, parity would be restored late in the game, as a series of penalty corners allowed Swansea to salvage an equaliser.

Despite controlling the game for much of the 70 minutes, Penarth were thus forced to settle for a 4-4 draw following their late collapse, and slip to fifth place in the Conference North standings after three matches.

Goalscorers: Chris Baker, Phil Lane (2), Jack Jopson