Presteigne St Andrews FC’s first team had a day to remember on Saturday, 25 October when they came away from second-placed Churchstoke with a 4-3 victory.
Few followers of Spar Mid Wales League football would have given Presteigne much of a chance going into this one – although, to be fair, Jamie Allen’s side had put up a decent showing in going down 4-1 at home to the leaders, Hay St Marys in their previous outing.
But Presteigne were to take the lead at Churchstoke when Ashley Griffiths rose highest to meet an early Tom Hooper corner and from here on in, they were never to be headed.
It was 2-0 to Presteigne when Christian Roberts got on the end of another ‘Hoop Dog’ cross and the promotion hopefuls were clearly rattled at this point.
This was underlined as Presteigne went on to hit both the post and the cross bar in that first half, only for the home side to get themselves back into the game before the interval.
The former League of Wales player Tony Meredith pulled one back for Churchstoke to send the sides in at the interval with only one goal between them.
The next goal was always going to be important and fortunately it went Presteigne’s way as Christian Roberts was again on hand as he scrambled the ball home from close range.
Back came Churchstoke with Tony Meredith on the end of a cross to loop home a header to make it 3-2.
But Jamie Allen’s side dug deep and they again hit the woodwork on a couple of occasions before Duane Anning rounded off a round of ‘six-yard box pinball’ to make it 4-2.
It was squeaky bum time for Presteigne when Churchstoke pulled another goal back with only five minutes remaining, but Jamie’s boys closed out the game for a very welcome three points.
It wasn’t such good news for the Reserves who were on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline in their Mid Wales League (South) derby game against Radnor Valley at Llanandras Park.
Spencer Napolitano was on target for Mark Weiland’s side, but early reports suggest Radnor did most of the damage in the first half.
Even though the visitors were reduced to 10 men after the break, the game was pretty much gone by this stage and there was to be no way back for the Reserves in this one.