Presteigne St Andrews FC were undone by an injury-time penalty as they slipped to a two-one defeat in their Spar Mid Wales League, second-division game at Builth Wells on Saturday, 28 February.
Presteigne were a goal down in this one, but looked as though they were heading for a point after Tom ‘Hoop Dog’ Hooper came up with a shot/cross that ended up in the far corner of the Builth net.
Whether it was a shot or a cross – frankly, who cares – the fact it ended up in the net was all that counted.
But there was to be heartbreak for Jamie Allen’s side when a controversial penalty was awarded right at the death and Builth stuck it away to claim all three points.
As for the Reserves, they got off to a flying start in their home Mid Wales League (South) fixture against Brecon Northcote before being pegged back to a 1-1 draw.
Josh Gardner was on hand to put the Ressies ahead very early on when the Brecon Northcote goalkeeper could only parry an initial shot and Josh netted from around five yards out.
In all honesty, the Reserves should have been out of sight by half-time in this one – they created a host of chances but were unable to find the killer touch in front of goal.
Then, as so often happens, Brecon Northcote got themselves back into the game – they had been playing more of the game inside the Presteigne half in the final 10 minutes before the interval and the made this possession count.
A quick break down the left-hand side ended with the visiting winger shooting low past Liam Hill into the far corner of the Reserves’ net – it was a very neat finish and deserved a goal.
Alan Stocker was lucky to escape with no card at all when he brought down a Brecon player on the edge of the box and, from the resulting free kick, a Brecon player curled his shot around the wall and hit the angle of post and cross bar.
The second half again saw Presteigne Reserves enjoy the bulk of possession and they had a gilt-edged chance to win it when they were awarded a penalty.
Adam Crowe stepped up, but his spot kick was saved by the Brecon keeper who did well to get down smartly to his right and push it away.
The Reserves had claims for another penalty late on, although I wasn’t as convinced from the stand as they were on the pitch, but these were waved away.
No doubt the Reserves’ squad will point to this incident as being key, but they should have won the game way before this and so only have themselves to blame.