It was a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's show' for the Otters, with a somewhat lacklustre performance against Tredegar in this National League division one clash at the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday.

Piling on 40 points against Whitland without reply in their derby clash the previous week, the Otters may have been forgiven for thinking that they held the cards, with home advantage and a victory away at the Recreation Ground already under their belts.

However, they came up against a well-drilled Gwent outfit who disrupted the Narberth game plan and were full value for their narrow 22-20 win.

Tredegar had more passion and a will to win about them, were half a yard quicker to the breakdown and dominated the linesout through Brendan A'Hearne, Mark Curtis and Stuart Jerman

This gave them the first phase platform for half-backs Jeremy Lloyd and Shane Pinch to dictate, with Pinch in particular a constant thorn in Narberth's side alongside straight-running centres David Davies and Jamie Richards.

The tenacious tackling of Tredegar closed the Otters down in all facets, denying them the opportunity to play their usual free-flowing game, although wings Daniel Gravell and Andrew Jones, fullback Nick Jones and back row forward Matthew Evans did try to follow the lead of skipper Simon Davies in attempting to go forward at every opportunity.

Narberth opened the scoring after seven minutes when Simon Daniel slotted home a penalty, but the lead was short-lived, with Tredegar prop Ian Jones being driven over for a try after Richards broke through the Narberth cover.

Lloyd added the extras, but the pendulum swung the way of the Otters again minutes later when the ever-alert Nick Jones seized on loose ball as it broke loose from a Tredegar attack just on Narberth's 22.

The quick-thinking fullback cleared down field and then showed his pace, and footballing skills, to follow up, hack on again and win the race to the touchdown.

Daniel added the extras, but was not showing his usual form with the boot, landing just one of three penalties awarded to Narberth in quick succession shortly afterwards, which would ultimately prove costly for the homesters.

Tredegar showed plenty of fire in the closing stages of the first half, with wing Daniel Morris almost reducing the arrears when he had a clear run at the Otters' line, but he knocked on.

The visitors were not to be denied, however, and were finally rewarded for their industry when A'Hearne claimed a classic catch and drive try from a lineout.

The touchdown went unconverted to leave the homesters holding the narrowest advantage at the change around.

Playing with the wind at their backs in the second half, Tredegar took full advantage and stole the lead just after the oranges, when Pinch worked the blind-side from a scrum and zipped over in the corner.

Lloyd added the extras from the touchline and then extended Tredegar's lead with a penalty.

The visiting pivot could have increased the advantage further, but was off target with two penalties, the second awarded when Otters' scrum-half Chris Macdonald was given 10 minutes in the sin bin for a tackling infringement.

Tredegar threw up the shutters in the closing stages, seemingly content to sit back and hold onto their lead, but Narberth refused to say die and narrowed the margin to just two points when Jones and Gravel combined to force a chink and substitute scrum-half Adrian Killa ran in under the posts to give Daniel the simplest of conversions.

It proved to be the last hurrah, however, as Tredegar had time on their side, the clock quickly ticking down to give them their first win in five visits to West Wales.

With no league action tomorrow due to the start of the Six Nations, Narberth have a little breathing space to re-group before travelling to Aberavon on Friday, February 21, for a floodlit fixture, kicking-off at 7.15 pm.