Narberth's New Year winning streak came to an abrupt halt in a tension filled final few minutes at the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday.

Although reduced to 14 men in the 51st minute of this National League division one clash following the sending off of lock Andy MacPherson, Bonymaen battled throughout and overcame the odds to snatch the lead through a James Davies penalty in the 38th minute of the second half.

There was still more drama to come however, with Simon Daniel handed the opportunity to snatch back the lead going into injury time, but the usually prolific Otters outside half was off target with his 40 metre penalty on this occasion, gifting Bonymaen the spoils

Looking back The Otters should have wrapped things up earlier against a Bonymaen outfit who were not only reduced to 14 men, but also had to contend with injuries to key forwards Darren Poland and Stuart Miller, but, as is so often the case, the visitors raised their game to offset their difficulties.

MacPherson and Miller had caused most of the problems for Narberth in the first half, their dominance of the lines out denying the Otters the opportunity to use their free-running three-quarters to great effect.

Both Daniel, for Narberth and Bonymaen fullback Scott Davies missed penalties in the opening exchanges and it was not until the 18th minute of play that Narberth's scoreboard keeper found himself with any work to do.

To his pleasure however, it was points for the home team when Narberth's influential fullback Nick Jones took the game by the scruff of the neck against the run of play, sliced through the Bonymaen defence and touched down an unconverted try.

Bonymaen struck back five minutes later when a free-flowing handling movement from their inside their own half allowed centre James Davies to zip over for a try.

Davies converted to put the visitors ahead, but a last minute penalty from Daniel edged Narberth into a one point interval lead.

After the change around both sides were reduced to 14 men when flankers Mark David, of Narberth and Andy Llewellyn, of Bonymaen were yellow carded.

Although Llewellyn returned to the fray, the visitors were still forced to play out the final 30 minutes with 14 men when MacPherson was sent for an early bath following a forearm tackle on Otters skipper Simon Davies.

It should have signalled the opportunity for the Otters to cut loose, but a catalogue of handling errors saw several chances go begging.

In fact it was Bonymaen who were gifted several opportunities to put the match out of sight as the Otters defence gave away a succession of penalties but Scott Davies and James Davies failed with four place kicks between them.

As the clock ticked down it looked as if Narberth would just hold out, but when they infringed again in the 38th minute, James Davies held his nerve to land the penalty and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Narberth welcome Newbridge to the Lewis Lloyd in the next round of the Principality Welsh Cup.