"Let's not have a Kilgetty five minutes," warned team coach Alan Hurst as his side trotted out for the restart of an evenly balanced match.

But as has happened so often this season, the players representing the 1st XI had a momentary lapse of concentration and allowed Milford to come out of the starting blocks that little bit quicker and seize the initiative, by scoring what turned out to be the decisive goal in an evenly balanced match.

This was most definitely a 'game of two halves', with the Athletic having the better of the opening 45 minutes, only to be under the cosh for much of the latter period.

However, their breakaway goal, after Kilgetty had idly given away possession in midfield, which allowed the home forwards to slice through their defence like a knife through butter, and left Christian Phillips stranded as the ball flew past and settled into the bottom corner of the net, proved to be the difference between the two teams.

The Milford pitch, with its steep downfield slope, has seen off many a good team and is believed to be worth a goal start to the home side.

And so it was hardly surprising that Milford set out their stall to use the downward slope in the first half to their best advantage, by getting the ball onto the deck in the middle of the park and spraying accurate diagonal balls behind their opponents' defence, which drifted away from the 'keeper and into the paths of their lively forwards.

Using this tactic, they created a phalanx of opportunities and although each one was well struck they couldn't find their designated target.

With these near misses, fortune appeared to be favouring the away side and they were spurred on to compete more in the match, with 'Stroller' Mansbridge finding his feet, and more importantly, finding his team-mates with increasing efficiency.

One of these happened to be 'Trojan' Jones, who was finding space on the right wing and was able to make some typical surging runs down the flank and torment the ageing Milford defence. So it was only natural that the opener came from one of these penetrative forays upfield.

On the half-hour mark, the Trojan calmly collected the ball on the halfway line and skipped past one opponent with ease, before drawing out the fullback and slipping the ball to the effervescent 'Lovejoy' Griffiths.

Jones continued running like a hare out of a trap and as the centre-half was sucked out of position, Griffiths cheekily nutmegged him to put his tea-mate clean through on goal.

The Trojan obligingly slotted the ball past the home custodian to take the lead against the run of play.

"The boy done good!" shouted the away support, but this spurred Milford on to even greater efforts and they rolled down the hill like a black and red tidal wave, with their forwards frequently stretching the Villagers' defence.

Despite this pressure, Kilgetty, who had given full debuts to Adam Thorne in attack and Dan Hughes (son of the legendary Gary) in defence, fought desperately and looked like holding on.

But after striking the underside of the crossbar and seeing some gob-smacking last ditch tackles from James Bessant, it looked like something had to give and with just under 10 minutes remaining in the half they got the breakthrough their efforts warranted.

Another diagonal ball from left to right found the Milford number seven who rifled the ball, sweet as a nut, into the lower echelons of the old onion bag, to send the teams in level at the break.

To prove what a funny old game this is, Kilgetty, after they had recovered from their momentary lapse, proceeded to dominate for the remaining 40 minutes, restricting Milford to one late effort and creating their own profusion of opportunities.

Tommy 'The Tool' James put in some dangerous crosses, Mansbridge and Scale probed and Trojan surged forward to create a number of chances for the hard-working Ollie Griffiths.

The first he put wide when he could have easily gone to ground after a late challenge and the following two, one a glancing header, saw superb reaction saves from the Milford 'keeper at almost point blank range.

The Kilgetty defence, with Richard Griffiths being admirably consistent alongside the impressive Hughes, held firm and the side continued to test the tiring Milford back-line, who likewise did well to restrict the match to a low scoring affair.

In the dying stages, Michael Scale scrambled to get his toe onto another Mansbridge pass, only to see the ball hit the wrong side of the post, and then in a rare venture upfield Milford struck from inside the box, only for 'Sludger' to pull off a fine 'cat-like' save himself, which left the scoreline at a modest 2-1, compared to the goalmouth endeavours that had gone on before.

Although it only takes a second to score a goal, at the end of the day there simply weren't enough minutes left and with the Athletic equalising in the second half before their opponents could score, they were able to hold on for a close victory and go into the showers over the moon.

Kilgetty's undoing was their usual lapse of concentration and while they can hold their heads up high, Milford took the spoils of victory and the villagers were left to feel as sick as parrots.

Kilgetty fielded: Phillips, Bessant, Griffiths, Prout, Hughes, Mansbridge, Scale, Jones, James, Griffiths, Thorne. Subs -Bevan, Pebbles and 'G'.

THE BARD

ANGLE 2nd XI 1

KILGETTY 2nd XI 2

Kilgetty made the long trek to Angle on Saturday looking forward to playing on their excellent surface.

Angle are not having the best of seasons this year, and for a change had 11 players in their starting line-up.

But when things are going wrong, they keep going wrong, and nothing short of a miracle can give a change of fortune. Unfortunately for Angle, their luck was not due to change just yet.

The game started evenly and both sides were limited to the odd shot from 20 yards.

It was not until the 20th minute that Kilgetty made the breakthrough. A neat build-up in the centre of midfield saw Frearson clip the ball wide to Dennis, who played a perfect ball in behind the defence and across the front of the 'keeper, who desperately scrambled across the goal in vain as Ben Frost flew in at the back post to give Kilgetty the lead.

For a short time, Angle's luck changed when they were awarded a penalty for hand-ball. But a weak spot-kick saw Walwyn save comfortably.

Kilgetty continued to press and won a series of corners. From one of these Lee James put them further ahead as his in-swinging cross found the net.

As half-time approached, a long throw into the Kilgetty box caused chaos as the ball bobbed about like in a pinball machine; Kilgetty failed to clear and Angle were back in the game.

A few heart-stopping moments in the second half saw Williams hit the bar for Kilgetty, a mislaid back pass almost enabled Angle to pull level, while in the final moments the ball rebounded off the inside of the post.

Kilgetty hung on for the three points, with Angle unlucky not to get at least a share of the spoils from the game.

Kilgetty fielded: R. Walwyn, G. Gwyther, L. James, D. Marklew, R. Davies, T. Dennis, A. Williams, D. Wright, B. Frost, C. Frearson, J. Morgan, B. Crockford, A. Cope.