Being down 20-11 at half-time to a well-motivated and supported Aberaeron side at Parc Drefach, Coastal Cottages sponsored Tenby United must have thought their run of 11 consecutive league victories was going to come to a grinding halt, making a dent in any promotion aspirations the club might have.
Without talisman Sam Smith, and losing Gareth Edwards with a cracked rib, their depleted side turned around to face a rampant home eight, well led by Tudur Jenkins, ably supported by the strong-running Leighton Daniel.
But survive they did, and some heroic defence, particularly from Toby Smith, who pulled off two certain try-saving tackles, supported by Jason Ronowitz, who covered every inch of the pitch, they kept the home side at bay, while the Seasiders crossed for three tries to come away with a well-deserved and hard-earned 32-20 victory, along with the vital four-try bonus point.
Kicking off on a superb, still afternoon - very unusual up at the exposed pitch at Aberaeron - Tenby went straight on the attack as lock Gareth Edwards secured the ball, but a knock-on stopped any attacking move developing.
A clash of heads at the breakdown saw Llaisa Torau leave the field, with blood replacement Harry Bolton making a welcome return to the team. Making his mark immediately, Harry was pinged by referee Jon Hardy and Dylan Evans slotted the kick to give the home side a 3-0 lead. Welcome back Harry!
Tenby levelled the score almost immediately as Owen Rees knocked-on from the high restart kick and the resulting scrum provided the platform for the Tenby threes to mount their first attacking move, and slick handling and inter-passing by Toby Smith, Arthur MM and Gavin Brace created a breakdown which ended with home prop Dan Downes diving over the top, to present Tom Lewis with the chance to land a penalty.
With Llaisa Torau returning to the fray, Tenby started to get their act together and only a very unlucky forward pass prevented Tom Lewis crossing for the first try of the match. This seemed to stir the home side into action and aided by some pathetic attempted tackles in midfield, burly home centre Chris Strange crossed and, with Dylan Thomas adding the extras, Tenby went 10-3 down.
Gaining their fair share of lineout ball, through Gareth Edwards and Llaisa Torau, Tenby launched several attacks, the most notable being one carried on by Jason Ronowitz, who stretched the home defence with his powerful, straight running. This was followed by a quickly taken penalty for a high tackle on Gavin Brace, with both Gavin and Del involved, ably supported by Toby Smith, Simon Stanford and Arthur MM, only to see a scrambling home defence negate any scoring opportunity developing.
Aberaeron started to sense that, despite their high league position, Tenby were there for the taking and their boisterous band of supporters goaded referee Hardy to overturn a breakdown situation where he had yelled 'OK' to skipper Nicky Guymer, switching his original view of the situation to a penalty and yellow card for the unlucky Tenby skipper.
Justice was done, however, as Evans sent the kick wide of the upright. Just to compound the miss, slick handling by Toby Smith, Arthur MM and Tom Lewis released Jason Ronowitz, who powered over for an excellent try, narrowing the gap to 10-8.
The home side maintained their momentum and it took a superb tackle by the covering Simon Stanford to prevent a score. However, from the breakdown, Aberaeron switched play and Dylan Evans crossed wide out.
Being slightly injured in the act of scoring, Evans handed the kicking duties to number nine Carl Williams, who added the extras to stretch the lead to 17-8.
With the injured Evans still receiving treatment on the pitch, a disorganised home side fluffed a chance to extend the scores further, but an opportunistic dropped goal by scrum-half Williams salvaged something and stretched the lead to a deserved 20-8, with Tenby unable to halt the scoring burst and looking totally disorganised.
To their credit, Tenby snatched the final score of the half when Tom Lewis fired over a long-range penalty awarded for offside, following-up a high up and under, to narrow the scores to 20-11, giving the Seasiders a positive feeling as they had their huddle during the break.
With Nicky Guymer taking the field for the start of the second half, and Harry Bolton coming off the bench, Tenby started the second period intent on eating into the Aberaeron lead, and their first opportunity was a penalty awarded against home flanker Neil Snowdon, who blatantly slowed the ball down and was yellow-carded by referee Hardy. The kick failed, but the scoring objective was very quickly realised when Toby Smith made a searing break deep in his own half and sliced through half of the Aberaeron team to touch down close to the posts.
With the extras added, Tenby were right back in the game at 20-18.
Another scoring opportunity was conjured up right out of the blue when a lobbed kick-pass by Tom Lewis was just a fraction too high for wing Simon Stanford to gather and go over unopposed.
Attacks were coming thick and fast as the home side struggled to contain a resurgent Tenby side, and the next scoring opportunity when, following an interception, centre Gavin Brace just failed to link up with his supporting team-mates after making good ground towards the home side's try line.
To maintain the momentum, Laurens Brits and Geoff Martin replaced the hard-working pair of Wyndham Williams and Johnny Palmer as Tenby went in search of another score, and their patience was rewarded when, following several phases of pick and go, the forwards drew several Aberaeron backs into the breakdown area and swift passing between Jason Ronowitz, Dan Thomas and Toby Smith released the eager Simon Stanford, who went over to give Tenby the lead for the first time in the match.
Tom Lewis added the extra two with a superb conversion, and at 25-20 Tenby were handily placed to go for the important fourth try bonus point as the home side and their supporters struggled to come to grips with the turn around in fortunes.
With the restart not going the necessary 10 metres, Aberaeron handed the initiative straight back to Tenby and their frustration was compounded as they attempted to start an attacking move from deep in their half, only for Tom Lewis to bring off one of the many interceptions seen as the match unfolded, and release centre Gavin Brace, who just failed to make it to the corner.
The home side started to put one or two strike moves together and within minutes of each other, fullback Toby Smith stopped them dead in their tracks as he brought off two outstanding tackles.
Heads started to drop amongst the Aberaeron players as they saw a match they thought they had in the bag, slipping away from them. Their frustration was eventually tested to the full when following a searing 50-metre run by Jason Ronowitz, a home player intercepted what would have been a scoring pass, only for the ball to be passed straight back to Toby Smith, who trotted over unopposed for the crucial fourth try. With a simple conversion, Tom Lewis took his contribution to 12 points, and the score out to 32-20.
Despite a final frantic five minutes, where the home side went eye balls out for a score, to at least gain a losing bonus point, the Tenby defence held firm and it was up to referee Hardy to bring the game to a close, with Tenby chalking up their 12th league victory on the trot.
A very unusual game, with Aberaeron easily taking the first half, but with Tenby rattling up 21 unanswered points in the second half. It was easy to see who was most pleased at the final whistle.
Missing several regulars, the depth of the Tenby squad was put to the test, and came through with flying colours, which bodes well for the next few weeks as they undertake a punishing playing programme, with games lined up on Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday.
These two-games-a-week stints are then followed by three final Saturday games, against either promotion or relegation threatened sides. A tough run in, but this will really put the side to the test as they attempt to pull off what they very narrowly missed out on last season - promotion.
Tenby fielded: Tom Lewis, Simon Stanford, Gavin Brace, Delwyn Brace, Arthur M-M, Toby Smith, Dan Thomas, Rob Clarke, Nicky Guymer (capt.), Johnny Palmer (Geoff Martin), Wyndham Williams (Laurens Brits), Gareth Edwards (Harry Bolton), Llaisa Torau, Jason Ronowitz, Luke Dedman.