No prizes gained by pointless Seasiders (From Penarth Times)

No prizes gained by pointless Seasiders

Llanishen 18, Penarth 8

NEEDING TO WIN to make up lost ground at the top of the table, Penarth hogged both possession and territory against leaders Llanishen, but entirely failed to dominate.

If the snake of relegation is hardly snapping at their heels, the top four may soon pull the ladder of promotion after them.

The hosts began with an enormous effort, reclaiming the kick-off and surging down the left flank. A brief fight-back came to nothing, but the Seasiders' defence was still proof against anything but the law of offside and Llanishen claimed the three points.

After the home side had extended their lead to six points, Chris Cummings left the field nursing a wrist injury.

Despite the frantic start, the game was settling into a close-fought affair where only each side's errors were getting in the way of scores. Penarth were claiming most of the ball, but the Llanishen counter-attacks were a constant cause for concern.

Their particularly swift left wing swept past several tackles, but was caught at the line. The Seasiders had put-in to the scrum, but blindside Gareth Mahoney was first to the ball when it came out and claimed the score. Llanishen extended their lead almost immediately with another attack down the left flank.

The speed of the manoeuvre was bad enough, but a forward pass was ignored by the referee and Chad James romped home.

Having fallen 18 points behind, Penarth seemed to wake up to their predicament and pile on some real pressure. Stealing a home throw-in near the line, they drove over, but had to be content with a scrum.

Following a long clearance, Craig Miller put in one of his party pieces, but the chip ahead fell short of the line and Llanishen help out for the half-time whistle.

Ben Morris replaced Craig Miller at half-time, taking over at full-back while Danny Brookman moved up to outside half. Llanishen pushed hard to consolidate their advantage, but the Seasiders defence had rumbled by this time and indeed the home side were to score no points in the second half.

Suddenly on the hour, Penarth sprang into life and started to chase everything. Danny Brookman finally got the scoreboard moving with a penalty, but all the Seasiders attacks were rebuffed by a stretched but effective home defence.

As with so many away matches this season, Penarth had really got the bit between their teeth, but with far too little time to exploit the fact.

Camped out in the home 22, successive thrusts went in, but it was only when Andrew Edwards dug the ball out of a ruck and flung it wide to the left that matters began to improve.

For once, the threequarters actually managed to complete a handling movement and gave Leon Patnett just enough room to squeeze in at the corner. Llanishen had just long enough to miss a penalty before the referee blew for time.

This away match tendency to fall for narrow defeats is not going away in a hurry. While Llanishen were good value for their win, the Seasiders really should have pocketed the points yet again.

As it is, they've dropped another two places as Pentyrch and Nelson both secured their sixth league wins. Part of the problem can be seen at the top of the table where you can see the teams who Penarth have lost to arranged neatly in the order the matches were played.

It may very well be that the Seasiders will go on to beat all five in the return matches at the Athletic Field, but the immediate challenge is to maintain a 100 percent home record against Old Illtydians on Saturday.