Pontypridd’s poor start to the season continued with a dismal, third consecutive defeat in the TERV Premier Division away to newly-promoted Gilfach at Fochriw Welfare Ground.
The Black Sheep never get going in the game, consistently giving the ball away and a poor first half in which neither side showed much quality turned on a red card for Ponty goalkeeper Dylan Greedy in the 27th minute for deliberate handball outside the box. No complaint about that decision but the visitors were aggrieved that the referee blew the whistle for Gilfach to take the subsequent free-kick while replacement goalkeeper Connor Bickford was still putting on the gloves. The ball hit the back of the net and the goal stood.
Gilfach doubled their lead just before the hour mark but Hywel Patterson’s tap-in with 12 minutes left to play looked like it might set-up an unlikely push for a point for Ponty. Such hope was extinguished within a minute as Gilfach carved the visitors open far too easily. A shambolic goal from a corner-kick in the closing minutes was further salt in the wound inflicted by an extremely bad day at the office.
FULL-TIME
GILFACH FC 4 Jamie Jones (28, 79), Josh Jones (55, 87)
PONTYPRIDD AFC 1 H. Patterson (78) D. Greedy sent off (27)
Pontypridd AFC: Dylan Greedy [gk], Dylan Porter (Nathan Eratne 42), Piotr Tolak (Hywel Patterson 62), Geraint Lewis (Pip Wragg 54), Dan May (Alfie Berrett 54), Lewis Roberts, Liam Barter (Connor Bickford 28), Liam Ormson [c], Elis Hughes, Aled Evans, Huw Morgan
Referee: P. Duncan
