Newtown 1 Aberystwyth Town 2

DEFEAT to your oldest rivals is never a sweet pill to swallow as Newtown discovered at home to Aberystwyth Town tonight.

The Seasiders arrived without a win to their name this season but returned west with three points as the Robins floundered to their second successive defeat.

A keenly contested derby began with a high tempo which was maintained throughout.

Aberystwyth threatened early on with Mathew Jones' crosses causing the home defence to work before Newtown grew into the game and on 13 minutes Naim Arsan's low effort from the edge of the area forced goalkeeper Gregor Zabret into action.

The match continued to be end to end with Newtown edging possession while the visitors looked the most threatening with George Hughes' dipping right wing cross forcing Zabret to tip over his bar.

On 21 minutes good work from Jamie Veale released Louis Bradford who failed to find the target while well positioned.

Aberystwyth broke the deadlock on 36 minutes when Veale dispossessed David Cotterill on the halfway line and spotted Dave Jones well off his line to produce a stunning 40 yard lob which dipped under the bar.

The wonder goal served to galvanise the Seasiders who ended the half firmly on top with Newtown battening down the hatches to ride out the storm.

Newtown began the second-half on top and levelled after just five minutes with Kieran Mills-Evans steering home a low cross from the right by-line from Callum Roberts.

The derby regained the ebbing and flowing pace of the first-half as both sides came to enjoy spells of possession but chances remained to be scarce.

However with 18 minutes remaining the home defence failed to clear a right wing corner from Mathew Jones which fell kindly for Jonny Evans on the far post who contorted his body well to divert past Jones from close range.

Evans

The rest of the match proved to be a feisty affair as tempers boiled over following an altercation between Arsan and Owain Jones which led to a brief melee which saw Mills-Evans and Evans also in the book.

Regular substitutions further disrupted the flow of the match which could have gone either way late on.

First Jones made a fine save to deny the marauding Owain Jones who surged through the home defence after good work by Evans.

Meanwhile Newtown bombarded the Aberystwyth defence late on with Lufumpa Mwandwe seeing a shot blocked before Aaron Williams headed over as the final chance to salvage a point slipped through their fingers.

NEWTOWN: Jones, Roberts, Mills-Evans, Mwandwe, Rushton (J Evans 71), Davies, Cotterill (Walker 62), A Williams, C Williams, Hughes, Arsan (Breese 78). Subs: M Williams, Taylor, Downs, Rowland

ABERYSTWYTH: Zabret, Rimmer (Orford 88), R Davies, Bradford, Thorn, M Jones, Veale, Phillips (J Evans 68), Correria (S Davies 77), O Jones, Darlington. Subs: Pennock, Cholak, Ricketts