Newtown 0 TNS 2

TNS maintained their title march with a comfortable derby victory at Newtown on Friday night.

The Robins rode their luck early on with Jack Kelly almost heading into his own net inside the opening two minutes before Ryan Brobbel cut inside from the left only for his strike to come back off the post.

Brobbel continued to pose problems to the home defence and went close with a 25 yard free-kick.

The hosts struggled to impose themselves as the Saints pressed their superiority with Adrian Cieslewicz' effort deflected for a corner with the Robins back to the wall for a majority of a one sided half.

The home side ended the half with a rare chance as Kelly's headed effort looked goalbound only for Greg Draper to save the day with a block.

TNS continued to dominate after the break with Brobbel picking out Aeron Edwards who could not get a shot away as Newtown hurriedly cleared their lines.

The inevitable breakthrough arrived on 56 minutes with Brobbel once again at the heart of a slick Saints move to pick out Jon Routledge who made no mistake from close range.

Newtown looked to mount an immediate response with Joe Kenton firing straight at Saints goalkeeper Paul Harrison.

TNS doubled their lead eight minutes later with the outstanding Brobbel releasing Draper to slot past an advancing Dave Jones to ensure the Saints a cushion and leave Newtown with a mountain to climb.

Draper came close to adding to his tally on 70 minutes but on this occasion the New Zealander forced a smart save from Jones.

Newtown continued to struggle to create chances with a deflected shot from Jack Thorn failing to test Harrison in their best opening as the match petered out with a late flurry of bookings issued by referee Nick Pratt.

NEWTOWN: Jones, Mills-Evans, Mitchell, Harry (Sheridan 74), Kenton, Thorn, Mwandwe (Rushton 74), Williams, Flint, Fletcher, Kelly. Subs: Steventon, Morris, Barnes, Berquez

TNS: Harrison, Spender, Davies, Routledge, Brobbel, Draper (Byrne 87), Redmond (Harrington 90), Cieslewicz (Whitehouse 82), Hudson, Nembhard, Edwards. Subs: Lewis Dutton, Hughes, Ebbe

Att - 366