Newtown pay the penalty as 10 man Cardiff Met claim the spoils

The Robins could not have asked for a better start and led inside the opening minute.

Lufimpa Mwandwe cut back to tee up Alex Fletcher on the edge of the area with his low cross to the far post steered home by Tyrone Ofori.

However the Archers hit back in their first attack of the game four minutes later with Matt Chubb's low right wing cross swept past goalkeeper Dave Jones by Lewis Rees.

The match continued to be open with Fletcher's floated throughball latched onto by Nick Rushton only for Met goalkeeper Will Fuller to save before the visiting stopper smothered a shot from Mwandwe.

Fuller was again in the thick of the action on 27 minutes, parrying a lashed 20 yard effort from Fletcher with Callum Roberts and Ofori unable to mop up the loose ball as Met survived.

The remainder of the half saw both sides enjoying spells of possession with the home side looking the most dangerous on the break.

Newtown suffered a nightmare start to the second-half when Jordan Evans' loose pass was picked up by Elliot Evans who fed Ollie Hulbert to fire home on 55 minutes.

Moments later Jones was forced into action to deny Evans in a goalmouth scramble as the visitors looked to increase their advantage.

Instead Newtown hit back when Mwandwe was tripped in the area by Emlyn Lewis who saw red with Rushton converting the resulting penalty.

Mwandwe cut inside from the left to force Fuller into a fingertip save as Newtown looked to press their advantage.

However Met weathered the storm and 10 minutes later Shane Sutton was adjudged to have impeded Rees on the edge of the area and Evans restored his side's lead from the penalty spot.

Newtown laid siege for the remainder of the game and almost snatched an equaliser when Fuller was deceived by a long ball from Jones but Mwandwe's shot was scrambled off the line by Bradley Woolridge as Met survived.