Park Avenue, Tuesday, 9 March

ABERYSTWYTH dragged themselves out of the relegation zone with a morale-boosting midweek win against Haverfordwest in time for the tricky trip to Barry Town this Saturday.

The 2-1 victory ended the Seasiders’ torrid winless run thanks to goals by Jamie Reed and Lee Jenkins.

An unchanged side was named following Aber’s last gasp 2-2 draw at The Oval against Caernarfon on Saturday, and from the start the hosts looked the stronger team.

Reed - in search of a goal on his third home debut at Park Avenue, after grabbing a hat-trick against TNS in his first debut, and a brace against Rhyl on his second - went close on a couple of occasions while Danny Williams threatened for County, but it remained goalless at the break.

Town continued to pose the greater attacking threat after the turnaround and were rewarded on 55 minutes. A long throw by Jack Thorn was flicked on by Lee Jenkins to Reed who volleyed it to the top corner.

County grew into the game but didn’t pose much threat until the last 10 minutes when they regained parity, Ben Fawcett netting following a poor attempted clearance.

But, credit to Aber they pressed again, and had a strong appeal for a penalty waved away on 85 minutes before grabbing victory from the jaws of death deep into stoppage time.

With 94 minutes on the clock, Louis Bradford’s powerful header from a Mathew Jones cross was blocked, only for Lee Jenkins to head home unimpeded from three yards, to boost morale for Saturday’s trip to Jenner Park.

Aberystwyth’s assistant manager Antonio Corbisiero was delighted with the win: “It meant so much to us to get the three points, I think we thoroughly deserved it as well.”

Commenting on another last ditch goal to get a result following Jamie Veale’s late equaliser at The Oval, he added: “It just goes to show how far the boys have come, the fitness levels, we’ve worked so much through lockdown. They’ve been doing their own runs that we’ve been sending out to them and once we were back, we brought in Stuart Jones to help out, and we’ve worked on their fitness.

“So I’m not surprised at all that they keep on going and keep on going because that’s what we’re drumming into them.”

Looking ahead to Saturday he added: “It’s a tough game again, Barry on Saturday, we’re going to go with the same attitude, still underdogs wherever we go and keep fighting for league position.”