MANAGER Neville Powell says that securing Aberystwyth Town’s survival in the JD Welsh Premier League will be the priority for his side in the second phase of their campaign.

After their 3-1 defeat at Barry Town, the Seasiders are now eight points adrift of a play-off position, with the bottom two sides of Carmarthen and Prestatyn seven points adrift of Aber.

The Seasiders have got to play both sides twice before the end of the season, and Powell is eager to avoid being dragged into a relegation scrap.

“We’ve got to get to 30 points as quickly as we can, before we can start looking at anything else,” said Powell. “There has been no mention of a top seven place in the dressing room.

“It was always going to be a difficult game at Barry, but we had enough out there to get a result. But it hasn’t happened, and now we will move on.

“We’ve now got two home games, and have got to look to take six points. If we can do that we’ll be safe, and we can start looking at the top seven.”

It was a tough afternoon at Jenner Park for the Seasiders, who included new signing Craig Rogers at the heart of defence, and their only consolation was a superb late goal from Declan Walker, who had really impressed.

“We let ourselves down,” admitted Powell. “We’ve brought in a new centre half and he’s been ill through the week, so we took a gamble on him.

“But collectively, as a team, we didn’t defend as well as we can do.

“We went to Cardiff last week and put in a dogged defensive performance all over to come away with 1-0.

“We scored the best goal today, and had the best player on the pitch, and we’ve ended up on the losing side, so it’s been a disappointing day for us.”

After excellent wins against Connah’s Quay in the league and Cardiff Met in the Welsh Cup, Aber hope to bounce back at home against ninth-placed Llandudno on Friday (8pm).

Iwan Williams’ side are four points clear of Aber, but will be eager to make a positive response to their 4-3 defeat at home to Newtown last weekend.

“It was a complete contrast to the problems we’ve experienced thus far since I’ve come in - in the sense of finding the back of the net - but with us being defensively sound,” said Williams.

“We looked a huge threat going forward, and obviously scored three goals, but the goals we’ve conceded were criminal, the first three especially.

"We had to go for it in the end, and conceded the fourth goal when we were pushing men forward.

“We came in at half time comfortable, but the players took their foot of the gas when we should have kept going in the ascendancy."

Meanwhile Aber will look for a similar response to that which saw them pick up four points in the league against Cardiff Met and Connah’s Quay after a disappointing festive period of fixtures.

Powell’s men will also be hoping to build on their fine recent goal scoring form at Park Avenue, having netted 19 goals in their last five home games in all competitions.

Impressively, 10 different outfield players have contributed to that goal tally - and Aber’s supporters will be hoping for more of the same in the latest battle of the Seasiders.

Kick off at Park Avenue on Friday night is at 8pm, and admission costs £7 for adults, £4 concessions and £1 children.