Monmouth Town AFC, jumped to fourth in Gwent County Second Division with a thrilling 4-2 away win at Abertillery Bluebirds.

In wet, sticky conditions, the Kingfishers, sponsored by Mandarinstone, started slowly and struggled to maintain any long spells of possession.

The home side took the lead after eighteen minutes, when some slack marking from a corner was des-patched by the home centre forward past Robin Pick in the Town goal.

This gave Monmouth the wake-up call that was much needed, and the Kingfishers started to show more passion and purpose with their play.

Neville Harris was unlucky when he went round the keeper but found the angle too acute to fire home.

As the Town got on top, an equaliser seemed certain when Andrew Rogers broke clear, only to see his firmly struck shot fly just past the wrong side of the upright seeing the score remain 1-0 at the break.

Monmouth came out in the second half and started where they left off, putting the Abertillery defence under constant pressure.

Matthew Bowen, working tirelessly upfront, put player manager Andrew Smith through and after controlling the ball on his chest he rolled it across the goal to the arriving Rogers, who somehow blasted onto the bar when it seemed easier to score.

To their credit, the visitors kept believing and finally got level when Simon Wookey slotted a penalty home, after full back Shane Dorrington was pulled back in the box.

Seven minutes later and the Town were in the lead after good work down the left, involving Harris, Ross Kennedy and Rogers which lead to a beautiful cross from Kennedy being deflected into his own net by the home centre half.

With just eleven minutes remaining and the Kingfishers on top, it seemed the points were in the bag until centre half Justin Harris pulled the home centre forward's shirt in the penalty area, and he fired home from the spot to make the scores 2-2 with ten frantic minutes to go.

In all honesty, the home side would have been the happier of the two sides with a share of the points, but Town had other ideas.

Bowen found himself one-on-one with the goal keeper, and, when trying to go round him, was brought down for his side's second penalty of the game.

With the hard-working Wookey replaced by Sam Palmer, Smith stepped up and scored his third goal in three games, to give the advantage back to the visitors with five minutes left.

With the clock running down, Neville Harris made the game safe when he rounded the keeper and fired into the roof of the net, to make the final score 4-2 to the Kingfishers.

After a tough fortnight, this result pushes the Town right back into the promotion pack, and on track for that push up the Welsh League Pyramid.

The town have a break from league action next week when they travel again to Abertillery Bluebirds for a County Motors Cup Second Round fixture, kick off 2.00pm.

Saturday's team: Pick, Dorrington, Kennedy, Smith (Cleaves), J Harris, Prosser, N Harris, Wookey (Palmer), Bowen, Rogers, Davies.