Welsh League Division Two: Caldicot Town 1, Caerau Ely 0

TOWN secured a rare clean sheet on Saturday at home to Caerau Ely, with a late David Lloyd goal enough to bag the three points for Jason Pritchard's men, writes Keith Fairbank.

Prichard later praised his defence for a gutsy display, which enabled the Caldicot goalmouth to see very little action. But he also admitted that with the sides deadlocked at 0-0 time and time running out he was less than confident the elusive winner would come.

Pritchard commented: "It was a good performance and we created loads of chances but to be honest I wasn't sure the goal was coming. That said, I wouldn't have been too worried if we hadn't scored because it was a better defensive performance than in recent weeks."

After conceding seven goals in their last two Welsh League Division Two fixtures, Pritchard was glad his side went 90 minutes without conceding any "sloppy" goals. He was equally delighted with Lloyd's 80th minute winner, which saw a good build-up featuring Andrew Edwards, Jason Thorn and Paul Harris before Lloyd fired across the keeper.

Pritchard added: "We've been letting in sloppy goals and making silly mistakes, but if you keep a clean sheet and score at the other you'll win games."

The win sees Caldicot maintain pressure on their promotion rivals, with Pritchard looking for a run of form and hoping the leaders slip up. He added: "We haven't given up on promotion yet.

"All we can do is keep winning games ourselves and put the other sides under pressure. We've played the top three now - but they've still got to play each other."

Caldicot's next league fixture sees them travel to bottom-placed Gwynfi United on Saturday. Pritchard said: "If we keep playing as we have done, I'm hopeful we can get three points."