Welsh League D2: Garden Village 0 Caldicot Town 0

TOWN secured their reputation as a side capable of taking points off the top sides in Division Two on Saturday, returning from fifth-placed Garden Village with a well-fought draw, writes Keith Fairbank.

Coupled with a home win earlier this season, Caldicot have now taken four points from their rivals, and other good results against Pontypridd and Aberaman have made Town a team for footballing teams to fear. But with two games in the next four days, manager Jason Pritchard now hopes his young side can break their hoodoo of slipping up against struggling sides.

He said: "We've Porthcawl Town tonight and then Abertillery on Saturday, but we don't do so well against sides below us. The young lads seem to think they should be easy games, but it's never that simple." Pritchard added that he was not disappointed with the goalless trip to Garden Village, which saw Town hold much of the possession without carving out many opportunities.

He said: "Our final ball let us down - but there were several positives to come out of the game. We took another clean sheet and Andy Wenzel has come back from injury as if he was never away."

The boss also had praise for midfield debutant Richard Sharrett, an 18-year-old signing from Caldicot Castle.

He said: "Richard has played a few times for the seconds but I wanted to give him a go in the first team.

"I've seen a lot of debuts in my time and not many better than that. "If we carry on progressing as we are, I won't be disappointed.

"What I would like to see is a couple more players coming through so we've more strength in depth before next season.

"The only negative was that Dean Pockets picked up a recurrence of his knee injury, so we'll have to see about his fitness, especially as we're very short of cover for defenders."