ON A day when rain caused the majority of fixtures to be postponed, a five-star performance from MacWhirter Welsh League Division One debutants Monmouth Town puts them bang in championship-chasing mix.

In Division Two, Aberbargoed Buds beat visiting county rivals Undy Athletic to go third while in the lower tier, defeats for Llanwern and Risca United holds up their promotion bids.

Monmouth welcomed Bridgend Town to their Sports Ground HQ and 90 minutes later, walked off 5-1 victors – with the league’s leading marksman, 13-goal Daniel MacDonald, not among the Kingfishers’ scorers.

Getting their names on the score-sheet were recent recruit Nick Harrhy (2), Elliott Ford, Jack Alderdice and Sam Palmer.

The win only moved Monmouth up a place to tenth in the 16-strong section, although they now trail AFC Porth by just a single point after 11 games following the leaders’ 0-0 home draw with West End.

Joint Monmouth boss Barrie Burns, who shares the dug-out duties with Robin Pick, revealed the score-line reflected his side’s all-round display.

"This was a really great performance from us and we played some good football throughout," he remarked.

"Some of our play was a joy to watch and it’s also very pleasing that we are certainly not replying on one particular scorer to do the business."

That is certainly true because Alderdice and Ford now have seven and six league goals respectively – although Palmer’s was his first of the 2011-2012 campaign.

With table-topping Goytre’s scheduled home clash with Ammanford falling victim to the inclement weather, Aberbargoed took advantage by beating Undy 2-1 to move three points nearer with their seventh win in ten Division Two starts.

Scoring for the Recreation Ground outfit were Canaan Beasley and Dyfed Brewer, whose 65th minute goal proved to be the winner after Undy striker Gareth Cullimore had levelled matters before the break.

"While I appreciate most of our games have been at home (nine of ten), we are still doing very well and we are very pleased to have won again against good opposition," said Aberbargoed player-boss Alyn Jones.

Joint Caldicot Town chiefs Jason Pritchard and Mark Williams watched on as their side dropped two points in only drawing 3-3 at home to struggling Cardiff Corries – who picked up their first point at the 11th attempt.

The visitors led 3-2 at the break with their third goal coming from the penalty spot after goalkeeper Tom Pass had brought down a Corries player.

Pass was only booked for the foul, but an injury meant he didn’t appear after the break and was replaced by 18-year-old Matthew Sandiford.

The replacement stopper was making his comeback following a recent neck strain picked up in a Gwent Senior Cup game against Goytre.

Sandiford kept a clean-sheet as a goal from Ricardo McKenzie supplement those scored before the interval by Jim Munday and Dan Saunders.

In Division Three, Llanwern would have gone second had they beat league newcomers Llantwit Major at Newport Stadium.

However I watched as the visitors earned a thoroughly-deserving 3-0 success, a result which keeps Llanwern in third place AFC Llwydcoed and Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Llantwit Major were well-organised and will doubtless progress to become involved in a bid for first-time promotion.

Having pointed that out, I must also explain that if they played Llanwern every Saturday until now and the end of the season it’s doubtful if they will find the hosts in such poor form.

The visitors dominated the entire opening 29 minutes at which stage Llanwern finally managed to create an opening, Ricky Amos putting a diving header wide from a pinpoint Liam Screen cross. Llantwit Major got out of the traps the quicker and following a series of unproductive corners, home goalkeeper Ben Fletcher had to be alert to palm away a fine Sean Nash goal-bound effort.

However it wasn’t long before Fletcher might have done better with a Stewart Lindsay cross and when the ball eventually reached Adam Roscrow, he had all the time to stoop top head his side in front on 19 minutes.

The debutants went further ahead when Chris Ashley had brought midfielder Leigh Pratt on 39 minutes. But although Fletcher did very well to beat out Nash’s penalty, Lindsay was first to react to the loose ball to become his club’s all-time top goal-scorer.

In all honesty, the second period never really came to life until first Llantwit Major’s Adam Show saw his cross-shot come back off the home crossbar and then substitute Luke Dawes shot past a static Fletcher from long range to round off the scoring six minutes from time.

Fourth-placed Risca United had a tough task to gain anything from a trip to face table-topping AFC Llwydcoed and so it turned out as the home side secured a 4-2 success. However Risca will be disappointed they failed to hold on to a 2-0 interval lead given to them by a couple of Brendon Scott goals.

Tredegar Town were without a draw in ten outings and it looked as if they were set to stretch that statistic when goals from Jason Lewis and Sean McGill put them 2-0 ahead against visiting county rivals Newport Civil Service.

However the city outfit struck back to earn a point thanks to a couple of goals from recent signing Scott Lanyon, who now has three to his credit since returning to the game following a break.