Cwmbran Town 0 Newtown 1

A first-half strike from Newtown's Steve Rogers was enough to consign Cwmbran Town to defeat on the opening day of their League of Wales campaign.

Rogers scored with just 18 minutes of the game gone but it was a match that Cwmbran could and should have won.

In atrocious conditions the game started scrappily and the flow of the game was further ruined by the overzealous refereeing which plagues the start of every league season.

Cwmbran's Rhys Griffiths and Nathan Wigg along with Newtown's Steve Edwards and Justin Wickham were all booked for offences which in several weeks time will receive nothing more than a warning.

Despite this Cwmbran should have taken the lead through Dean Philpott after just four minutes. A Nathan Cotterell corner found the big defender free at the back post but he could only manage to put the ball into the side netting.

Lee Brown should have put his side ahead after 15 minutes, having got clear of the defence and with only the keeper to beat, Brown's final touch let him down and allowed Mark Jones in the Newtown goal to make the save.

Minutes later Newtown scored the only goal of the game. Some good work down the right by Colin Reynolds saw the Newtown skipper fire a low cross into the Cwmbran box.

All the Town defenders missed it and Rogers found himself with enough time and space to calmly sweep the ball past the despairing dive of Gary Wager.

Rogers' fellow striker Mark Williams should have made it two seconds later. Chris Adamson made a fine break and found Williams free on the edge of the box and it took a fine save from Wager to deny Newtown a second.

Cwmbran's game fell apart after that as passes continually went astray and up front Brown and Griffiths's lack of time together meant that more often than not Town's rare forays into the opposition half broke down in the final third.

For all that though Tony Willcox's side should have gone into half-time leading two-one. First Phil James was denied when his goal-bound header hit Brown with the keeper beaten.

Then Brown himself spurned another chance when, having beaten the keeper, he under hit his shot and allowed Newtown defender Marcus Lokier time to get back and clear the ball away.

Things didn't get much better for Town in the second half, and as Newtown battled hard and broke down all Cwmbran's attempts to attack, the Crows were second to everything.

Despite the lack of chances up-front Cwmbran did show that defensively Dean Philpott and Sean Wharton have added some steel to the side.

In the end though it was in the final third that Cwmbran lost the game, and Tony Willcox will be eagerly awaiting the return of his three suspended strikers Chris Watkins, Craig Hughes and Richard Parker.