Friday evening’s Ardal South East fixture between Goytre and Blaenavon Blues concluded in a goalless draw at Plough Road.

The opening match of 2024 for both teams heralded the return of Chris Ham, the division’s leading scorer and last season’s golden boot winner, to his former club following his move to the Memorial Ground in October.

However, neither Ham or anyone else on the pitch for that matter, appeared to have their shooting boots on and it looked like there were two teams on the pitch that had not played competitively for several weeks.

Indeed, hosts Goytre had not played a match since late November, but looked the team most likely to break the deadlock.

The home side continued to push until the final whistle and reserved some of their best goal scoring opportunities for stoppage time.

Luke Cooper headed wide of the far post after the initial 92nd minute corner was not cleared properly by the Blues’ defence before Elias Youssef saw his close-range effort blocked by the visitors in a goalmouth scramble.

Finally, Coopers’s far post header from a 95th minute corner was saved by Luca Bullock as the two teams had to be content with a share of the spoils on the sounding of Benjamin Skuse’s final whistle.

Having taken four points in their two games over the festive period, Abergavenny Town were just pipped in their follow-up match, 1-0 at Pontardawe on Saturday (January 6), going down to an eighth minute goal.

But having previously drawn 1-1 away with basement rivals Abertillery Bluebirds and then beaten them 3-1 at home, they’ll be hoping they can kick on with home advantage at Penypound this Friday night (January 12) against Goytre United, kick-off 7.30pm.

They came close to a share of the points at Parc Ynysderw on Saturday after Tom Davies gave the hosts an early lead.

A feisty affair saw both sides reduced to ten men after tempers flared, Rio Booth and Lewis Ellaway involved in a heated altercation that led to  straight red cards. 

The incident didn’t affect the scoreline though as Pontardawe held onto their slender lead..

Clydach Wasps were buzzing after securing a 2-1 Gwent Senior Cup comeback win at home to Abertillery Excelsiors.

The visitors took the lead,but Mike Ling pegged them back level before the break and Jord Jones put them through with a cute second half winner.

Nantyglo had no trouble finding the net, blasting a magnificent seven without reply at home to basement boys Panteg in Gwent Premier One.

Brogan Southway and Ross Hancocks both fired hat-tricks, with Jack Watkins also on target as victory left the Glo seventh.

Crickhowell missed out 4-2 at title favourites Marshfield in Gwent Premier Two however, despite taking the lead through a brilliant Alex Aitken header from a Luc Samuel cross.

Field levelled before the break though to make it 1-1 at half time, and after the restart, two quick-fire goals put the hosts in control at 3-1.

Aitken then created his own luck to pull one back, and they almost equalised straight from the restart only for Marshfield to go upfield and score again, leaving Crick third one ahead of the victors, who have lots of games in hand on everyone above them.

Bottom side Usk Town also missed out by the odd goal 3-2 at home to Oak FC, and are still looking for a first win after 13 games.

But North Gwent Premier table-toppers Brynmawr United stayed in pole position with a 3-1 win at Ashvale .

Crick 2nds also ran out home winners by the same score against a resilient Race in Gwent Central One.

Alex Ravetta opened the scoring with a lovely header before Race equalised in the 73rd minute with an acrobatic effort.

The game looked to be heading for a draw, but with only six minutes of normal time to play 18-year-old Theo Fernandez struck for the hosts just two minutes after coming off the bench.

And seven minutes into stoppage time Josh Cashell then added a third to make it 3-1, with the win lifting Crick to fifth.

Clydach Wasps 2nds suffered a 7-0 loss at Fairfield United though and stay rock bottom, while Usk 2nds were pipped 2-1 away to Panteg 2nds in Gwent Central 2.

But Blaenavon Blues 3rds secured a comfortable 7-0 home win over Forgeside in the Benevolent Cup, Ryan Tidball scoring a hat-trick and the other goals coming from Logan Jones, Louis South, Kieran Morrison and an own goal.

Nantyglo 2nds were on the end of a 5-0 home loss to Abertillery Excelsior Dev however, and stay second to bottom.

While Abergavenny Town host Goytre united tonight (Friday, January 12), fixtures this Saturday (January 13) include – Blaenavon Blues v Abercarn United, Caldicot Town v Goytre FC, Abercarn United 2nds v Abergavenny Town 2nds, Cwmbran Celtic 2nds v Blaenavon Blues 2nds, Cwmbran Town v Clydach Wasps, Panteg v Nantyglo, Crickhowell v Thornwell R&W, Trinant v Usk Town, Brynmawr United v Rassau, Clydach Wasps 2nds v Mardy 2nds, Forgeside v Crickhowell 2nds, Usk Town 2nds v Pontnewynydd 2nds, Nantyglo 2nds v RTB Ebbw Vale 2nds.