Talgarth Town fell just short in the Gwent Central Open Cup semi-final on Saturday with a 2-1 loss against higher graded Fairfield United.

Talgarth struggled to establish any sort of pattern to their play early on and Fairfield opened the scoring on 20 minutes - albeit in controversial circumstances. The ball appeared to go out of play on the right before being crossed into the box to be met at the far post by Mutlow to head firmly past Tom Bevan, to give the vistors a deserved lead.  The goal gave Talgarth a much-needed wake up call and the game quickly became more competitive throughout the first half. The second half started with the game finely balanced with both teams sensing the importance of the next score.

The first opportunity fell to Fairfield with Tom Beavan saving well only to see the clearance by a colleague gifting the opportunity to Mutlow who made no mistake scoring his second goal and giving the visitors the buffer they were looking for on 50 minutes.  It was the hosts who were to get the goal to put them back in the game and set up a nail-biting finish when on 64 minutes Rob Evans thumped the ball into the net. With the home supporters in good voice Talgarth were beginning to believe there was a way back to leveling the score. But Fairfield drew on all their experience to minimise scoring opportunities in open play. Talgarth's best chance came when Rob Evans headed a free-kick into the path of Jordan Harvey who drew a game-saving stop from the Fairfield keeper. Try as they may with both teams having opportunities there was no further score with Fairfield holding the edge and progressing to the final where they will play Blaenavon Blues.  Talgarth's next game is the final of the Gwent Central Benevolent Cup to be played at Goytre Football Club on Wednesday, May 1 at 7pm.