Neyland 3 Tenby 4

IF Neyland are to survive in the first division they must quickly learn how to kill games off.

At 3-1 up with 20 minutes to go thanks to a Gideon Hochin hat-trick, Neyland should have been home and dry.

But slack marking from a corner gave Tenby a lifeline and a sweet last-gasp strike from Jack Christopher bagged the points for the visitors.

Neyland's trouble defending set-pieces was evident as early as the ninth minute when Ryan Lawrence's deep corner was met at the back-post by Ben Brooks.

The defender rose above the static markers and headed powerfully past Neyland keeper Jason Riley.

Riley was soon busy again as the Lawrence-Christopher striking partnership forced the Neyland number one into a diving save.

Tenby dominated the opening 25 minutes but Neyland fought their way into the contest and equalised on the half-hour.

Jason Phillips' free-kick found Gareth Hein and he laid the ball off to strike partner Hochin on the right-hand side of the box.

The ex-Pennar Robins player fired powerfully past Tenby keeper Mike Lindsay with his left-foot to draw Neyland level.

And, with their tales up, the home side took the lead a minute before half-time. Midfielder Paul Hannon's huge throw caused havoc in the Tenby box and the ball dropped to Hochin who shot through a crowd of players and into the net.

Just five minutes after the break Hochin completed his hat-trick. Tenby thought they should have had a penalty when winger Sonny Phillips went down in the box.

But as they appealed in vain Neyland broke forward. Hochin collected on half-way, out-paced the covering defence and rounded Lindsay to finish in style.

It was one-way traffic now with Tenby looking down and out.

Neyland came close to scoring a fourth when Hannon won possession in midfield, beat several defenders and chipped Lindsay brilliantly only to see his effort clip the bar on the way over.

And Hochin was only denied his and Neyland's fourth by a great Lindsay tip over.

Somehow Tenby held on and a second goal from a corner brought them right back into the game.

Another deep Lawrence delivery was met by a Tenby head and Jimmy Thomas was given far too much space to fire in the knock-down.

With 15 minutes to go it was now game on. And Lawrence got the goal his performance deserved to draw his side level.

He collected on the edge of the box and swept his shot past Riley to make it 3-3.

The game looked to be heading for a draw as the watch ticked past 90 minutes but Christopher had different ideas. The tall striker drifted in from the right and hit a sweet 25 yard-strike that beat the dive of Riley and went into the net off the post.

After being 3-1 up it was a devastating blow for Neyland who now sit just one place above the relegation zone.