AIRBUS suffered late heartbreak as they came agonisingly close to gaining a point against Penybont despite being forced to play defender Sam Hart in goal.

But Daniel Jefferies nodded home what proved to be the winner for Penybont, who recovered from a goal down to claim a crucial 2-1 away win.

Hart was forced to don the gloves with Dave Roberts, Brendan Hazlett and Lewis Hall all sidelined through injury - the Chester native performing impressively between the posts.

“We’ve got four keepers out,” bemoaned Airbus boss Steve O’Shaughnessy on the club’s YouTube channel.

“We’ve got two with broken bones and another two who can’t play, one who was taken to hospital last week.

“Our next choice is a lad who is 16 and with duty of care we can’t play him because he’s not physically strong enough. We can’t just throw him into a game like this one.

“We had no other options. We couldn’t get anybody in on-loan.”

On being asked to take the gloves, Hart, who produced a remarkable double save with time running out, said: “I haven’t played in goal since about Under-11s. I took one for the team and did what I could.”

After Jefferies built on Keenan Patten’s leveller to snatch victory for Rhys Griffiths’ men, Airbus are just one point above the drop zone.

“Gutted,” declared O’Shaughnessy when asked how he felt at full-time. “I thought we did well and our attitude and performance was good.

Everybody knows we didn’t have a keeper, but I thought we kept them out - I think they had two shots on target.

“I can’t fault the effort and we were a bit unlucky at the end.”

The plus for Airbus was another goal for academy graduate George Peers, who fired home midway through the first-half.

“George is a good prospect,” said O’Shaughnessy. “It was a great finish and he scored two against TNS, which is pleasing for him.”

Louis Robles and Chris Venables bagged braces after Henry Jones opened the scoring as Bala cruised to a 5-0 win at Aberystwyth, while Newtown defeated Caernarfon 3-1.

Sam Barnes, Ian Sheridan and Nick Rushton scored for the Robins with Cai Jones replying.

Cefn Druids’ home clash with Cardiff Met was postponed due to snow.