STUART GELLING was left to reflect on a “disjointed” performance as he kicked off his Cefn Druids’ reign with a 1-0 loss at Carmarthen Town.

Elliot Scotcher’s free-kick settled the contest after Neil Ashton had been shown a straight red card midway through the second period.

Head coach Gelling said: “We started slowly and they dominated the first 15 or 20 minutes without troubling us too much. When we got it there wasn’t enough use of the ball, we weren’t confident enough to deal with it.

“We were missing three players from the last game, we changed things to a 4-3-3, but Reedy (Jamie Reed) was too isolated, it was a disjointed performance.

“It was a bit disappointing, a poor performance.”

Druids headed to Richmond Park without Harry Brazel, James Davies, pictured, and Phil Mooney, while Nathan Peate was forced off with injury before Ashton saw red and Carmarthen netted what proved to be the winner.

“Harry was a big miss with his ability on the ball,” said Gelling. “So was James, who gives us the option of going a bit longer.

“Then to lose Nathan, who tried to keep going despite being sick at half-time just before the red card and they scored, was tough. Those three things aren’t easy to deal with in such quick succession and we had to try and juggle things around.”

Huw Griffiths’ Caernarfon drew 1-1 at Barry Town United, who saw Momodou Touray’s opener cancelled out by Darren Thomas, while Bala beat Newtown 2-1 as Louis Robles and Chris Venables scored.