AN early red card for Caernarfon Town goalkeeper Josh Tibbetts played a leading role in their 4-1 home reverse to Haverfordwest County.

The Canaries were unable to recover from a bitter setback that eventually proved key to their downfall, leaving Huw Griffiths’ men in eighth position in the JD Cymru Premier standings ahead of a busy week of action that sees them welcome Bala Town on Tuesday and travel to Penybont next Saturday.

Tibbetts made a rash decision to come off his line on five minutes, which resulted in the stopper bringing down Jack Wilson when he was through on goal and a red card for the infringement.

With no replacement keeper on the bench, Griffiths was forced to turn to Jamie Crowther in the emergency.

Mike Hayes missed a good chance in the immediate aftermath after a nice passage of possession, with the experienced forward delivering a quality cross in 14 minutes that narrowly evaded former Prestatyn Town striker Jack Kenny.

The home side took a deserved lead on 24 minutes when skipper Gareth Edwards produced a fine header from a Darren Thomas delivery to break the deadlock.

This joy proved to be short-lived as County levelled matters on 28 minutes when Wilson fired into the net from close range, and the Bluebirds went ahead for the first time thanks to a Ben Fawcett effort with 36 on the clock.

After the break saw the Cofis’ enjoy plenty of possession without creating much in the way of opportunities, but they were undone again on 56 minutes when Fawcett blocked an attempted clearance from Crowther than fell right into the path of Wilson to fire in his second of the afternoon.

With the home side pushing forward in pursuit of a way back into the game, County broke quickly in the closing stages and rounded off the scoring courtesy of a Marcus Griffiths strike.