Brecon suffered late heartbreak at Pandy Park as Cross Keys snatched victory with virtually the final play of the game, denying the visitors a famous win.

After opening the season with a home defeat to Pontypridd, Brecon travelled to face another former Merit Table club. With Brecon’s average squad age just 23.5, the challenge was steep. Cross Keys dominated the early exchanges, taking advantage of repeated scrum penalties to control territory and possession. By the 30-minute mark, Brecon trailed 13–0.

As the visitors huddled beneath the posts, forwards coach Adam Powell issued a blunt warning: “It’s not good enough boys. We are facing a heavy defeat unless you can turn things around. As coaches, we can’t do anything off the side of the pitch. The responsibility is yours. You keep breaking down their attacks only to make mistakes and surrender possession, and we have given away nine consecutive penalties. We can’t live with that if we want to get anything out of this game.”

His words clearly resonated. Brecon began to grow into the game, their supporters making themselves heard above the home crowd. The breakthrough came from a line-out drive on the Keys 10-metre line. Jake Newman’s clever footwork took him through the defence for a converted try, putting Brecon on the scoreboard.

Cross Keys had started the match strongly, scoring through their well-organised maul from a 5-metre line-out, Nathan Huish touching down. A Morgan Cusack drop goal extended their lead before wing Donnelly finished a sweeping move to make it 13–0. Brecon’s defence, however, began to stiffen, and Newman crossed.

Brecon continued to apply pressure, though they failed to reduce the deficit any further before half-time.

The second half opened more evenly, with centre Rhys Davies and flanker Matthew Williams prominent in both attack and defence.

Cross Keys extended their lead again through Huish’s second maul try, but Brecon hit back quickly. From a 5-metre scrum, Newman popped a short ball to Davies, who powered over the line for a try, which Newman converted.

Brecon’s comeback gathered pace. Ben Griffin and wing Huw Jones combined well, with Harvey Bowen winning a penalty that Newman converted to leave Brecon just a point behind.

Handling errors prevented the visitors from capitalising fully, but persistence paid off when Brecon second row Chad Thomas intercepted a loose pass and raced under the posts. Newman’s conversion put Brecon ahead 24–18 with four minutes remaining.

Brecon now needed cool heads and possession. Off a line-out on their 10-metre line they won clean ball. Now they needed to keep it, but instead they kicked loosely and Miller gathered. Under no pressure, he initiated the counter and through phase after phase Keys carried deep into the Brecon 22. The defence was good but became increasingly desperate. Finally, Keys were held just short of the line before Will Morgan pounced to score and convert - snatching a 25–24 victory and breaking Brecon hearts.

As Brecon prepare to face Neath at Parc de Pugh, the message from coach Kristian Dacey was clear.

“Belief, energy, and heads up," he said.

"Learn the lesson from today, cut out the errors, close the game out and with everybody together, we can believe that we can challenge these top sides.”