PONTYPOOL hope to take another step towards sealing promotion tomorrow afternoon when they play host to last season's champions Beddau.
Pooler's dramatic 12-12 draw with Caerphilly at Virginia Park last weekend, when Gary Wilks levelled the scores in injury time, helped Gareth Lintern's side edge towards sealing top spot.
They now sit two points behind the Cheesemen, who play their last game of the season at Llanharan tomorrow afternoon.
With the Beddau game followed by clashes with basement outfit Fleur de Lys (away) and mid-table Rumney (home) it would take an incredible collapse for Pooler not to be playing Premiership rugby next season.
But issues of securing players for next season have to be put on the back burner for now until a return to the top flight is secured and head coach Lintern remains focused on the job in hand.
A share of the spoils meant that Pooler were unable to totally kill of Caerphilly hopes but the man in the Pontypool Park hotseat wasn't totally frustrated by that.
He said: "We scored a legitimate try and the television pictures showed that but there we are and perhaps a draw was a fair result with the conditions and pressure of the game.
"The Caerphilly defence was the most resolute we have come up against and sharing the points definitely suited us more than them.
"In a funny way it is good that we have got the draw because that means the pressure is still on us to get two wins from our last three games, whereas if we had won last week the players might not have approached this game in the same way.
"It will be a hard game because Beddau are still down there at the bottom of the table, they should have enough to be safe but you are always on edge until it is definite."
Beddau could still get dragged into the mire, but it appears to be a battle between Newport Saracens and Llantrisant for survival.
Both Sarries and the Black Army suffered midweek defeats however they enabled Llantrisant to inch a point closer to their rivals.
They scored six tries in a remarkable game at Bargoed that ended up 53-38 to the hosts, while Sarries suffered a 46-7 home drubbing at the hands of UWIC.
The students travel to Llantrisant tomorrow and the hosts need a win so that they can be within striking distance when the second and third-from-bottom sides meet on Tuesday. Sarries will be looking to ease their nerves with a win when they host Rumney.
Elsewhere, Bargoed should follow up their entertaining win over Llantrisant with another victory when they host doomed Flower while Newbridge and Blackwood battle at the Welfare Ground.
Blackwood struck a big blow in the battle for third place in the table with victory over Bargoed last weekend while Newbridge notched an excellent win at Beddau.
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