Football: Vauxhall Masterfit Welsh Premier Haverfordwest County 0 Connah's Quay Nomads 0 Most goalless draws are a disappointment and this one was a dour and scrappy game for stretches, being relieved at times by bursts of strong Blues attacking.

A real bonus must be that the Blues mean defence should come out so well on top. They have now played four games at home this season without conceding a goal in open play.

That they couldn't find the net may be down to many things, some ill luck maybe, some inconsistent refereeing certainly, but with two new strikers in the squad they will certainly find the goal drought a disappointment.

Deryn Brace gave debuts to two strikers who had signed for the club on Wednesday. Lee Brown, who has been scoring freely for Ton Pentre in the Motaquote Welsh League, started the game alongside Tim Hicks, while Jonathon Keaveney, signed from Carmarthen Town, was sub and played the last 15 minutes.

Brown bustled strongly and well for his 75 minutes. Keaveney looked rather less effective, since he often tended to move out to the left and then had to turn on himself to get the ball on his favoured right foot.

But time and a fair chance will give us a picture of the sort of asset these two new boys will be.

Meanwhile striker Tim Hicks picked up a deserved award, in front of the S4Cs television cameras, before the game, as the league's Player of the Month for August, the award being presented by Mr Alan Bland, representing Vauxhall Masterfit.

Hicks then went on to show just why he has hit these heights for he had a very fine game indeed, harrying and hounding the Nomads defence for the full 90 minutes. Match sponsors J&G Bland gave their Man-of-the-Match award to Rob Jones who was indeed supremely confident in defence, but Hicks must have run him close.

There were indeed dangerous attacks throughout the 90 minutes, so a scoreline like 2-2 or 3-2 wouldn't have been out of place. Hicks for the Bluebirds and the close-cropped Tommy Mutton for the Nomads both posed problems.

In the first half the teams exchanged attacks. In the seventh minute, the Nomads Darren Williams had the ball in the net but well after the linesman's flag had gone up. A minute later, after a quite torrid little attack, Nicky Palmer dragged his grubber shot wide.

And then a bad challenge on Colin Loss by the Nomads' Jon Kenworthy (who was yellow-carded) set a rather unpleasant precedent. Much of the visitors' tackling throughout the game was harsh and referee Parry seemed to discriminate rather oddly between what constituted a foul and what didn't.

Brown, who was showing up quite well, won a corner kick with one sharp attack, but then the ubiquitous Mutton broke on the right and looked clear only for Rob Jones to shepherd him away from the danger area, before clinching matters with a solid tackle. Richie Adams then powered in a stinging volley which keeper Bryan just gathered at the foot of the post.

There was more action to come at both ends. A rasping shot from the visitors' George Horan crashed against Kendall's post before the keeper pulled off a quite brilliant tip-over save from a header from Gareth Owen. A Brown shot won another corner, before the half ended with a superb break-out from Hicks who drew the keeper and chipped him only for the ball to squeeze agonisingly away from the goal.

The Bluebirds will have regretted the fact that their first half pressure failed to pay any dividend, and early in the second half the steam seemed to go out of their game.

Most cheer at this point came from a good cameo appearance by sub Lee Waters, who replaced the injured Ryan for the second half, and put in a couple of dangerous runs. There were a couple of good forays by Hicks in the first 20 minutes of the half, with the most dangerous coming when he was sent through by a superb through ball from Adams and forced Bryan into a very fine save.

Then came an odd transformation. First of all the crowd was incensed by a fierce tackle on Hicks (no free kick given) and then things went up to boiling point.

Colin Loss appeared to be tripped as he made his way into the penalty area, no penalty or free kick being given, and then, as the Nomads broke, an innocuous challenge on Mutton was penalized.

This seemed to galvanize the Blues into one late burst but in this passage of play the finishing was rather lacking. Adams tried a couple of long-range shots when he might have done better to take the ball on, and a couple of Wyn Thomas' trademark headers threatened briefly, but the final score was indeed 0-0 as, for long periods, it had always threatened to be.