Bridgwater v MERTHYR

Updates here!

Team: Cutlan, Williams, A. Griffiths, Newall, Colbourne, Rewbury, Newman, Harris, M. Griffiths, Prosser, Cornwall.

Subs: Jones, Preen, Howe, Thomas, Traylor

1 up! Prosset 7mins. We'd had chances before that as well. the home side looking a little loose...

C' mon lads.....keep it up.....please keep the updates coming... Boz

H/t 0-1

Tidy darts.....can't concede in the interval...boz

Good stuff. Keep it up

Any updates?

75th min sub. Preen on and Marcus Griffiths off

80th min sub. Cornwall off and Jones on

Come on Merthyr!

F/t 0-1. 4 mins injury time!

Well done Solihull...thanks for keeping us nail biters updated....three points away again....do u think we should reverse all fixtures? Boz

Five away wins in a row, 14 goals for and one against- amazing!
Now for two home games, with The Mangoes and Cirencester. Perhaps the club can drive the team around for a while and then take them to PP and they may think it's an away game!!

Gate 175. Yate beat Cirencester at home by 3-1.

Good observation, Imp. AWAY THE LADS!!!

Merthyr Imp wrote:Poole won 3-1 away to Winchester, but we're up to 3rd now. Although on current form, if we don't make top spot our best chance of going up would be to finish in 5th place as that would mean two away games in the play-offs!

I attended the game at Bridgwater and we should have won by more than one goal really, another 3 pts on the board is the main thing.

Early maybe to make predictions but I would say Poole Town champions with Merthyr running them close as runners up, making up the other play-off places I'll go for Swindon Supermarine, Hungerford Town and Tiverton Town.

i wonder how many of Merthyr's rivals are geared up financially for promotion and if their gates would improve if they step up!
Hungerford struggle to reach 100. Swindon Supermarine, whose future was in jeopardy a few years ago, had a gate of 129 on Saturday. Tiverton had only 206 but Poole attracted 310 fans.
I suppose they will all "go" for promotion but tight finances are making it difficult for lots of non-League clubs.

Tim Drummond wrote:Five away wins in a row, 14 goals for and one against- amazing!
Now for two home games, with The Mangoes and Cirencester. Perhaps the club can drive the team around for a while and then take them to PP and they may think it's an away game!!

And wear our away kit too!

It was a really tense, close game last night with the 2nd half being a 5 cigarette one!

Starting with the same back 5 as we did on Saturday we made a couple of changes in midfield with Matthew coming in for Nathan and Aaron for Scouser which left Pross & Marcus up front. We started well and caused a few problems for the Bridgwater defence and when a through ball from Cornwall was left cleverly by Newman, Prosser was on hand to get beyond the last defender - who looked a bit like the wild man from Borneo with his flowing Savage style locks - and sent in a thundering left foot shot, beating the keeper with pace at his near post for a superb goal. The keeper was looking a bit uncertain under the high ball and did drop a couple of crosses but we failed to take advantage. We were winning a lot in the air and Prosser sent a header from a corner about a foot wide of the post with the keeper beaten and Colborne sent in another header which again went wide. We did have a few other chances but Bridgewater gradually got back into the game and wasted 2 free kicks from good positions just outside our 18 yard area. They did pass the ball quickly and were finding space but had no end product, other than a shot which Gilo saved comfortably but we were guilty of giving the ball away too often. We went in at half time with a deserved lead.

The second half started as the first half left off with Bridgwater looking to come forward at every opportunity but we defended well and they made little progress. We had the clearer chances with Prosser - who could easily have had a hat trick - shooting just wide of the goal after deft footwork on the edge of the box by Cornwall and Marcus made progress into the right hand side of the area and chose to shoot where maybe a ball across the 6 yard box may have been the better option. Bridgwater continued to huff and puff but Badger, Rewbs & Colborne, ably assisted by Willo & Alun held strong and didn't really give them a sniff of a decent chance and Willo, in particular, was still finding the time to come forward and get into some dangerous positions and sent in some good crosses, one of which was just missed by Pross as he slid in at the far post. After the substitutions (Cornwall & Marcus off replaced by Scouser & Preeny) we still were creating the better chances and Preen was unlucky when he broke through but the keeper came out and managed to push the ball out and it didn't fall to one of our players. We did seem to sit back a bit, whether as a result of the pressure being exerted or our inclination to do so - possibly a combination of the both - which added to the tension but in all honesty, even though Bridgwater had a lot of the ball, they created no clear chances and as a result of some excellent defensive play we kept them at bay until the final whistle. My MOTM would probably be Rewbs as he rarely gave the ball away out of defence.

Even though it's possible Bridgwater had more of the ball it was us who made the best use of it in creating chances and we could easily have quadrupled our score. In a way this could be seen as a scrappy 1-0 win on a gluepot of a pitch which is good. We battled, scrapped and showed good resolve showing we can adapt and do it differently when we have to and it's nice to be up in 3rd place albeit maybe only for 24 hours.

Onwards and upwards and well done the lads.

A word on the Bridgwater club - excellent. Good ground, nice people, nice clubhouse and excellent catering made it a good evening all round. Also next door to the ground was an astroturf pitch which was in use constantly throughout the evening and if we can get that level of use on our 3G one in the future we'll be sitting pretty.