Bridport v MERTHYR

Updates here! (I hope!)

If anyone making the trip bumps into a gentleman (home fan) by the name of John Gardener please do say hello from me!

Team: morris summerfield Howe willo Colborne harris Newman leek misbah Griffiths traylor. Subs: Prosser Cutlan Keddle Davies

1-0 LEEK

1-0 Leek 7mins

1-1 27mins we should be winning by a landslide.

2-1 Marcus Griffiths 42mins

1-2 at HT. Bridport keeper keeping the score down, I am informed from Bridport.

2-1 HT

Rewbury injured? What's happening with Cornwall?

2-2 just after restart.

Sub 75mins: Prosser on for Misbah & Davies on for Newman

3-2 up Marcus Griffiths shot deflected past keeper 7mins

Sub 80mins: Keddle on for Marcus - groin injury

FT 3-2

Tx

Well done, a win is a win. 

Thanks for the updates - and thank goodness there won't be a midweek replay at Cinderford!

Yate aren't involved in a replay either (they beat Cowes Sports 2-1), so we're away to them in the league next Tuesday night.

Taunton and Bridgwater drew 1-1, so we still don't know who we'll be visiting in the next round of the Cup on 14 September.

Cinderford lost 3-1 at home to Aylesbury Utd.

Well done boys...sorry I couldn't go to the clotted cream capital in Devon....sounds like a thriller in vanilla....all wins are welcome ....both on a monetary basis and to continue our returnto form...boz

Martyrs make progress in FA Cup thriller
Marcus Griffiths double proves decisive for Town
Wales On Line

Just how Merthyr hadn't put this FA Cup preliminary round tie to bed inside the opening 30 minutes only they will know such was their dominance in Dorset.

As it was they had Kris Leek's curling 20 yard drive to show for their efforts as home goalkeeper Sam Filkins made a string of point blank saves to keep Merthyr within touching distance and that was to pay off.

With their first attack of the game on 29 minutes Sam Charles brought Bridport level with a close range header although Merthyr restored their lead with Marcus Griffiths' header five minutes before the interval.

Against the run of play Bridport equalised again three minutes into the second half and once again Merthyr were making hard work of things.

Griffiths got his second with a deflected shot on 76 minutes to put Merthyr ahead a third time but, despite continuing to enjoy the better of the game they were unable to add to their tally.

Bridport had been expecting a big gate, probably hoping for lots of fans from Merthyr. The attendance was 146, 46 more than for their last match.

From the Bridport web site

Equalise twice before losing to a deflected goal
Bridport's F A Cup story is over for another year as they lost to Merthyr Town by the odd goal in five. Merthyr were a goal up after six minutes when the home defence stood off allowing Kris Leek to curl a lovely curling shot into the left hand side of the goal. The Martyrs were rampant for the next twenty minutes and could have been six to the good in the first half hour. A mixture of poor finishing, great saves from Bees keeper Sam Filkins, and a fortunate rebound off of the post kept Bridport in the game before they equalised completely against the run of play. In their first real attack, a cross from the left allowed Jamie Filkins to cushion a header back across the six yard box for Sam Charles to level the scores after 28 minutes. The goal was a fillip to the hosts, but Merthyr went into the break 2-1 up when a diving header from Marcus Griffiths found the net with 40 minutes elapsed.
Bridport raced out of the traps in the second half, forcing a corner which allowed Dan Wise to place the ball on the head of Charles who doubled his and the Bees tally after 48 minutes. With their tails up, Bridport nearly drew level four minutes later when Darren Watts, racing forward on a breakaway, found Charles who shot wide with just the keeper to beat. Another corner on the hour found Bees sweeper Shane Evans unmarked but his header flew over the bar. This was now a very even contest with Merthyr definitely shaken by the turn of events, but a deflected shot from Griffiths won the tie after 76 minutes. Bridport had a final half chance when sub Matt Condliffe raced after a long ball which he just couldn't reach to bring the Bees the draw that they finally deserved
FINAL SCORE:- Bridport 2 Merthyr Town 3
Star Man:- Kris Leek (Merthyr)
Best Bee :- Ryan Hayter

Gawd, we made hard work of it today and we could have sewn it up in the first 20 minutes when we had more chances that you could shake a stick at. Willo moved to centre back as Rewbs was injured which gave Dan Summerfield his first start as right back. Misbah replaced the rested Prosser and we played a 4-3-3 formation with the same midfield of Matt, Newms & Leekie who served us so well last Monday.

On a superb playing surface, although it was a little hard due to the lack of rain, we started like a train putting the Bridport defence under immediate pressure and it was no surprise when we opened the scoring after about 7 minutes. Leekie picked up the ball in midfield and advanced towards the area without being closed down. He picked his spot and sent in a superb left footed shot which flew in off the inside of the keeper’s right hand post giving him no chance. For the next 15 minutes or so, we battered them with the keeper making a string of superb saves and we were also wasteful. Traylor had a header excellently saved close to the angle of post and bar by the keeper diving to his left and Marcus sent a flick just over and was also foiled by the keeper when put through. I lost count of the number of corners we had and headed chances were created for both Log & Willo which were either saved of defended well. The ball did come out to some Merthyr players from these scrambles but Willo, Matt, Leekie & Newman failed to capitalise. Misbah was showing some nice touches but rarely threatened to trouble the keeper. Bridport scored from a very rare attack when one of their players broke free on our right and sent in a raking cross that was met beyond the far post and headed into our 6 yard area where a forward glanced it past Morris and into the net. We looked stunned by this and fought back but we were playing with much less intensity even though we were having 80% of the game. Marcus put us back into the lead just before half time when he sent in a good diving header past the keeper from about 6 yards from a good cross from the right.

The second half started with us again looking a bit lackadaisical and our normal crisp passing game looked laboured as Bridport who had learned from their earlier mistakes and closed us down at every opportunity. To make it worse, Bridport equalised early on when we needlessly gave away a corner on our right and the cross came into the 6 yard area, Morris didn’t come for it and a Bridport player had a free head into our goal. We still continued to have most of the play but Bridport looked dangerous on the break. We made a couple of changes with Nathan replacing Newms who had a couple of kicks on an already bruised leg and Pross replaced Misbah who had made little impression in the 2nd half. Nathan made a difference with his passing and it was he (I think) who fed Marcus on the right and he made progress on the edge of the area, beating a couple of Bridport defenders and sent in a good left foot shot which looked as if it was going somewhere close, when it deflected of a Bridport defender and into the net. It was a goal that we and Marcus deserved based on the balance of play. Shortly after that Marcus chased a ball down the right and seemed to suffer a groin problem and was replaced by Keds. We defended well from the expected Bridport final push and to be fair to them they did create chances with one free header and a longish range shot. We also resorted to a bit of corner flag hogging at the death, waiting for the referee’s whistle, which finally came after 4 minutes of stoppage time. I thought the referee was good but one of the lino’s did make a real howler when he failed to award us a corner when the ball clearly came off a Bridport player. From the resulting goal kick one of the chances mentioned above was created. My MOTM today would be Gary Colborne as he held firm against the breaks Bridport were making.

I don’t suppose there was any doubt that we would lose this but we could have quite easily faced a replay in the Forest next Wednesday which is an extra game and expense we could have done without. As it is we’ll play Yate next Tuesday, who also seemed to struggle yesterday. It was a nice day out in Bridport yesterday. They’ve a nice ground, an excellent pitch and nice people running it. I think they were a bit disappointed that more Merthyr fans didn’t make the trip, especially the couple manning the Burger Van!

how did summerfield play ?

where is scouser has he left the club