Media Watch - Bridgwater Town

It’s been a busy football week. Since the Cirencester game, the U-19s discovered some of their own exposure as they increased their lead at the top of the Welsh Football Youth League, we’ve travelled to Evesham and won and there was a good performance and international win for Wales last night in Cardiff.

The word “club” now stands out in “Merthyr Town Football Club.” That is an all encapsulating phrase that includes the Academy, the youth teams, the volunteers and the supporters. The very existence of the Trust is the ‘glue’ that sticks all of these elements together.

With just seven weeks of the season remaining and as the weather seems to have improved, the games will start coming around very quickly. Gavin Williams has missed 165 minutes of football and may be considered doubtful for the game at the weekend. Jamie Rewbery has also been in the wars lately and felt his hamstring on Tuesday night so he may need a late fitness test of this own.

Up front we are spoilt for choice as everyone has started to find form at just the right time. There’s intense competition for the striking roles and this presents a very pleasant headache for the coaching staff. Just who to leave out!!

We could go with blistering pace, a “little and large” partnership including Prosser, or the trickery of Kerry Morgan and Kayne Mclaggon. The choice is yours!

The thing is that every option provides adaptability to a different tactical formation. Ryan Charles movement from the flank is another problem that the opposition have to solve.

Shep and Danny have other decisions to make for the run-in.

Steve Williams is fully fit again and the question of Dan Summerfield’s role will be re-assessed. Dan will be unfortunate to be on the bench as he has performed well this season but Steve’s experience will be invaluable in the next few months. Dan is still a very young player and his best is yet to come. He can learn almost as much sitting on the bench watching and listening, as he would playing in every single game.

Defensively we also have a variety of options with Marcus Griffiths also used in a full-back role when needed. Although Jarad Wright is primarily a central defender he has been used in a variety of other roles since joining the club and has proved to be extremely versatile.

But it will need to be an exceptional team performance on Saturday as Bridgwater have only lost twice at home in the league all season. We will certainly be seeking to revenge the FA Cup defeat that they inflicted on us back in September.

Rich Fey: Defeat a 'massive learning curve'
Bridgwater Mercury

BRIDGWATER Town manager Richard Fey described Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Evesham as 'a massive learning curve' for his team - as they surrendered a 2-0 lead to go down 3-2.

Fey was left to rue a number of defensive lapses and says his side must learn to tighten things up.

He said: “This was a massive learning curve for us - first half we were outstanding and Tom scored another two goals. We should have scored more but there keeper pulled off some great saves and we were comfortable, but second half was a different story. They got an early goal and we seemed to switch off again - three balls into our box weren't dealt with and we found ourselves 3-2 down. Having said that we were still creating chances Tom had a header and Alex Grey had a good effort saved but it wasn't to be. We have a young team and small squad - and players like Jake Mawford, Sam Alexander and Craig Allen will learn from this and this will put them in good stead for future. Having said that, we're scoring goals, we just need to tighten things up as a team.”

“We are home now the next five games against some tough team like Merthyr, Yate, Tiverton and Taunton, so starting Tuesday versus Godalming we need to try and pick up three points.”

Godalming gave Bridgwater a hard game in the 2-2 draw on Tuesday. The pitch was in a poor state.

That was the seventh home draw for Bridgwater in the league this season, they slipped out of the play off zone a while back and will now find it very difficult to make the play offs, the battle for 3rd, 4th & 5th spot is very tight just 5 points separate Mangos (3rd) and Shortwood (9th)

Watch out for Tivvy.