MERTHYR v Bridgewater

Team: Bradley, Summerfield, Davies, Wright, Rewbury, Green, Jenkins, Williams G, McLaggon, Patten, Traylor.

Subs: Evans, Harris, Bauza, Morgan, Prosser.

1-0 to Bridgwater. Pen in the 14th min

Gavin Williams sent off for a headbutt in the 17th min

Any good news?

Half time: 1-0 to Bridgwater. Bridgwater hit the crossbar in the 19th min.

Two subs at half time: Harris and Prosser on. Davies and Summerfield off

1-1. Harris in the 72nd min - drive through the keeper.

2-1 to Bridgwater in the 75th min

79th min sub. Jenkins off and Morgan on

Taunton win 2-1. A week's a long time in football

Full time. 2-1 to Bridgwater. Crowd 604.

i don't normally moan about refs but this one was a joke

stevie g wrote:i don't normally moan about refs but this one was a joke

Yes, he was abysmal. I heard a rumour that the Bridgwater team bus is dropping him off in Bristol on the way home!

Brilliant. In truth we have not been playing well for some time now. Mangotsfield, Clevedon, B.Cleeve, Taunton, N.Leigh all outplayed us mostly, and now this!

Obadiah Moot wrote:Brilliant. In truth we have not been playing well for some time now. Mangotsfield, Clevedon, B.Cleeve, Taunton, N.Leigh all outplayed us mostly, and now this!

Taunton? they did nothing for 70 mins against us then scored with their only shot. Hardly outplayed us.

North leigh was a nothing game, both teams didnt do much, again hardly outplayed.

With eleven men we would probably have had a result of some kind.We can thank our lucky stars that Bradley was not sent off as we would be in the s--t without a backup goalkeeper.W e needed To win today as we have a very demanding series of away games coming up including Bridgewater again.His substitutes at half time was spot on but I do think ceri should have come on earlier than he did

Today's teams:

Bradley;
Summerfield,Green,Rewbury,Davies;
G.Williams;
Traylor,Patten,Wright,Jenkins;
McLaggon

Subs:
Prosser for Summerfield (injured?) at half time
M.Harris for Davies at half time
Morgan for Jenkins after about 80 minutes
Evans
Bauza

It was an unchanged starting eleven from midweek, with Kris Leek unavailable again.

Bridgwater had the first real attack, breaking down their right, with a player getting to the line to square the ball to the near post where Tom Bradley fumbled it thankfully the right side of the post for a corner. This was headed wide.

After about 13 minutes we lost the ball in midfield and Bridgwater played a man clean through down the middle for him to go down as Bradley challenged him. Bradley was booked for the challenge, with Bridgwater players appealing for him to be sent off. Bridgwater's Tom Knighton took the kick which Bradley got his leg to as he dived the other way, but the ball went into the net.

To be honest the lead was no more than Bridgwater deserved as we'd just not put our game together. Things then got worse a few minutes later as Gavin Williams was shown a red card when Bridgwater won a free kick on the half way line. I didn't actually see what happened as I was still writing about the penalty, but I gather it was a head-butt.

Bridgwater nearly made it 2-0 after about 18 minutes when a 25-yard shot beat Bradley and came back off the bar to be cleared.

For the rest of the half Bridgwater rather sat back and seldom looked like making their extra man count in attack. Playing a 4-4-1 formation we could make no headway at all, with Kyle Patten and Jarrad Wright looking ponderous in midfield. We did have a few efforts at goal, but all were well off target. With Gavin Williams off the field Ian Traylor took a corner late on and sent it beyond everybody and out of play beyond the far post, and that just about summed up our play in the first half.

At least at just one goal down we were still in the game, but changes needed to be made and were. Dan Summerfield had gone down injured just before half time, so that may have been the reason he was substituted, but it also may have been tactical as Adam Davies (who had not been our worst player in the half) was also taken off. Ryan Prosser and Matthew Harris came on and we played with three at the back in a 3-4-2 formation with Harris and Patten in midfield.

We then began to play with some purpose for the first time, and ofter about 47 minutes Kyle Patten won a free kick just outside the area when he ran at the Bridgwater defence, beating about 3 players. Kayne McLaggon took the kick which was headed away. About 3 minutes after that after Matthew Harris had lost the ball a Bridgwater player was almost through down the middle, but Ryan Green got back at him well and Tom Bradley was able to save with his legs.

A couple of minutes later we had our first decent effort on goal when the keeper made a good save from a shot by Kayne McLaggon on the right of the area.

Our main threat at this stage, as we pushed Bridgwater back despite being a man short came from some good balls in from Ian Traylor on the right.

A deserved equaliser came with our first bit of good luck in the game when Kayne McLaggon gave the ball to Matthew Harris in a bit of space about 25 yards out. He fired in a shot which the goalkeeper somehow let squeeze through his arms and into the net behind him.

But no more than 5 minutes later Bridgwater were ahead again, when a corner was headed down to be scrambled into the net.

After about 80 minutes Kerry Morgan replaced Corey Jenkins and was in action straight away, winning a free kick down the left. It looked as if he'd conjured up a second equaliser after about 87 minutes after Matthew Harris found him down the left. He put the ball towards the far post where Jamie Rewbury, up in attack for the closing minutes, met it on the volley, but the keeper made up for his earlier error with a point-blank save. We were close again when Ryan Prosser had a close-range effort cleared off the line, but it wasn't to be.

Well, in the end we would have deserved a draw despite playing three quarters of the match with 10 men. After a very poor first half when we just weren't on our game at all in all areas of the field we were the better side after the break, and it was disappointing to concede a goal from a corner for the second Saturday in a row from what was Bridgwater's only effort at goal after we had equalised.

Difficult to choose a man of the match, but possibly Ian Traylor for his work in the second half. And Kerry Morgan was arguably more effective in the last 15 minutes or so of the match than Corey Jenkins had been in the previous 75. Athough Jenkins did work hard as a wing back after the break, there was not much of an attacking threat from him, and throughout it was disappointing to see him turning to come back inside almost all the time instead of going for the line. I can only think that Kerry Morgan is restricted to these odd 15 - 20 minutes at the ends of games to due some sort of injury problem.

But we were just ineffective in midfield in the first half, and Kris Leek was really missed.

Good to see a 600+ crowd - maybe just as well it's a few weeks before the next home game as there could be a drop after today's result. Let's hope some points can be picked up in the next 4 away games - and if a win can be achieved at Bridgwater in the last of them it will make up for today.

We were poor in all departments today, IMO we have not played well since Ryan Newman left, we have never been outplayed but we have had to really battle to win games which was not the case earlier in the season. We now have 4 consecutive away games to play which really could have a significant impact on how our season will pan out and we will have to play a lot better in these games than we have recently to ensure we maintain our position at the top of this dour League.

Patten on loan tries hard but is NOT an adequate replacement for Ryan Newman,IMO we should have given SJ the resources to replace Ryan Newman to ensure that our momentum was maintained. With Leek unavailable & Gavin sent off today our lack of quality in midfield was really exposed.

With the gates we have been getting recently there must be some addional resource that can now be given to SJ to sign a quality Midfield player to give us that final push for promotion & I for one hope that this will happen as quickly as possible as the last thing we want is the risk of ending up in the lottery of the Play-offs and running the risk of ending up in this Dire, Poor league again next season.

I agree KPT it's essential we sign a quality midfield player ASAP !

cliffyboy wrote:I agree KPT it's essential we sign a quality midfield player ASAP !

I don't see us signing one. Bauza, harris, patten and evans will compete for two spots. Wright is the guaranteed start in the midfield 3. Poor reaction from gav today considering all the experience he has. I heard leek will miss the next 2 games, Missed him today.

Hate to go here again but we only hear from some when we are on a down leave it to you to work out who i am talking about. A bad day at the office yes Bradley very lucky not to go but helped by ball going away from goal. Gavin needs nobody to tell him he let everyone down and I think he now wants to get used to it because the last couple of games teams have sat a player on him with the purpose of stopping him playing and kicking him at the same time, that said stupid thing to do two yards from the ref seeing he had booked everyone and continued to do so for looking at people the wrong way. Thought we needed to bolster the midfield before half time i thought we were playing a 4 2 3 and were a bit over run i thought. That said a good fight back against everything shame about the laps for their second and then their keeper pulled a number of saves out of the top lucky drawer. We need to start playing midfielders in midfield and defenders in defence as well as attackers in attack by picking players out of position what are we saying to the people on the bench. But we must get behind the players and support if all we want to do is criticise then do you need to ask yourself do you really want to be linked with merthyr

interested wrote:Hate to go here again but we only hear from some when we are on a down leave it to you to work out who i am talking about. A bad day at the office yes Bradley very lucky not to go but helped by ball going away from goal. Gavin needs nobody to tell him he let everyone down and I think he now wants to get used to it because the last couple of games teams have sat a player on him with the purpose of stopping him playing and kicking him at the same time, that said stupid thing to do two yards from the ref seeing he had booked everyone and continued to do so for looking at people the wrong way. Thought we needed to bolster the midfield before half time i thought we were playing a 4 2 3 and were a bit over run i thought. That said a good fight back against everything shame about the laps for their second and then their keeper pulled a number of saves out of the top lucky drawer. We need to start playing midfielders in midfield and defenders in defence as well as attackers in attack by picking players out of position what are we saying to the people on the bench. But we must get behind the players and support if all we want to do is criticise then do you need to ask yourself do you really want to be linked with merthyr

Can i ask who are the players that are being played out of position? Apart from jarrad wright i cant see any, Wright is an excellent centre half but also does a decent job in midfield.

I think the trouble today was not so much about who was or wasn't in the team but the fact that in the first half for some reason we just couldn't put our game together. We played OK in defence, with a bit of luck when their shot hit the bar and Bridgwater didn't have all that many chances. But when we tried to go forward nobody could do anything right - and I think that more or less applied to the whole team.

It was a different story after the break, with the changes made we looked much more threatening despite being a man down, and although we got lucky with the goal it was deserved. But as I said earlier, it was disappointing that we couldn't defend a corner again and allowed Bridgwater to go back in front. Even then we could have got back to secure a point, and if Jamie Rewbury's volley hadn't been well saved, or Ryan Prosser's effort not been blocked on the line we'd have been praising the team for their spirit in the second half.

Merthyr Imp wrote:a bit of luck when their shot hit the bar

I think everybody's doing Tom Bradley an injustice.
From where I was stood it looked as if Tom got his fingertips to the ball and pushed it on to the bar.