Bideford v MERTHYR

Team:
Garner
Tancock Baggridge Wright Davies
Brown Evans Reffell
Traylor Prosser McLaggon

Subs:
Bloom Clarke Chappelle Hugh Jenkins

Still 0-0 after 25mins

HT 0-0
Bideford hit the bar and Prosser had a couple of headers that have gone wide.

H.T 0-0

1-0 up Prosser Pen

1-0 up - Prosser with a penalty.

1-0 Prosser pen 72mins

Get Prosser a call up for Euro 2016.....Boz

Prosper for the AM for Merthyr.

1-0 win

Defeat for Bideford puts them down

F/t won 1-0. Bideford relegated.

Other F.T results
Kettering 1 Leamington 1
Paulton 2 Cambridge 1
Stratford 0 Poole 1

Good win for Paulton.....they don't think its all 'Rover'....Boz

Also, Colwyn Bay were relegated from the north division tonight, which means out of the 6 Welsh club that are playing in the English leagues the Martyrs are no longer the lowest placed club.
Colwyn Bay will now play in the step below Martyrs next season.

Oh and cracking win tonight for Merthyr, onwards and upwards.

The win moves us up three places to 11th.

To the happiness of at least one member of this Forum this is a much shorter report than usual due to a cock up on the Dickyphone front where I erased most of my comments on the game in error. Not that there was much to comment about as it was a scrappy game with little goalmouth action but it was a game we just about deserved to win.

With Davies fully recovered he came in at left back with Bloom dropping to the bench. In the absence of Jones, Wright continued as part of the back 4 and Traylor came in for Jenkins who was not fully fit after his injury on Saturday

Bideford, needing a win to keep their Premier League status didn’t display the necessary bite from the start and in the early exchanges both pairs of centre backs easily dealt with any perceived threat and kept attackers away from the final third.

The nearest thing we had to a goal in the first half was when about on the 10 minute mark Wood sent the ball into the Merthyr area and the lanky Squire, with his back to goal on the 6 yard line got in a good header which came back off the bar and away to safety. The remainder of the half remained to be a scrappy affair. Bideford got a few balls into our box which were either dealt with by the Wright/Baggridge axis and we too, were guilty of playing too many long balls forward, albeit on a difficult playing surface which were meat and drink to the Bideford defenders although Prosser, Baggridge and Reffell did get in headers which were either too high or wide of the post. Garner, in the Merthyr goal had little to do other than to field hopeful crosses or deal with the odd through ball or back pass.

The second half mirrored the first with neither side being able to create any real opportunities although Traylor and Reffell for Merthyr saw efforts go just wide and Bideford also had a few efforts but again Garner was untroubled. Evans rarely scores poor goals and he nearly got another stormer when he latched onto a poor clearance and from about 25 yards sent in a half volley which flew just past Moore’s right hand post.

The break through was always going to come from a set piece and on the balance of play it was correct that Merthyr got it. Just after the hour mark Brown sent a good ball into the Bideford area and McLaggon tried to bring it under control with his back to goal near the penalty spot was unceremoniously hauled down by an amalgamation of a couple of Bideford defenders and Mr Durkin had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and his decision was met with little or no reaction from the Bideford team. Traylor who had been limping as result of a tackle a few minutes earlier and Prosser had a discussion on who should take the spot kick and the bearded one prevailed and it was Prosser who stroked the ball into the right hand corner of Moore’s net with the keeper going to his left and Merthyr were 1 up.

The game was well and truly up for Bideford and despite a couple of substitutions by them they never looked like getting back into it and it was Merthyr who looked the more likely to score again. Hugh replaced the hard working McLaggon and shortly afterwards, Traylor sent in a low free kick from just inside the Merthyr half into the Bideford box and it came off Baggridge towards Moore who fumbled it but managed to get control at the second attempt. Traylor then got himself into a good position near the byline in the Bideford box but instead of trying to find a colleague he lashed a shot across goal which went out of play for a throw on the far side and shortly afterwards, Traylor was replaced by Jenkins. Garner did have one save to make when a Bideford attacker broke into the Merthyr area and got a shot away which was easily dealt with by the Merthyr keeper. Just before the end Chappelle came on for Brown and shortly afterwards Mr Durkin put Bideford out of their misery by blowing the final whistle with Merthyr winning 1-0 and moving up to 11th in the table.

Merthyr did enough to win the game and in truth Bideford put up very little fight and seemed to be resigned to their fate. An article in the programme, written at the time of the postponed fixture confirmed that they would be happy to go down. Merthyr, on a not very good surface, harried and fought for the ball and tried to get forward but rarely clicked and it was a nice, ugly 1-0 win. Both Baggridge & Wright had good games at the back mopping up everything that Bideford had to offer and my vote goes to Baggridge as MOTM.

Two more difficult away games at Weymouth & Chesham in this trilogy to follow before our final game a week on Saturday at the Park against Slough.

Old Sod wrote:To the happiness of at least one member of this Forum this is a much shorter report than usual ...

Meurig?!!

Old Sod wrote:...cock up on the Dickyphone front where I erased most of my comments on the game in error.

Nah - be like shootin' fish in a barrel!

Actually, very succinct Phil!