St Ives v MERTHYR

Team:
Davies 
Davies K Patten Tancock Wright Pring
Evans Bowen Richards
Traylor Fleetwood

Subs:
McDonald R Patten Morgan Jenkins Copp.

1 up, goal Jaye Bowen.

1-0 up Bowen 10mins

2 nil, Goal Traylor.

2-0 Traylor 12mins

1-2 with less than a quarter hour gone!

Now 2-1

Sounds like the Local Lad has hit a purple patch.

In National Poetry Week - lets hope Bowen can keep it going.

Boz

Traylor will never fail ya :-)

Nocturnal Me- hee hee hee

Boz

2-1 HT

1-3 Traylor around 69mins

Ian Trayls he wins the race,
scores a goal and gets his brace.

Boz

2-3 with about 5 mins left

Morgan hits the bar with 3 minutes of normal time remaining...

The crowd is good and full of bants,

Lets hope we win by the skin of our pants.

Boz

Bit overconfident to have a drink before the game actually ends Sol?

Boz

F/t 3-2. Good win, but made hard work of it.

Not a bore but the full time score...3-2 ...Boz

Good win we move up to 5th.

Merthyr made it 3 wins out of 3 within 8 days with a victory at St Ives – our first league win at Westwood Road either against St Ives or their tenants Cambridge City – which propelled the Martyrs up into the play off positions.

Manager, Williams kept faith with the 3-5-2 formation that has served him so well over the last few weeks and fielded the same 11 as last Saturday and Tuesday. Copp returned to the squad joining McDonald, Robbie Patten, Morgan and Jenkins on the bench.

Merthyr has most of the play in the early stages on a lush, green surface which was a marked improvement than the pitch in previous seasons but made little progress in the final third until the 10th minute when Richards sent a good ball down the Merthyr left which found Traylor near the touchline. He cut inside and easily got past Smith and sent a low ball into the six yard area which came off a defender and Bowen was on hand to prod the ball over the line and Merthyr were 1 up.

Three minutes later Merthyr doubled their lead when Traylor played the ball to Evans who gave it to Bowen who got the ball through to Traylor who had continued his run and he slipped the under the St Ives keeper, Goff and the Martyrs were leading 2-0 and seemingly in command.

However in recent times a 2-0 lead had often proved to be a poisoned chalice for the Martyrs and this trend continued as virtually straight from the kick off St Ives sent the ball forward and Hilliard sent in a good low cross from the right across the 6 yard area and Draycott was on hand to shoot the ball past Davies and St Ives halved the deficit with 14 minutes on the clock.

The rest of the half was end to end stuff with Hartley heading a free kick wide of the Merthyr goal following a Jarrold free kick and Kelly did well to get past Tancock but Davies made a good save at Kelly’s feet. In between, Fleetwood did well on the Merthyr right and cut inside a St Ives defender and sent in a good cross which just eluded Traylor in the St Ives 6 yard area. Shortly afterwards Traylor had to leave the field to change his shorts – possibly damaged as a result of his stretch to reach Fleetwood’s cross and returned almost immediately. Pring was causing problems on the St Ives right and made a good run into the area and sent the ball across but it was deflected behind for a corner by Smith. Traylor’s corner was given short to Bowen who gave it back to Traylor who found Richards who crossed to the far post and Wright got his head to it but Smith managed to get it clear. Four minutes before the break Merthyr got the ball into the St Ives net for the 3rd time when Pring did well on the left and got to ball into the St Ives area for Fleetwood to set up Bowen who shot the ball home only for the “goal” to be disallowed as Fleetwood was in an obvious offside position when the initial ball was sent forward.

Shortly afterwards Ms Marriott brought the half to an end with the Martyrs holding a deserved 2-1 lead.

St Ives kicked off at the start of the second half and almost caught the Martyrs defence cold when after a good ball by Hilliard freed Hartley but his effort on goal was the subject of a routine save by Davies. Merthyr were still in charge and after being fouled by Smith, Traylor dusted himself off and sent in free kick from about 20 yards just over Goff’s bar. Then a long ball was sent into the St Ives half which was picked up by Traylor who gave it to Fleetwood who returned it to the Merthyr winger who from the left hand side of the area sent in a shot which went just wide of Goff’s right hand post. A few minutes later, Richards got in a shot from the D which just cleared the St Ives bar.

A few minutes later, Wright was adjudged to have fouled Kelly on the edge of the Merthyr area. Draycott took the kick slipping it to Kelly but his shot was well saved, low down, by Davies. With about 20 minutes left, St Ives gained a corner which was punched clear by Davies and the ball was picked up by Bowen who cleverly hung onto it and sent a good ball forward which was picked up by Traylor near the halfway line who made his way into the St Ives area and slipped it past Goff into the net and wheeled his way to the left in celebration of his goal giving the Martyrs a deserved 3-1 lead.

Shortly afterward, Bowen was replaced by Jenkins and a few minutes later, Traylor was replaced by McDonald, making his first appearance of the season following his return from injury as Merthyr tried to retain what they had. Pring took a throw on the Merthyr left towards Jenkins who gave it back to the thrower and he held it and gave it inside to Fleetwood who sent it forward towards Pring on the right hand side of the Merthyr area and he cut inside and his shot hit the outside of Goff’s right hand post and safely behind from a St Ives point of view for a goal kick.

St Ives hit back and really should have scored when Hall sent in a cross from the right which bounced up and Clark headed over from 6 yards when he should have at least brought a save out of Davies. Merthyr made their final substitution of the game with Morgan replacing Fleetwood and almost immediately he almost got Merthyr’s 4th when he sent in a shot which went just wide of the St Ives goal after receiving a knockdown from Jenkins. The curse of a 2 goal cushion again reared its ugly head again as a long hopeful ball towards the Merthyr area and Hall and Tancock battled for it and as Davies came out off his line, Hall got his toe to it and lobbed it over Davies and despite McDonald’s valiant effort to keep it out, the ball crossed the line and St Ives were back in it only losing 3-2 with about 6 minutes left.

St Ives made a double substitution in an effort to salvage a point but it was Merthyr who came the closest to increasing their score when after Richards was brought down about 20 yards out of goal on the Merthyr left and Morgan lined the free kick up. He sent a right footed shot towards goal which seemed to catch the St Ives defence unaware but Goff did really well to get across to it and he just about managed to fingertip the ball onto the bar and away.

Merthyr comfortably saw out the rest of the game and ran out 3-2 winners although the margin of victory should have been more.

Well done Ancient Pete,

Nice to see a factual account of events in Cambridge.

I am sure it will be met with approval from our friends in the 'North' ( of the A465 ( T).

Boz