Merthyr v Dorchester

Merthyr made four changes from Saturday. HT Merthyr 0  Dorchester 2  after  goals on 4 mins and 25 mins, 90 plus one minutes, Matthew Neale makes it 3-0. After all the excitement of The FA  Cup, statistics show just seven points from league games at home, and nine away.
Lewis Powell pulls a goal  back on 90mins plus 3.
Second best i every department, and awful, were some of the fans' comments after the game.

Not at the races today. It could have been 3 or 4 by half time for Dorchester. Second half Merthyr did everything but score by some good defending and bad luck. It is all about a week Saturday and we can make our comments then.

Great crowd.

Great crowd again but Merthyr were god awful,they need to pick themselves up ready for sat which surely we must get a result

You’re only as good as your last game and unfortunately we carried that form, from Saturday’s match on to last night’s. Second best all over the park, against mid table opposition. We have needed to use the rest of the squad recently and it shows that we haven’t got the strength in depth. On paper we had a good looking attacking line but, they failed to gel and then we look to the bench where we did not have an option to replace one of them. Can’t really knock the run we’ve been on and it’s understandable to have one eye on the prize with our FA Cup exploits but, we have to be careful in becoming too lethargic. We’ve managed to attract many new faces through the turnstiles and we don’t want to lose those as quickly as they came. Paul Michael has already suggested that, a poor run may be on the cards and deep down I think he realises we lack that strength in depth. In my opinion, we are desperate for for a centre back and forward to bolster our squad, to at least help as back up to those overworked positions.

Liam Angel was out with a shin injury from Saturday, Jack Evans unavailable through work and will also miss the Met Police game. Kieran Evans is ill.
The manager said he had learnt a lot from this game. He hopes to get "the momentum going" again on Satrday when they face tough opponents.

Merthyr drop to 14th in the table - with games in hand . Dorchester are eighth.
Of course, people often point out about so many players missing for a game. But we don't know how many regulars are missing from the opposition!

Spot on…… Every club has a squad, some bigger than others, to use in differing circumstances. These players I suppose are fringe players but, should play a big part in the manager’s plans. If unfortunately the player isn’t ‘up to scratch’ he needs to be moved on for a newcomer to take his place. In our case, we haven’t replaced our original signing, centre back Nick Rhodes (retired through injury) and long term injured, forward Gethyn Hill and I feel this will cost us more points, unless addressed quite soon. Abubacrr Sama has hardly been used and it seems to me that, he doesn’t even fit in with this standard of football. Sounds like a knee jerk reaction but, we don’t want to be dragged in to familiar territory.

Yes, too many passes went astray and too often we were bundled off the ball by a stronger, faster, more direct opposition - a familiar reminder of last season. Still, it would be unrealistic to expect that, without any setbacks, we would move smoothly up the league and be challenging for a play-off place. But the manager has been candid about the deficiencies and the challenges ahead and, in spite of setbacks like last night and the Harrow game, progress so far gives reasons to be optimistic. We must hope that the best cup run for 15 years and noticeable increase in attendances will provide more funds for necessary team strengthening in a few key positions.

Dorchester had won just once in their eight previous matches.