Bridport v MERTHYR

Updates here - provided this blasted device works; and the away supporters stay vaguely sober!

J Perry, S Williams, R Dorrian, A Thomas, J Newall, K Leek, T Khallil, M Griffiths, R Prosser, C Stiens, S Armitage.
Subs:
A Jenkins, J Thomas, L Smith.
Condition of their pitch: "best seen all season"
Six games in division 1 postponed.

Joe perry, steve williams, ryan dorrian, andrew thomas, jon newall, kris leek, tareq khalil, marcus griffiths, ryan prosser, craig stiens, scott armitage. Subs andy jenkins, jamie thomas, leigh smith.

good news a.thomas in the team.

1 up 10mins. OG following pressure from Steins. Good start!

any idea of the scorer?

Merthyr take an early lead, Bridport score an own goal. 1-0 Martyrs.Merthyr go 2-0 up with a goal from a free kick scored by Tariq Khallil, it took a deflection that left the home keeper helpless to save it.

0-2! Tariq deflection from free kick. 25mins.

Merthyr take an early lead, Bridport score an own goal. 1-0 Martyrs.
Merthyr go 2-0 up with a goal from a free kick scored by Tariq Khallil, it took a deflection that left the home keeper helpless to save it.
Marcus Griffiths makes it 14 league goals this season to make it 3-0 to the Martyrs.

3 0 now

Gets better! 0-3 Marcus Griffiths 39mins bearing down on goal after a poor clearance. And a minute before the linesman flagged for a penalty only to be overruled by the ref...

h/t 0-3

Great,keep it going.

60th min. Sub. Armitage off and Smith on

78th min. Sub. Andrew Jenkins on and Marcus Griffiths off

f/t 0-3. Great result!

Great win 4pt clear at the top of the league now and 10 clear of Bridport.

Thanks for all the updates.

Our best result of the season? And following on from what was arguably our best home performance.

TOO BE HONEST I DID NOT EXPECT THAT WELL DONE LADS THANKS FOR UPDATES,OFF NOW TO EAT MY HUMBLE PIE.

To be honest i thought we would struggle today for a result--- brilliant result well done

Fantastic result ,and on their turf, well done lads!!

Outstanding result today !!!!

Report of game on Bridport website .

This is the report on the Bridport website

Merthyr emerged from this top of the table clash with all of the points, but sad to say this game won't stay in the memory for long. With both top scorers unavailable, Bridport elected to play with one striker and the visitors seized on this from the start with a series of swift but fruitless moves. With neither keeper troubled, the Martyrs took the lead with seven minutes elapsed. A weak cross from Craig Stiens was begging to be cleared, but Bees defender Ryan Hayter managed to steer it past keeper Sam Filkins. Two minutes later the game seemed set to boil over after a rash tackle from Hayter, led to a 18 man melee. Hayter was knocked to the ground by Steins and the former got up with blood coming from his mouth, referee Bishop choosing to book the Bees defender and, mysteriously, Marcus Griffiths for the visitors. Merthyr were two up after 23 minutes following a free kick conceded by Bees skipper Darren Lock, Tareq Khalil's strike taking two deflections before it flew into the corner of the net. Chris Senior, Russell Legg and Dan Wise all had attempts on goal as the Bees tried to pull one back, but Merthyr completed the scoring seven minutes from the break. A back pass from Senior left Filkins with a lot to do and, having avoided the advancing Khalil, his clearance to Lock was pounced on by Griffiths who scored from ten yards. A second half shake up of personnel and tactics with centre back Senior pushed into the attack saw Bridport hold their own, but it was too late. Chances were few and far between for both clubs and the only incident of note was when Legg was marginally late with a challenge on keeper Perry sparking another multi player shoving match, Legg eventually receiving a yellow card.

FINAL SCORE :- Bridport 0 Merthyr Town 3

Star Man :- Marcus Giffiths (Merthyr)

Best Bee :- Sam Filkins

An absolutely fabulous performance from the lads today. They all played really well and to pick out a MOTM would be extremely difficult. Apart from 2 off target headers - 1 in each half - Joe wasn't troubled at all, except for the "marginally late" assault on him by the aptly named Legg which left his face bruised. Willo & Tubbs mopped up everything through the middle & Dozza & Badger didn't allow Bridport to play anything wide. Leekie & Taz bossed the midfield whilst Marcus & Scotty did well on the flanks for us. Steino & Pross were a constant threat and we more than deserved our win. We could have had 2 or 3 more if it wasn't for their keeper and if chances were "few and far between" why was their goalie named MOTM for them? After a mare of a 1st half he made at least 3 quality saves in the 2nd half and we could have easily doubled our score which would have been a fair & true reflection of the game.

Steino's cross for the first put their centre half under all sorts off pressure. If he hadn't have gone for it Pross was on hand. As it was the centre half passed it beyond the keeper and it had just crossed the line before Pross touched it. Tareq's free kick was a good one, on target, and was deflected to the keeper's left. He got his hand to it but was not strongly enough to stop it crossing the line. For the 3rd we put the goalie under pressure from a back pass and he in turn played a poor pass to one of their defenders who was robbed by Marcus who advanced on goal and slipped it sweetly past the keeper.

In the 2nd half with a strong wind behind us - although not as strong as Hughesies on the coach - we peppered their goal with attempts for the first 20 odd minutes but everything seemed attracted towards their keeper who made some terrific saves. We eased off towards the end but Bridport didn't threaten and the only thing I can say about them is that they were a dirty bunch of sods and we need to be careful in the future not to lower ourselves to that sort of level and retaliate.

One of their fans said our defence was the best he'd seen all season and that was the reason Joe had a relatively quiet game. Our last away game at Melksham was a bad day at the office whereas today was a really good day and if we can play to that standard for the rest of the season we will not drop another point.