Bristol Manor Farm Media Watch

Merthyr Express Sports Supplement

BRISTOL Manor Farm visit Penydarren Park on Monday, January 2 hoping to put pressure on the top teams and dent Merthyr’s hopes of promotion in The Toolstation Western League Premier Division (3pm). Manager John Black has put together a talented side.

Brad Abraham is the dynamo in midfield while up front they have Luke Clarke who has returned to the club from Bitton, and Paul Coles, who has had experience with Roman Glass St George.

Their most experienced player is midfielder Danny Maye who has been with Port Vale and Southend.

Lee Ballard, ex-Bitton and Yate Town, competes with Dean Graham for the goalkeeping role, the latter being voted the Players’ Player of The Year last campaign.

In recent games they have triumphed 4-1 at Wells, lost 2-1 at home to Brislington, won 1-0 at Hallen in The GFA Trophy, and lost 2-0 away to leaders Willand Rovers.

The Martyrs are at home again on Saturday, January 7 to fourth-placed Bishop Sutton (3pm).

Merthyr Town home in on January success
South Wales Echo

Merthyr Town will be feeling right at home in January when all four of their Toolstation Western League fixtures are at Penydarren Park. The Martyrs then have a fifth successive home match when Radstock Town visit Penyddaren for the first match in February.

Town were due to play Corsham away on January 14, but that has been rearranged for February because the home team have a Somerset Cup tie which takes precedence.

The run gives Merthyr an excellent chance of picking up a solid haul of points from home games against Bristol Manor Farm, Bishop Sutton, Street, Wells City and Radstock.

Last night, the Martyrs played Merthyr Saints in a friendly match with the main aim of helping Matty Harris back to full fitness. Harris, who suffered a broken leg in August, played in a home friendly against South Wales Amateur League Perthcelyn United, scoring a hat-trick in a 7-1 win. He played 45 minutes against Perthcelyn, while he came through an hour against MacWhirter Welsh League Saints and Martyrs manager Garry Shephard is aiming to arrange another friendly in the new year. That will give Harris the chance to play 90 minutes and complete his rehabilitation.

The next league match for Merthyr is against Bristol Manor Farm on Monday, January 2 (3pm) and that starts the run of home games.

*Merthyr’s full fixture list for January is: Monday, January 2 v Bristol Manor Farm; Saturday, January 7 v Bishop Sutton; Saturday, January 21 v Street, Saturday, January 28 v Wells City.

They are then at home again for the first match in February when Radstock Town are visitors. All of those home games have a 3pm kick-off.

Merthyr’s away match against Corsham Town has been rearranged for Wednesday, February 15 (7.45pm).

Bristol Evening Post

Bristol Manor Farm manager John Black insists his players should go to Merthyr Town "brimming with confidence" following a 3-0 home defeat of Corsham Town, despite the sending-off of Paul Coles after half-an-hour.

"Paul was taking a lot of stick from their centre-half and he shouldn't have reacted as he did," said Black. "But we continued to dominate the game and I've told the lads that if they go to Wales with the right mindset, there's no reason why we can't get something."

Defender Jordan Hazell returns from a ban for Manor Farm. Fifth-placed Merthyr, the pre-season title favourites, dropped more points in a 1-1 draw with Hallen.

"It was another encouraging performance by us against a top team, and to have only lost twice so far this season shows the strides we have made," said Hallen boss Paul Owen.

Banned striker Ashley Bennett and right-back Ben Wiltshire miss Monday's trip to Bishop Sutton, who have defenders Sam Payne, Sam Bailey and Aron Robbins back.

Wandering wrote:Merthyr Town home in on January success
South Wales Echo

Last night, the Martyrs played Merthyr Saints in a friendly match with the main aim of helping Matty Harris back to full fitness. Harris, who suffered a broken leg in August, played in a home friendly against South Wales Amateur League Perthcelyn United, scoring a hat-trick in a 7-1 win. He played 45 minutes against Perthcelyn, while he came through an hour against MacWhirter Welsh League Saints and Martyrs manager Garry Shephard is aiming to arrange another friendly in the new year. That will give Harris the chance to play 90 minutes and complete his rehabilitation.

So was the game played last night after all?

No, i would say this report was written prior to the game being CALLED OFF

Makes you wonder how much else you can believe of what you read in the South Wales Echo,

The stories in the South Wales Echo are like fairy-tales (Grimm - grim). Mosf of the sports stories for the Friday Echo are written on a Thursday.And, of course, the Echo is on sale early in the morning now.
The game with Merthyr Saints WAS called off! I don't know where they get the idea of Harris playing an hour! That was probably the aim!
I think Matthew was frustrated that he was unable to play!
It's rather like the film Only Two Can Play with Peter Sellers, based on Kingsley Amis' novel, when the journalist's report on a play appears in the newspaper but, in fact, they play was not performed because the theatre burnt down!!!
And the score was Merthyr 8 Perthcelyn 1.

Buy tomorrow's Echo for a full report on next Monday's match!!!!

Tim Drummond wrote:Buy tomorrow's Echo for a full report on next Monday's match!!!!

I bought todays for the results of the Nos Galan and New Year's Eve lottery numbers.

During the last four seasons we have only managed to play one home game over the Christmas/New Year Bank Holiday period!

Fingers firmly crossed for Monday.

2010/11 - No games played due to snow/frost
2009/10 - No league games played between 12th December 2009 and 16th January 2010.
2008/09 - We played on 27/12 and 3/1 but both games were away from home
2007/08 - Boxing Day we lost 1-3 at home to Gloucester City and played Tiverton away on New Years Day

We did play at Taffs Well last January 3rd which was a Bank Holiday Monday, when we beat Portishead 5-1. Although there was some snow during the journey down there, the pitch was clear.

My mistake. Keep forgetting that the temperature is generally 5 degrees warmer in Cardiff!!

I have only just joined this site last night - found it as a result of the 2011 tribute from Wandering Martyr. I live in South Africa and only return to the UK occasionally, but hoping to get to see the Martyrs when I am back in late March/early April.

The reason I am posting here is that, although I live in South Africa, I follow Welsh football passionately, especially the six clubs in the English league. I am thus accumulating statistics on these clubs and have started writing a blog about them. Have just done the first blog on Merthyr Town for the game against Bristol Manor Farm today. It can be found at amberarmy.blogspot.com (sorry - the name is rather Newport biased!). Hope this will be of interest to people. As time goes on, the idea is to create an increasing base of statistics so that I can blog on interesting and unusual facts about Merthyr Town.

Good luck for the game today. Need 3pts to keep challenging Larkhall and Willand.

To be fair to the Echo they are very supportive towards us and I'm glad that articles regarding the club are published, especially since the changes that have occurred in the last few months in local media.

As commented earlier the piece regarding the Saints game was written prior to the game being called off probably due to publishing deadlines and reflected the intention for the game.

Frustrating time for Merthyr’s Matthew Harris
South Wales Echo

MATTHEW Harris is having a frustrating time in his quest to regain full fitness with Merthyr Town after breaking a leg early in the season. Martyrs manager Garry Shephard has arranged three friendlies to help Harris make progress, but two of them have been postponed.

Harris scored a first-half hat-trick in the one friendly played, against South Wales Amateur League Perthcelyn United. That match was postponed a week earlier, while a clash with neighbours Merthyr Saints on Thursday was called off.

Attacking midfield player Harris, though, is making good progress in training and manager Shephard will try again with a midweek friendly as soon as possible.

The next Toolstation Western League match for Merthyr Town is against Bristol Manor Farm at home on Monday (3pm).