Barnstaple v MERTHYR

No Leek or Howe. The bench is a little lightweight for recent away games.

Where were Jamie Adams and Jamie Thomas?
I understand that Joe Leahy will be returning after his loan spell at Ton Pentre.

Jamie Adams broke his big toe at training thursday and looks to be out injured , bad luck just
when his fitness levels were improving and could have challenged for a start in team .

Dave...sorry to hear that I liked the look of his play the time when he came on,hope he's ok soon...

Thanks, Dave, for information.

Royston Rogers wrote: Great result one question who is Payne and where is Adams gone?

I would think that was Dan Payne from the Academy side.

Thanks for the updates. For the second week in a row just the sort of result we wanted.

i have only just got back from working all day and didnt know the merthyr result, so i thought i would read from the start of this article first.
was a bit cheesed off when i seen it went to 2-2, thankgod we came out winners and bounced up to third.
Hallen are now playing this tuesday evening.
2 more wins and two bad results for Bitton and then we will be sitting pretty.

In the Non league paper today by Joe Ponting edited slightly:- Bitton maintained their blistering pace at the summet with a 3-1 win on the turf of their main rivals, Larkhall Athletic, but crucial victories for Hallen and Merthyr Town means that the title race remains wide open with six clubs in contention. The team they all have to catch flexed their muscles impressivley at Plain Ham, scoring three befor half time with Larkhall replying in the second half. Hallen leapfrogged Willand into second place and now find themselves three points adrift with a game in hand after they beat Willand 2-1 in what was a tense match.Hallen cruised into a two goal lead but Willand pulled one back minutes from time and the finish was excruciating for the fans. Coming up hard on their heels are Merthyr Town, whose 4-2 triumph at Barnstaple lifted them three places into third place, leaving them five points behind Bitton having played two fewer games. They led through Ryan Newman and Andrew Thomas but the Devonians fought back valiantly before Alan Griffiths and Ian Traylor sealed the points late on.

Barnstaple Town 2 Merthyr Town 4
Wales On Sunday

MERTHYR moved up to third in the Western League Premier Division with victory in Devon, snatching a brace in the last six minutes. It was a victory for Merthyr that had looked likely up until seconds before half-time, after Ryan Newman and Andrew Thomas goals had put them in cruise control.

But, with the hosts awarded a corner in stoppage time, Merthyr went to sleep and were punished as Stan Paxton headed back across goal for Clifford Connor to score.

However, if Merthyr were on top in the first 45 minutes, they came out at the restart creating chance after chance. Garry Shephard turned and shot just over on 47 minutes, whilst five minutes later Matty Harris struck the bar after a four-man move.

Ryan Prosser struck a half volley wide while Shephard was through on 65 minutes only for defender Sam Chitty to bring him down. Referee Steve Annis waved away the appeals and directly from that, Barnstaple broke down the right and Connor fired past Merthyr keeper Joe Perry to level.

Merthyr kept creating chances and on 84 minutes, Shephard was set free and found Alun Griffiths who stabbed the ball home. In the dying seconds, substitutes Jon Newell and Ian Traylor combined for the latter to find the net from the most acute of angles.

We don't really make it easy for ourselves! We attacked from the start and were unlucky not to be ahead early on. As it was some interplay between Matthew & Ryan Newman in the box allowed Newman space to slip the ball past the keeper. A few minutes later Tubbsy rose majestically to meet a corner and sent a bullet header into the net. We carried on pressing but failed to create much more and then when Prosser lost the ball near the halfway line Barum broke and from the resulting corner they scored giving them a lifeline right on half time.

We tried to make amends early on in the 2nd half and created chances but Barum came back into the game and equalised by a sloppy goal from our point of view. The substitutions changed things, particularly Traylor and we looked more mobile upfront. Sheppy received the ball in the box and he laid off a delightful pass to Alun Griffiths who slotted it into the net past the helpless keeper. Barum still kept pressing and the goal that sealed it was worth much more the entrance fee alone. We started taking the ball into the corners to waste time and no doubt Traylor had enough of that because he did a delightful shimmy past a couple of defenders, made his way across the byeline beating more defenders as he went and hammered the ball into the roof of the net from an acute angle.

Sheppy had another excellent game using his experience well and was my MOTM. We did get ourselves into a bit of a pickle today conceding those 2 goals but showed great determination and spirit to sneak the win from a game we could have easily dropped points.

Nice ground at Barnstaple too, tidy facilities and a decent welcome.

Agree with Old Sod's description of the match, we were a bit sloppy for their goals but we were patient and kept moving the ball and the chances came to be converted.

Ryan Newman looked class in the midfield and was my MOTM.

Good celebrations at the end for the late goals.

Carter takes the positives out of Merthyr win
South Wales Echo

IN the words of Merthyr Town assistant manager Danny Carter this was “an accomplished performance” from his side despite two defensive lapses which allowed Barnstaple a foothold in the game. For Carter this should have been a comfortable victory for Merthyr but he was keen to concentrate on the positives from the performance.

“We dominated the game for long periods with some very good football on a very difficult surface,” said Londoner Carter. “And with a little more composure in front of goal we could have doubled our tally.”

Once Merthyr had chalked up a swift two-goal lead through Ryan Newman and Andrew Thomas it did look as though they would go on to build up a considerable lead. But a lapse in concentration let in Barnstaple’s Clifford Connor just before half time to reduce the arrears and when the same player broke on 66 minutes to level the scores Merthyr began to rue their many chances.

But they stuck manfully to their task and went on to restore their two-goal buffer in the final six minutes through Alun Griffiths and Ian Traylor.

This takes Merthyr up to third in the Premier Division table with a top-of-the-table showdown against Larkhall at Penydarren Park next Saturday.

Report from Barnstaple web site
http://www.barnstaplefc.co.uk/news.aspx?ciid=fbdb9afe-6354-4595-9a26-155d5449930b

The last sentence of the Barnstaple site report is a bit far fetched - we did play the better football and on chances created we deserved the win.

I notice from the Western Mail report, Danny managed to get in the fact he was a Londoner. One of the occupants of the Barnstaple bench called him a "Welsh Tw*t" on Saturday and it wasn't Twit! Danny was most offended although he didn't mind the Tw*t bit!

Jacqueline Wilson, who writes popular stories for schoolgirls actually used THAT word in one of her books. Strange the publishers allowed it. But when a young girl's grandmother complained, the word was altered by one letter!!
Any player from a Welsh club can expect what is really racial abuse which should be clamped down on. There have been seasons when Merthyr players have been called Welsh so and sos, even though most of the team were English!!!!

I see that according to the Barnstaple website, Matt Harris scored for Merthyr.