MERTHYR v Tiverton

Kick-off delayed - Tivvy stuck behind the awful M4 crash.

Terrible weather as well.

Team: Cutlan Marcus Howe Rewbs wright Dodds Harris leek Prosser Gavin Traylor. Subs Charles Newman Cornwall Morganv McLaggon

1 down 20seconds!

Now 2 down

H/t 2 down :-(

Half Time 2-0 down

Full Time 0-2 defeat

F/t lost 2-0. Disappointing.

Still, at least we can concentrate on the league #clichétime

Tonight's team:

Cutlan;
Dodds,Rewbury,Wright;
M.Griffiths,Leek,G.Williams,Harris,Howe;
Prosser,Traylor;

Subs:
Charles for Howe after about 56 minutes
Morgan for Prosser after about 63 minutes
Cornwall for Williams at the same time
Newman
McLaggon

As with the last game in the Red Insure Cup we played with 3 at the back, including Jarrad Wight, with Mark Dodds given a game. Jack Howe was back from injury.

We kicked off an hour late due to Tiverton being late arriving, possibly due the traffic hold-ups caused by the accident on the M4. But there was no delay to them scoring, with their first attack down the right after less than a minute. The ball was hit hard across the area and deflected off Jamie Rewbury's outstretched leg to go inside the far post..

We were facing the rain sweeping down the ground, and it was difficult to get out of our own half, with Tiverton looking very sharp going forward. But after about 16 minutes good work by Ian Traylor put Gavin Williams through on goal only for him to put his shot wide.

Tiverton came close after about 20 minutes following a 35-yard shot which Giles Cutlan had to palm away from the top corner. From the corner kick a header hit the post and Cutlan had to make a point blank save to the follow-up shot.

After about 34 minutes Ian Traylor created a chance for himself on the right of the area but put his shot wide, although claiming the goalkeeper got a touch. About 4 minutes later it was 2-0 to Tiverton. They broke down the right, and a shot from the right of the area was blocked by Cutlan for a player following up to put the ball into the net.

It was just about a fair scoreline at half time, although we might have managed a goal ourselves.

About 11 minutes into the second half Ryan Charles came on for Jack Howe who although doing reasonably well had at times looked short of match practice. Jarrad Wright moved to left back as we changed to 4-3-3. About 5 minutes later Aaron Cornwall came on for Gavin Williams and Kerry Morgan for Ryan Prosser.

Facing the elements in the second half Tiverton had not looked anything like as dangerous, but on the other hand, with the wind behind us we'd not done as well as they had. Kerry Morgan did have a couple of attempts at scoring - the nearest we came to a goal in the second half being when he got in a left-foot volley which went a couple of feet wide, and near the end when he tried a shot which was even closer to the top corner. But apart from that, whereas Tiverton in the first half had been getting in a series of shots whenever we tried anything it was off target.

From about 7pm onwards the conditions were similar to when we played Dunstable, with non-stop driving rain. I think by the time we kicked off if it hadn't been for the 3G pitch the game would have been called off - and as with Dunstable it would almost certainly have been abandoned. Again, there was a lot of water on the pitch and it was affecting the run of the ball (which by the time of the second half was affecting our usual type of game) but unlike with a natural surface there were no puddles for the ball to come to a dead stop in..

So the pitch has saved us having to fit another game in - and so has the result (Tiverton now have that pleasure!). Although it's never pleasant to see a defeat this wasn't a bad match to lose, putting an end to our long unbeaten run at home stretching back to last April.

Difficult to choose a man of the match - I could say all of us who were there in that weather deserve to be nominated!

But Jarrad Wright did well in defence and Kerry Morgan livened things up a bit when he came on and seemed unfazed by the conditions.

Tiverton deserved their win and drove at us for most of the first half (aided by the conditions) and it was all uphill after that.

An amazing game to witness and it was the pitch that came out as the winner eventually. There is no way that a turf pitch would have witheld that sort of weather. It was truly torrential from start to finish. Congratulations to Tiverton who started the game brightly enough to win the game. A word of thanks to both teams for still playing football despite the monsoon conditions, the ball still played well despite the rain and chances still fell to both teams. Good luck to Tiverton for the semi finals.

The pitch didn't help us today. In the appalling conditions, though of course there was no mud, the sheer volume of water on the surface was holding up the ball and many of our passes consequently went astray. We never got into our stride and good players were making uncharacteristic mistakes. We had few shots on goal and our finishing was very poor. Paradoxically we would have been better off with the game postponed until overall conditions were more in our favour. Tiverton seemed to adapt better, they were strong and direct and deserved their win.

I can't belive that game went on last night the stand was shaking and rattling
Difficult conditions bit disappointed in the result but at least we can concentrate
On the league
First time iv sen wright and dobbs very impressed with wright dobbs ain't the best
Overall a bad performance really but the conditions didn't help plus the hanging around
For the players aswell I went half way through second half I was froze to the bone
Well done to the pitch and ground staff

i was talking to the tiverton coach driver and the owner
quite bitter towards our pitch is the owner , the bus driver asked him to install one down there his reply was i cant we havent got the welsh goverment paying for it !!!!!!

he was quite shocked when i told him it was royalties from miller argent and NOT the welsh goverment dont think he liked my reply he quickly walked huffing and puffing to himself .

muscles76 wrote:i was talking to the tiverton coach driver and the owner
quite bitter towards our pitch is the owner , the bus driver asked him to install one down there his reply was i cant we havent got the welsh goverment paying for it !!!!!!

he was quite shocked when i told him it was royalties from miller argent and NOT the welsh goverment dont think he liked my reply he quickly walked huffing and puffing to himself .

I'm afraid there is a lot of resentment towards MTFC this side of the border because of the funding we have received to install the 3G pitch.

muscles76 wrote:i was talking to the tiverton coach driver and the owner
quite bitter towards our pitch is the owner , the bus driver asked him to install one down there his reply was i cant we havent got the welsh goverment paying for it !!!!!!

he was quite shocked when i told him it was royalties from miller argent and NOT the welsh goverment dont think he liked my reply he quickly walked huffing and puffing to himself .

The thing is , of course, that we don't have 'an owner'.

I don't like to lose games but if we were going to lose our unbeaten home record this was the one and I wish Tivvy well in a possible away trip in the next round to St Neots!

Tivvy deserved their win on their first half performance alone when they came out of the blocks much quicker than us and had the bonus of a fluke goal in the first minute. Possibly they wanted to run off any stiffness from their long coach journey as they were the first to every ball and we seemed to be a bit short in midfield, but maybe that was an illusion as Tivvy were everywhere. We could easily have had a couple ourselves as Gavin & Trayls missed chances they would have expected to score from but besides their 2 goals, Tivvy also hit a post and Gilo made a couple of good saves. One of those led to Tivvy's second when the Tivvy forward was quicker to react to the loose ball than our defenders. The second half was not as good as the first and we rarely looked like reducing the deficit.

Jarrad Wright had a good game at the back and he showed that he is equally at home there as he is in midfield. A word too about Gilo. I thought he had a good game last night, making some good saves and handled the ball well and after all the speculation on here it was good to see.

The wind and rain last night was horrendous and the pitch did hold water but there were very few patches where the ball stuck and it seemed to roll OK on 98% of the pitch. The delayed kick off didn't help. Had we been on grass the game would not have finished (even if it had started) and it's one fixture out of the way.

I think 2-0 flatters Tiverton who won subject to an own goal and tap in from close range following a decent save, Tiverton have looked a decent side this year to be fair, and its very hard the fathom why they are outside the play offs, I stoop to lower the tone any further as their very unproffesional official match report did to us over festive period, and I wish them well in the next round and indeed for the rest of the season.

We had several excellent chances througout the game particularly first half 1v1 on two occasions, and numerous shots wide of the mark from very good positions to at least draw level, although Gilo did make a few good saves the other end.

I think Tiverton deserved the victory slenderly, and credit has to be give both sets of players, officials, ground staff and most importantly the fans for braving the delay and horrendous conditions on the night, if ever there was an advert for 3g pitches and their benefit then last night was it, all that was missing was a positive result.

Numerous changes in our squad gave some who havent played much some game time, also a new formation with different personel was tried which worked ok really as I think the failure to convert our chances cost us the game in the end.

As the old cliche goes "lets concentrate on the league" of which we are 6 points clear at the top with an excellent squad, we must not be down beat or phased by this defeat, I am sure normal service will be resumed at home to struggling Guilford on Saturday..

See you all there.....


UP THE TOWN...!!!!!!

cliffyboy wrote:

muscles76 wrote:i was talking to the tiverton coach driver and the owner
quite bitter towards our pitch is the owner , the bus driver asked him to install one down there his reply was i cant we havent got the welsh goverment paying for it !!!!!!

he was quite shocked when i told him it was royalties from miller argent and NOT the welsh goverment dont think he liked my reply he quickly walked huffing and puffing to himself .

I'm afraid there is a lot of resentment towards MTFC this side of the border because of the funding we have received to install the 3G pitch.

Hi I'm a Tivvy fan. There is grant funding available from the FA, upto £500,000, for 3G pitches for such teams as Tiverton Town. I have pointed out to Tivvy how to get their hands on such funds. I think our new owner has aspirations for the team beyond the Southern League and 3G pitches are not allowed in the Conference, I understand. Personally I think we should have such a pitch because our ground is at river level, was under 3 feet of water last season and does not drain well. Ours is one of the worst pitches in the league under these horrendous weather conditions. Well done you to install one.

With respect to the match report mentioned later in this thread. It is not an official match report. It is held in the unofficial archives and was written unofficially and was the opinion of the writer. Some of the comments were from memory sizist and would have been objectionable to the players concerned. I believe the report may have been rewritten with the offensive comments removed. Apologies for any offence caused. I'm not allowed as a newbie to post a link to the match report.

Thank you very much for that response,all the best for the rest of the season.

I wasn't to happy about 3G pitch but last night answered everyone's
Questions and answers and that's the FA aswell .
That game last night would have been called off long before kick off and the pitch would have
Been a mess I was quite surprised how well it managed.
It's the way forward end off .

Merthyr Imp wrote:The thing is , of course, that we don't have 'an owner'.

Nah - we've got a Meurig!!

Merthyr Imp wrote:The thing is , of course, that we don't have 'an owner'.

Or, as the Chairman would post (no doubt several times) - we've got a Meurig!!

Solihull Martyr wrote:

Merthyr Imp wrote:The thing is , of course, that we don't have 'an owner'.

Or, as the Chairman would post (no doubt several times) - we've got a Meurig!!

Now, now - he's been pretty good recently!

Solihull Martyr wrote:

Merthyr Imp wrote:The thing is , of course, that we don't have 'an owner'.

Or, as the Chairman would post (no doubt several times) - we've got a Meurig!!

Now, now - he's been pretty good recently!

Very true.  However, I understand Meirig is the Welsh for "recursion".

Recursion: Definition - See under Recursion!