Shortwood v MERTHYR

Updates here (I hope!!!)

Be lovely to wrap the league up at Home to Mangos. Hope the lads can do the business today!

Any team news?

Team: Bradley, Summerfield, Davies, Patten, Wright, Green, Prosser, Leek, McLaggon, Bauza, Traylor, Subs: Evans, harris, GavWill, Jenkins, Morgan

Is it true S.Williams is leaving the club,I personally hope it is not.

Evesham 1-0 up at North Leigh

Taunton 1-0 up against B.Cleeve

Ht/ 0-0

Penalty to Merthyr! Missed by Kayne

Larkhall 1 up at half-time.

Mclaggon missed pen

Stratford 1 - 0 Wantage H/T

Sub prosser off injured Jenkins on

Sub Williams for bauza

Cinderford winning 4 - 0 against Bashley.
Now 6 - 0.

FT 0-0

valeMartyr wrote:FT 0-0

Thanks for the updates!

Taunton won 1 - 0.

Taunton beat Bishops Cleeve 1-0

Only 11 points behind us now.

Merthyr Imp wrote:Taunton beat Bishops Cleeve 1-0

Only 11 points behind us now.

They play Larkhall next weekend, tough place to go.

Ft 0-0 settle for a point

"Only 11"

I'm still confident that we'll wrap it up on the bank holiday weekend games.

A good result for the boys today. A point at this stage of the season is a point closer to the title.
Only 8 points to go.
In the Central League, Kettering drew 2 - 2 with Uxbridge. So they're still 2 points behind us for home advantage in the Championship game.

It was not a very good game today played on a deceptively bobbly pitch and even though we missed a penalty a draw was probably a fair result even though we did have a good shout for another penalty later on.  To be honest if the game was still being played now it probably still would have been scoreless.  I will try to pick out the better passages of play in the game but they were few and far between. 



Our team was unchanged from last Saturday and was –


Bradley
Summerfield, Green, Wright & Davies
Patten, Leek & Bauza
Traylor, Prosser & McLaggon
 
Subs – Evans, Harris, Williams (G), Jenkins & Morgan
 
Shortwood kicked off and managed to find Egan but his misplaced pass was picked up by Wright and he put it right towards Traylor who ran down the line and found Prosser who took it further wide and from the byline he tried to find McLaggon but Hancock got in first and cleared the ball and that was largely the story of the half.
 
Green, for probably the first time this season, misplaced a pass to Wright and Shortwood broke forward and Green redeemed himself by getting back and putting the ball out of play for a throw on the Shortwood left.  The throw was taken and Shortwood got forward to our area and the ball was sent out right to Egan who stepped inside, taking on Davies and got in a shot which went high over Bradley’s bar.
 
At this stage of the game and to be fair for most of the game both defences were very much on top and neither set of midfielders rarely set anything up that was remotely worthwhile as the ball was bouncing awkwardly on the uneven surface.  Summerfield did send a long ball into the Shortwood half.  Prosser fought for it and tried to find Traylor but the ball rebounded back to Leek off a Shortwood defender but Leek’s shot went about 17 yards wide of the Shortwood goal. 
 
Merthyr did have a bit of a let off when Bauza tried to head the ball forward but the ball was sent long back into the Merthyr half by a Shortwood defender and the ball went through to Bradley but he seemed to lose it but he chased it back and seemed to impede Langworthy as he tried to rescue the situation but Bradley did manage to get hold of the ball and a rare moment of danger passed. 
 
Leek got hold of the ball in the Shortwood half and he held it and put it inside to Patten who got to the edge of the area and got in a shot which was deflected wide of the Shortwood goal and King in the Shortwood goal, kitted out in a fetching shade of pink, tried to stop it going out of play but he missed it and it went for Merthyr’s first corner of the game.  Patten took it and it went high into the area and King punched it away but only as far as Wright who sent in a left footed volley from about 18 yards which went just over King’s bar and it was probably the best effort of the game with roughly 20 minutes gone.  Shortwood retaliated and gained a free kick on their right which was taken by Egan and he sent it high towards our far post and was headed back across by Haddock but Bradley came out and made a safe catch.
 
Merthyr gained a free kick just inside our half and Green sent it towards the Shortwood 18 yard line on the right.  Wright headed it forward and it was intercepted by Hancock but only as far as Wright who was challenged by Price who came away with the ball but his attempted clearance only found Patten who played a one two with Bauza and as Patten ran towards the edge of the area he was brought down and the referee awarded a free kick to Merthyr just outside the area to the right of the D.  Leek ran over the ball and McLaggon’s right footed shot curled around the wall but also wide of King’s right hand post. 
 
The Merthyr midfield, with Bauza in particular, were guilty of giving away the ball and he was robbed and as Price broke away he was brought down by Bauza but only a free kick was given which was taken by King long towards the Merthyr area but it went all the way through to Bradley.  After a further period of indeterminate play Shortwood gained the ball in the Merthyr half and it was sent forward towards Klein-Davies and Bauza beat him to the ball but his pass only found Egan who sent in a 30 yarder which Bradley did well to push away for a corner which came to nothing as Davies got it away at the near post.  A few minutes later the ball was cleared from the Merthyr defence towards Traylor on the halfway line but he miscontrolled it and Egan got in but he was fouled by Bauza and Shortwood gained a free kick and Mr Staynings had a word with the Spaniard.  Egan took the kick towards the Merthyr far post and Summerfield under pressure from a Shortwood attacker got it away for a corner.  It came in near post and was cleared by Davies but it came off Leek for a Shortwood throw. 
 
The throw found Langworthy who was challenged by McLaggon but the Shortwood striker got it back to Egan who crossed it to the near post towards Klein-Davies who shot on the turn and Bradley made a superb reflex save and with his right hand he pushed it up over the bar and away for a corner which was cleared by Prosser.  From another Shortwood attack, Summerfield got it forward to McLaggon who gave it inside to Prosser.  He ran down the middle of the pitch, with the ball bobbling about and he was robbed but the ball came back to Bauza who got it to Traylor who broke down the left and he got to the area and cut inside Rawlings and got close to the byline and sent in a powerful shot towards the near post which King was happy to push behind for a corner, which true to form came to nothing. 
 
Shortly afterwards Mr Staynings brought a fairly undistinguished half to an end.
 
The start of the second half followed a similar pattern to the first with neither attack causing any real problems for the opposition defenders with both sets well on top.  But a long ball into the Shortwood half was headed on by Prosser towards Traylor who sent in a shot from about 18 yards which seemed to be going wide but King seemed to stumble and got a hand to it and pushed it away for a Merthyr corner.  Patten’s corner went far post and a Bennett got it behind for another corner under pressure from Wright but the referee awarded a free kick to Shortwood. 
 
Merthyr were having the better of the half and from a Shortwood clearance, Wright picked the ball up on the halfway line and sent it right towards Summerfield.  He sent the ball forward and was caught after the ball had gone but as the ball reached Prosser, the referee waved play on.  Prosser found Traylor who got it back inside to Prosser who ran across the area and he had his legs taken away from him by Bennett and it was an easy decision for Mr Staynings to award a penalty to the Martyrs.  With Prosser struggling, McLaggon took the kick with his right foot and King went down well to his left and made a good save from a rather insipid spot kick and the ball was cleared.  Prosser was still obviously struggling from the tackle from which we gained our penalty and despite receiving treatment from Chubbsy he was later replaced by Jenkins with McLaggon moving inside.  A few minutes later Summerfield was fouled by Bennett as he tried to cut inside just outside the right hand side of the Shortwood area.  Patten’s kick was headed towards goal by McLaggon but it went just wide of King’s right hand post.   Shortly afterwards, a disappointing Bauza was replaced by Williams. 
 
Then a long ball by Summerfield found Traylor close to the byline and he volleyed a cross which was cut out by Lee who hoiked it away for a corner.  Patten took the kick and he aimed it towards the far post and Green was challenged by Bennett and the ball dropped to Wright but his shot was charged down and it found its way back out to Patten who sent it high into the area which Wright went for at the far post and he seemed to be assaulted in the air by the Shortwood substitute Summers but the referee saw nothing wrong and awarded a goal kick.  Even one of the Shortwood subs, who shall remain nameless said it was a clear cut penalty kick but Mr Staynings having already given us one go was not in the mood to give us another. 
 
A few minutes later we gained a corner which was again taken by Patten.  He sent it high into the area where it was headed out by Bennett but only as far as Leek and his shot was charged down and the ball came to Williams who sent in a shot towards goal which seemed to deflect off Hancock and King did remarkably well to get down to his left and push the ball away and he made a match saving save for Shortwood. 
 
There was a bit more end to end stuff with neither side really threatening and thankfully the referee brought the game to an undistinguished end.
 
It is always a hard game at Shortwood and we were not at our best and we seemed to find it difficult to cope with a relatively hard, bumpy pitch and with the majority of our last 6 games being at home, this is very much to our favour.  Our midfield couldn’t get to grips with the opposition and both sets of forwards were playing off scraps.  Shortwood shaded the first half with Bradley keeping us in the game but our second half performance was much better and possibly we deserved more than the point gained.  We really cannot afford to miss penalties and even though we should have had a second one McLaggon should really have buried the first.  Whereas Bradley was the busier keeper in the first half, King did really well in the second and with his penalty save plus the one he made from the Williams deflected shot he is probably the overall MOTM and it’s a toss-up between Bradley, Wright & Green for ours but with his first half performance alone, Bradley probably deserves it.  
 
A point gained as far as I’m concerned as we didn’t play well but we didn’t concede even from the set pieces awarded to Shortwood so that must be a bonus.  Our midfield didn’t really function but I suppose it was one of those games where a resolute opposition plus a bumpy pitch and an obdurate defence made us look ordinary. 
 
It’s one more point towards our aim so it’s onwards and upwards to Sholing next Saturday.