MERTHYR v Kings Lynn

Updates here!

Team: Bradley, Summerfield, Davies, Ash Evans, Baggridge, Green, Traylor, Wright, McLaggon, Scotcher, Prosser. Subs: Hugh, Clarke, Rich Evans, Morgan, Jenkins.

1 up 4 mins! Great free kick from Scotcher bullet header from McLaggon.

2 up Ashley Evans 33mins.

H/t 2-0

Morgan on for Traylor 69mins.

Jenkins on for McLaggon 80mins

F/t 2-nil. Get in!! Crowd 505

Today's team:

Bradley;
Summerfield,Baggridge,Green,Davies;
Scotcher,A.Evans,Wright;
Traylor,Prosser,McLaggon;

Subs:
Morgan for Traylor after about 67 minutes
Jenkins for McLaggon after about 79 minutes
Hugh
R.Evans
Clarke

With Kyle Patten and Matthew Harris both out injured Elliot Scotcher made his debut in midfield, alongside Jarrad Wright, with Rhys Baggridge also making his debut in defence.

King's Lynn probably had the better of the first few minutes, but we took the lead after 5 minutes with a well-worked goal. Jarrad Wright was fouled on the right of midfield, and Elliot Scotcher put a strongly-hit free kick into the area where Kayne McLaggon met it with a diving header to put the ball inside the post.

King's Lynn then put some pressure on us with some free kicks into the box without Tom Bradley being troubled.

It was noticeable that King's Lynn were playing a similar type of game to ourselves, building up from the back and playing with a lone central striker.

After a fairly uneventful spell, after about 24 minutes Ian Traylor created a chance for himself just inside the area, but his shot was beaten away  by the keeper. About 3 minutes later another free kick into the area fell for Traylor to put the ball across the goalmouth but it was cleared.

The second goal came after about 32 minutes and started with Adam Davies pressurising a King's Lynn player just outside his own area. More Merthyr pressure then led to the ball reaching Ian Traylor on the edge of the area and he lobbed it forward to Ashley Evans on the left to hit the ball over the keeper and inside the far post.

It was a deserved scoreline at half time, with Tom Bradley having had little to do, and it was after about 67 minutes before they had an effort on goal, with a header over the bar from a corner.

Kerry Morgan came on for Ian Traylor, so there was no let up for the King's Lynn left back. Their best chance came after about 74 minutes after Elliot Scotcher tried to play the ball out on the edge of his own area and lost possession. The ball eventually reached an attacker, but he put a rather wild shot off target. A couple of minutes late Tom Bradley had his first serious test, touching the ball over the bar following another free kick into the area.

Corey Jenkins then came on for Kayne McLaggon for the last 10 minutes or so, in which King's Lynn did have a couple of chances, a header from a free kick going just wide, and in added time, hitting the post following yet another free kick.

So a comfortable win, with most of our attacking threat coming in the first half, our most dangerous moment after the break coming when Ryan Prosser chipped the ball across the area for it to be just headed away from Kayne McLaggon. Our back four were well on top, and as mentioned, King's Lynn's only threat seemed to be from free kicks into the box.

Difficult to choose a man of the match - all the defence played well - but I'll say Adam Davies. I was quite impressed by Rhys Baggridge, and I don't think he put a foot wrong.  Elliot Scotcher looked useful, and I think he was entrusted with just about all the attacking free kicks from midfield as well as taking the corners. Ashley Evans was in the deep-lying role and took his goal well, with Jarrad Wright seemingly everywhere and also going on one of two of his powerful driving runs from midfield. Ryan Prosser put in a lot of hard work and was a handful for the King's Lynn defence.

Sunny weather, and despite (so I gather) some boring rugby on TV, we drew the biggest attendance of the day in the division, and already in a play-off position! It's good to be back in this division - and to see a decent number of visiting supporters.

Can anyone tell me how much the prize was for the 50/50 draw?

Merthyr Imp wrote:
we drew the biggest attendance of the day in the division,

But not the biggest in the league - Rushden & Diamonds had 530 for their Central Division game.

I believe it was £165

A good game today and we won easily. We took a 2 goal lead and although Kings Lynn had more of the ball in the 2nd half they rarely threatened and we were worthy winners.

I missed the build up to the first goal and all I managed to catch was Kayno getting his head to the ball and sending it past he keeper. It was great to see Ashley get his goal. Adam Davies did really well to get hold of the ball and found Trayls who gave it to Ash and although his shot touched a Kings Lynn player which helped it loop up and although the keeper got his hand to the ball he couldn't keep it out and helped it into the net. Cue some recriminations in the Lynn defence which seemed to continue for much of the game.

It could have been more as Trayls could have got 2 in the first half and it shows the strength of our squad that we can bring on the likes of Kerry & Corey to torment the opposition defence further towards the end. Hopefully SJ can keep everyone happy. I can only recall Lynn having 2 chances - the wasteful shot after a mistake by Scotcher and a header from a corner which went just past our far post.

Lynn did remind me of Carmarthen a few weeks ago seemingly relying on brawn rather than brains and not really trying to play a bit of football and I was not impressed by them but no doubt, they will bully themselves through games. Greeny was the victim of a couple of bad tackles, one of which earned a deserved booking for a Lynn player but the other went unpunished which led to Greeny's booking when he sought retribution. Overall the referee did not give us any protection and seemed to punish the most innocuous Merthyr challenges. In the first half, Prosser was making progress in the Lynn area and his shirt was clearly pulled by a Lynn defender, right in front of the the referee who chose to give nothing. Had it been outside the box we may have got ourselves a free kick - but then, who knows.

Kings Lynn were transferred across from the NPL so we haven't faced an SPL team yet so it's difficult to judge the standard of the opposition we'll be facing this season and we may know more after Frome on Wednesday. However one thing is certain, we will be competitive and entertaining as well and that's all we can hope for.

Merthyr Imp wrote:

Merthyr Imp wrote:
we drew the biggest attendance of the day in the division,

But not the biggest in the league - Rushden & Diamonds had 530 for their Central Division game.

They were probably giving away free Doc Martens!

Just uploaded a few images on old and new club websites.

Can someone put the URL/link to the new website please. Every time I do a search it takes me to the old Pitcharo site. Ta.

Can't see the photos on the old website.

Video highlights from yesterday's game from a Kings Lynn perspective.

Honest assessment from their manager at the end of the video.

Risca Martyr wrote:Can someone put the URL/link to the new website please. Every time I do a search it takes me to the old Pitcharo site. Ta.

Try this:-
http://www.merthyrtownfc.co.uk

Thanks for the link. I'm assuming the site is not completely finished yet, though?

You can see them now on the Pitchero site also there's a link from the new site to Flickr.

Good first game performance would have liked to see Kerry Morgan start the game surely he should be in the starting 11.

Johnny boy wrote:Good first game performance would have liked to see Kerry Morgan start the game surely he should be in the starting 11.

Instead of whom?

Yes, as we found last season, the trouble is that when everybody's fit there are at least 14 players who should all be in the starting eleven!

Let's hope that continues this season.