MERTHYR v Paulton (Red Insure Cup)

Updates here (I hope!!)

Team:
Clarke
Tancock Baggridge Wright Davies
Bowen Bond Evans Brown
Prosser Reffell

Subs: Hugh Jenkins Traylor McLaggon

35th min sub. Davies off and Hugh on

Half time 0-0. Not much to report!

72nd min subs: Traylor and Jenkins on. Bowen and Brown off. Going for broke...

F/t 0-0. Penalties.

Won 5-3 on pens!

Probably should have won in normal time.

Merthyr scorers: Bond, Prosser, Traylor, Reffell, Evans. Clarke saved Paultons second pen.

Get in!!

Meanwhile in the league tonight

Chesham 5 Dunstable 1

Poole 2 Weymouth 0

Poole return to top spot on 60 points

Apart for a few half chances for Merthyr in the second half, very little was created by either side.
We deserved to win on possession alone during normal time but it wasn't to be.
Man of the Match for me was their No 4, Mateus. A little pocket rocket than ran his socks off up front but didn't really have any support.
A home draw in the semi-finals would be nice.
That's 5 wins and a draw in the last six games. Let's hope for win number 6 against Chippenham on Saturday.
COYM!

Tonight's team:

Clarke;
Tancock,Wright,Baggridge,Davies;
Brown,Evans,Bond,Bowen;
Prosser,Reffell;

Subs:
Hugh for Davies (injured) after about 33 minutes
Traylor for Brown after about 71 minutes
Jenkins for Bowen at the same time
McLaggon

Although Paulton did make a few changes from their last match they presented a much stronger team than Chippenham had done in the last Red Insure Cup game.

Paulton perhaps showed more in the early stages, with Cameron Clarke looking a little indecisive with through balls on a couple of occasions. They won a couple of corners, one of them after Rhys Baggridge was maybe a little fortunate with practically wrestling an attacker to the ground in the penalty area.

The nearest to a goal at that stage came with about 15 minutes gone when the Paulton keeper saved a shot from Jaye Bowen at the near post after a corner had been played back in.

Otherwise there was not a great deal of incident until about 28 minutes gone after Jon Brown did well to get to a ball down the right and whipped it across to Keyon Reffell who put a shot over the bar.

Adam Davies seemed to have taken a knock and was replaced by Chris Hugh after about 33 minutes.

Again, there was not much to report about the remainder of the half.

About 5 minutes after the break there was a good ball from Jaye Bowen to Jon Brown on the right of the area, but his first time ball into the middle was cleared before Keyon Reffell could get to it.

Considering we had two big men in the middle we were just never getting any crosses in to them.

There was a flurry of activity after about 60 minutes when it seemed we must score more than once, but with shots saved and blocked the nearest to scoring was Jaye Bowen with a shot that was deflected wide.

We changed both our wide men with just over 20 minutes to go, with Ian Traylor and Corey Jenkins coming on, and Traylor in particular livened things up. After about 81 minutes he led a good break, playing the ball out to Corey Jenkins on the left. He put the ball across the 6-yard area but no-one could get to it and it reached Scott Tancock on the right. He got in a shot to the near post but the keeper saved.

We were close again about 2 minutes from the end when Keyon Reffell put a shot no more than 2 feet over the bar after Ryan Prosser laid the ball back to him.

So to penalties:

Chad Bond scored easily - 1-0
Paulton's Leon Jeanne scored - 1-1
Ryan Prosser scored, although the keeper got a hand to it - 2-1
Cameron Clarke saved Paulton no. 10's kick - still 2-1
Ian Traylor scored - similar to Prosser - 3-1
Paulton's no. 3 scored - 3-2
Keyon Reffell scored easily - 4-2
Paulton's no. 6 scored - 4-3
Ashley Evans sent keeper wrong way - 5-3

So, a deserved win, as although I don't think Paulton were set up particularly defensively they showed little attacking threat throughout, and practically none in the second half. We just couldn't manage to get the ball in the net then, mainly due to seeing shots blocked as Paulton did defend well. We looked more threatening with Ian Traylor on, although Jon Brown had his usual sort of game, and although Jaye Bowen shows some nice touches he wasn't really all that effective.

But nothing like as enjoyable a game as the one in the previous round, which was a shame as the attendance of 201 must be one of the best I can remember for a league cup game.

A pity Steve Williams didn't get to take a penalty, but maybe he was down to take the 5th one for Paulton.

Just uploaded some images from last nights game onto club website.