MERTHYR v Bitton

Perry. Williams, a griffiths, a thomas, j thomas, dorrian, marsh, leek, shephard, m griffiths & traylor.

Subs
Prosser, leahy, armitage, howe, carpenter.

Playing 4-3-3 with Shephard, Marcus and Traylor up front

33rd minute sub: M Griffiths off and Armitage on

H/t 0-0

1 up. Shephard 48mins

Final score 2-0 - Scotty with a penalty after a hand ball in the box. Bitton had a player sent off for a 2 footer on Alun Griffiths.

Much better tonight with a more attacking set up which suits our players. Bitton are a hard side to beat with a strong defence who break up attacks by any means available. They could have had a couple in the first half and we could have scored more in the 2nd so it was a fair, deserved result with a good performance. Sheppy led the line well and scored a good goal with a shot that seemed to hit the underside of the bar on its way in. Tubbsy had a good game tonight using his experience well and Traylor looked sharp on the wing as did Scotty when he replaced Marcus.

A good win against a team who will be there or there abouts at the end.

WELL DONE BOYS, BACK ON TRACK. LAST 2 DEFEATS A THING OF THE PAST. LETS GET A WIN OVER BARRY TOWN.

Soz - bit of phone trouble earlier.

Tonight's team:

Perry;
Williams,J.Thomas,A.Thomas,A.Griffiths;
Marsh,Leek,Dorrian;
M.Griffiths,Shephard,Traylor;

Subs: Armitage for M. Griffiths (injured?) after about 32 minutes
Carpenter for Marsh after about 69 minutes
Leahy for Dorrian after about 79 minutes
Prosser
Howe

Something of a surprise to find Leigh Smith not in the squad - injured?

Our first opening, after about 3 minutes, was started by Joe Perry with a long clearance down the left to set Ian Traylor away. From his ball into the middle we had two shots blocked. Soon afterwards a 30-yard shot from Alun Griffiths had the keeper scrambling across goal but it went wide. At the other end a low 22-yard shot was easily held by Joe Perry.

The game was proving to be more open than in the recent Cup tie with Bitton at Penydarren Park. Bitton put another shot wide, and after about 11 minutes they attacked down the left and a ball across found a man unmarked, but there was a great saving tackle by Jamie Thomas as he prepared to shoot.

After about 30 minutes Ryan Dorrian was booked, and from the free kick a header back across the 6-yard area found a man unmarked, but he put his header over the bar.

The game was developing into more of a midfield battle now after the open start.

Scott Armitage came on for Marcus Griffiths after about 32 minutes - presumably due to a re-occurrence of his injury.

After a bright start by Merthyr, by the end of the half it was difficult to see where a goal was going to come from.

But we went at Bitton from the start of the second half and took the lead after about 48 minutes. Kris Leek ran down the middle and put a great ball out to Garry Shephard on the left to beat the offside trap. He took the ball into the area and finished with a fine strike over the goalkeeper and in off the angle of crossbar and post. Complaints from Bitton that he was offside were waved away.

Adam Carpenter came on just over 20 minutes from the end in a straight swap for Laurie Marsh who'd had a reasonable game. A minute later a run into the box by Alun Griffiths saw him cut the ball back into the middle for us to have a shot well blocked by the keeper. But Bitton couldn't get the ball away and it broke for Scott Armitage on the right of the area. As he tried to turn it past his man the linesman flagged for a penalty for handball. Armitage himself sent the goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot kick.

About 3 minutes after that the game was effectively over when Bitton had a man sent off for a late challenge on Alun Griffiths.

After his booking in the first half Ryan Dorrian had been living dangerously with two 'final warnings' from the referee, and it became clear Bitton were after trying to get him sent off to even up the numbers. So very wisely he was substituted about 12 minutes from the end, Joe Leahy coming on as we switched to 4-4-2.

About 4 minutes from the end a corner on the right was played back to Kris Leek 25 yards out for him to hit on the volley and beat the keeper only for it to be cleared off the line.

We were close again 3 minutes from the end when Adam Carpenter hit a low shot from 30 yards which was just turned away by the keeper. Then Ian Traylor ran onto a through ball in the middle, but with the keeper out to the edge of the area and two defenders back on the line he put the ball wide.

After the sending off Bitton looked a well-beaten side, and with the mobility of Ian Traylor and Joe Leahy causing them lots of problems at the back we were unlucky not to have had another goal or two.

After a bright start to the game the rest of the first half was hard work, and Bitton probaly shaded it, but it was a fine battling performance in the second and we deserved the win. We certainly had given the Bitton goalkeeper more work to do than Joe Perry, who didn't really have a serious effort on target to save. I made Kris Leek man of the match for driving us forward in the second half, although Garry Shephard was not far behind.

The lowest home attendance of the season - 257 - maybe down to poor recent results, plus the usual reduction in numbers for an evening kick-off.

Came along to watch the game last night and really enjoyed.

Thought you played some very good football at times, which wasn't easy against a team I would describe at best as spoilers!

Only thing I would say, and please don't think I'm being critical, was at times you reverted to the long ball option, far too often, when there was simply no need. You have some really good players there who look comfortable on the ball and when you did start to pass it about you looked a far better team.

Only my opionion, but your defenders bypass the the midfield far too often by hoofing long balls straight to your strikers, if the ball doesn't then stick you are left with a huge gap between your frontmen and your midfield.

Having said that, was a great result for you and I really enjoyed, so much so I'll be there to cheer you on against Barry on Saturday as Neath are playing Friday night.

P.S. Good pint in the clubhouse too, think I'll sample few more on Saturday!!

All the best.

Eagle.

Good peformance by the lads last night, Kris Leek outstanding.

I was not impressed with Brittons antics again , the sending off was a leg breaker and totally reckless, luckliy Griff came out if it OK.

The crowd all considered Champions League football night etc was good , people need to look at the broader picture ref attendances our gates are still compareable to the Southern Premier and given the current economic climate is a credit to the supporters.

A few player queries. Why was Marcus substituted so early ? didnt look comforatble form the start.

Where was Jason Pena?
What has "Badger" Newell got to do to get a game? , he seems to be the perennial squad man
Laurie Marsh what has got to do to get a full game ? plyed well agian last night has ability and workrate.
Well done lads lets continue moving forward.

I agree with most comments including the Eagle supporter,I thought Shep showed class again and generally the team were good against a more physical outfit.Incidently when does Jason Welch come back from Honeymoon and it looks like Mathew Harris is coming on well hope Tariq is too

Excellent posts guys, yeah brilliant news that young Matthew Harris is on the mend, I sponsored his away shirt a week before he broke his leg, I felt I put the mockers on him!! it will be great to see Matthew cracking in some goals before too long.

On the subject of the attendance, what are your views on the Admission prices.

Doesn't bother me at all, at £7.00 it's the same price as Neath and similar to what all Welsh premier grounds Charge, which I think is decent value.

However, do you think it may put some people off, on the grounds of afforability, particularly if you have 2 games in a week !!??

Great result last night, in every way Saturday was shocking, last night was an excellent disciplined performance from the Martyrs who took their time and in the end could have won by 3 or 4 given our superb second half display.

Though Laurie did well, I was suprised how quick he is across the ground which helped us in midfield, Marcus has flu and was substituted because of that.

Sheppy rolled back the years last night and put in another good shift, (4 games in 10 days for the gaffer) and he got another well taken goal, Shep is proving crucial to our success and I am glad because he worked very hard over the summer and continues to do so.

Intresting comments about the long ball, admission prices and the attendance so here is my take on them all..

Glad you enjoyed your evening Eagle, I was a bit quiet in the Club last night, I did see Peter Nic make an apperance (no doubt keeping tabs on Laurie and others) should be a good day Saturday with Barry promising to bring a few to add the atmosphere, along with a Merseyside Derby showing live on Sky in the club, the Candac bar is the place to be :-)

The Long ball to me sometimes get frustrating, especially when it comes back too quick, but last night we won some good possesion high up the pitch (where we can do our most damage), like I said sometimes it comes off sometimes it bounces straight back, its all about percentages sometimes.

I dont think the admission price contributed to the relitivley low attendance last night, however 2 home games in 5 days may have convinced the fair weather/floater fan to pick either or game, and I am sure we will have 500 plus on Saturday, providing the Welsh Cup captures the imagination of the Methyr and Barry public. Our attendances have been nutoriously iffy on midweek games, and with away teams Bringing ZERO support, its down the 300 or so hard Martyrs soles to turn out.

Attendance in 2009/10 season the last in the Southern premier the average home attendance was 303 total 6672 in 2010/11 the first in the Western league it was 310 total 5500 so far this season 341 total 2728 from 8 home games.

that crowd turn out last night is just not good enough with the effort being put in by everyone,although most teams in our league dont get near our attendances they dont have our expenses,far lower wage bills apparently.back to the game m.o.m. for me was sheppy by far with leekie and alan griffiths putting in good performances but so did the entire team.

I've been looking at the Southern League attendances for this season and no team in the South & West & the Central Divisions have a higher average attendance than us and only 2 clubs in the Premier Division. Our highest crowd this season of 513 has only been bettered by 6 clubs, 3 of which were in the Conference (or whatever it's called now) a couple of seasons ago.

As long as we can play attractive football the crowds will come. The City are up in Hull Saturday - how about offering a reduced charge if their fans produce their season tickets to boost attendance. Hopefully we'll make a few bob out of them in the Candac.

Looking at our season so far I think we've only played 4 games away - including Cinderford - in a short space of time and it is difficult to find the cash for a lot of home games in that sort of period. We've a couple of Saturday away games coming up after Barry - do well in those and it'll be interesting to see our attendance for the next home game against Sherborne Town.

Merthyr Town 2-0 Bitton

by Jeremy King, Western Mail
Sep






Merthyr Town 2-0 Bitton

Merthyr Town made a welcome return to Western League action after being eliminated from two cup competitions in the space of five days and produced a good second-half display to dispose of fellow promotion hopefuls Bitton.

In a physical opening 45 minutes, Merthyr failed to get the ball down and fell into the trap of fighting fire with fire against a much bigger Bitton outfit.

But, after the break Merthyr stroked the ball about a lot better and it paid dividends just three minutes into the half as Kris Leek made a run through midfield before finding player-manager Garry Shephard with a slide-rule pass.

Shephard finished in style high into the roof of the net and from there it was the home side who continued to create the better of the opportunities.

Visiting goalkeeper Sam Alexander made a superb stop from Shephard on 71 minutes, but a minute later Merthyr doubled their lead from the penalty spot through Armitage after Traylor had forced defender Steve Jones into handling inside the penalty box

i think our opponents had bitton off more than they could chew on tuesday in the second half.

Sadly attendances are not great in midweek. But it was a good gate at this level and I don't think attendances are going to improve a great deal because most clubs are struggling. There were several Merthyr-born people there from Bristol to boost the crowd as well as those from other valleys. It would be good to see more support from people living in Merthyr.
Re admission charges, I think most Western League Premier Division clubs charge £6 but the Merthyr fans agreed on £7 at the end of last season.
Regarding the game, some comments were made about Merthyr booting the ball up in the air even though we are a short side.The first half was fairly dour but a much better second half and a good result against one of the stronger sides in the league.
I understand that Pena was dropped for the match.
Good that Matthew Harris has had the plaster removed from his leg.