Merthyr v Plymouth Parkway

The visitors have won two, drawn one and lost three of their most recent six matches. Merthyr snatched a 1-0 victory away to them last August with Ricardo Rees scoring.

A carbon copy of the game played at Plymouth Parkway earlier in the season, but this time it’s the visitors with their own version of ‘smash and grab’ claiming the points. Our injured duo of Kieran Evans and Nick Rhodes, who have been solid over the past few weeks, were sorely missed tonight. With the early withdrawal of Harris disrupting our set up and the missed penalty, you could feel that this may come back to bite us and unfortunately it did.

A goal after 90 plus  four minutes saw Merthyr lose 1-0.
It  looked like a 0-0 draw until Jack Cargo hit the winner with  barely a minute left, and he condemned The Martyrs to their first defeat of  2023.
And Ricardo Rees had his spot-kick stopped  on  52  minutes after he had been judged to hve been brought down, The visiting players protested at the decision and one of their players was given a yellow card as a result.
Merthyr ended the game with four front  runners on, Craig Norman and the  returning Alex Bonthron coming on  after Ricardo  Rees and Lewis  Powell had started.
Curtis Jemmett-Hutson worked tirelessly on the flank but neither side really looked like finding the net, Matthew  Harris had to go off on eight minutes, with Callum Ryan-Phillips coming on. And Frazer Thomas went off with a knock in the second half.
Merthyr were already without  Nick Rhodes, injured in the warm-up on Saturday, and Kieran Evans, who lasted only eight minutes at Winchester before hurt.
Too many passes went astray by Merthyr tonight, and many times when the ball  was ballooned up high, it was easy for the keeper to gather.
A disappointing home defeat, bearing in mind Merthyr have not  lost away  since August.    But this was their seventh home loss  in the league this season!
A great gate of  639.
Saturday  promises a tougher task - at home to third placed Chesham. Can Merthyr re -ignite their play-offs bid?

As well as the injuries to Rhodes and Harris, Ismail Yakbubu is sidelined with an ankle injury.