MERTHYR v Calne Town

Pitch inspection 9:30am

Match definately on today after pitch inspection

thank you john for posting so early re.the match on.

Perry, williams, dorrian, thomas, newall, leek, khalil, griffiths, prosser, stiens, armitage. Subs jenkins, smith & harris

Latest score please? 0-0 on live game page, but that's after only 15 mins.

1-0 Marcus Griffiths

1-0 Marcus Griffths 40mins.
Length of the field move

H/t 1-0

Cheers, it's on the live game page now.

2-1 Steins tap in 52mins

2-1 pen 57mins

60th min. Sub. Harris for Armitage

81st min two subs. Marcus off and Khalil off. And Smith and Jenkins on

Oldland game at Gillingham off today, 7 clear if we win v Calne!

Won 2-1!

Another 3 points in the bag is the main thing, I will be interested to read the report of the game on this forum, which BTW is excellent to say the least.

Today's team:

Perry:
Newall,Williams,Thomas,Dorrian;
Griffiths,Leek,Khalil,Armitage;
Prosser,Stiens;

Subs: Harris for Armitage after about 60 minutes
Jenkins for Griffiths (injured) after about 82 minutes
Smith for Khalil at the same time

Calne were playing with 5 men in midfield and only one up front and we found it difficult to find a way through early on. Our first effort on goal was after about 7 minutes when the keeper made a great save from an overhead kick by Craig Stiens after Marcus Griffiths headed the ball down to him.

After about 17 minutes Joe Perry had to make one of his few real saves of the game when a Calne player burst into the box on the right.

After the early effort from Craig Stiens we continued to find it difficult to find a way through the Calne defence to really trouble the keeper, until after about 35 minutes when he made an acrobatic save to turn away a shot from Kris Leek after a sweeping move down the right.

We took the lead after about 41 minutes when a Calne attack was broken up and the ball came to Tareq Khalil in midfield. He took his time before putting Marcus Griffiths away in space down the right. He ran into the area and fired a shot inside the near post.

About 4 minutes into the second half Joe Perry had to come out to the edge of the area to block with his legs after a lucky break put a Calne player in the clear.

We made it 2-0 after about 53 minutes when Kris Leek and Tareq Khalil combined neatly in midfield for the ball to played forward to Ryan Prosser. He drew defenders to him before putting the ball out to Marcus Griffiths on the right. He played it across to the far post where Craig Stiens turned it into the net off his thigh.

Two minutes later it was nearly 3-0 when the Calne keeper just turned a 20-yard shot from Tareq Khalil past the foot of the post. From the corner Andrew Thomas had a header cleared off the line.

We were looking well set for the usual comfortable home win, but after about 58 minutes Kris Leek tripped a Calne player just inside the corner of the area and their no. 11 gave Joe Perry no chance with the penalty, putting it into the top corner.

After about an hour Matthew Harris came on for Scott Armitage as we switched to 4-3-3, with Marcus Griffiths still well wide on the right.

On about 69 minutes the Calne keeper had to make another smart save to push a shot from Ryan Prosser past the post. Six minutes later Prosser had a free header from a corner and put it just over the bar.

About 8 minutes from the end after Marcus Griffiths had gone down injured he was replaced by Andrew Jenkins, and Tareq Khalil, presumably carrying a slight injury, was replaced by Leigh Smith.

At 2-1 we couldn't afford to relax, and were taking the ball into the corners right at the end to ensure the win. Calne had played well with their formation of one man up front with others breaking from midfield to support him, but even after they pulled it back to 2-1 we didn't really look like failing to win. Once again, a good display by the opposition goalkeeper kept the score down.

I made Kris Leek man of the match, and we were usually too good for Calne in midfield.

Good to see the second highest attendance of the season (340) on a fine afternoon, and a big increase on the last game.

not at our best today i thought ,although the pitch was difficult to play on, badger had a good game today.

It was a bit like "after the Lord Mayors show" today. We were brilliant last week but not so good this week although we had more than enough to beat Calne who came to TW defensively minded in an attempt to nullify our attacking players. To a certain extent they succeeded but we didn't get frustrated and continued to try and play football.

Both our goals were well worked with and excellent pass by Taz to set up Marcus for the first just before half time and it was another good bit of football to set up Steino early in the 2nd half - I'm not sure what part of his body it came off but it could have been his knees. Either way it was a well deserved goal both for us and Craig who played well again today. We could have had more but we missed a couple of chances and the ball seemed to be attracted to their goalkeeper who had a very good game - as do most keepers when they play against us. I won't argue with the Imp about Leekie being MOTM but I thought Badger also had a very good game and looks a very solid right back and is starting to create more when he moves forward.

We mustn't complain - yet another home win consolidating our position at the top with 2 more consecutive home games to come. Bradford will be on a high after their little win against Elmore today and even though we won 4-0 at their place Joe Perry was the MOTM for keeping their forwards at bay.