A tough night in the Valleys

To play Merthyr on their 3G pitch after a long midweek trip down to the valleys was never going to be easy, but it was made infinitely more difficult when they scored in the 3rd. minute and soon made it 2-0. Athough we created a number of openings and looked capable of salvaging something when we reduced the arrears early in the second half, back came the Martyrs to make it 3-1, and their 4th. goal in injury time merely added insult to injury.
There is a great deal of work going on at Penydarren Park, funded by generous grants from various Welsh sources, and when completed it will obviously be an excellent facility, fit to match anything in non-league football can provide, One can only look on with envy at something we can never hope to match.
We could hardly have had a worse start when the home side won a corner which Jarrad Wright converted with a free header at the near post in the 3rd.minute and he made it 2-0 after 18 minutes, seizing on a loose ball to beat Paul Strudley, leaving us with a great deal to do. We had plenty of the ball and began to create some openings, but the home side held on comfortably until half-time. We improved after the interval and looked the better side as we began to open up the home defence, so that when Stefan Brown scored a neat goal midway through the half we had hopes of saving the game, but back came Merthyr for Ian Traylor to make it 3-1 and with Gary Horgan and Scott Rees both forced off through injury, there was no way back, although Brown brought a great save from Tom Bradley and finally substitute Guillem Bauza’s injury-time goal sealed our fate..
Team;Strudley, Horgan(Draycott), Tyler,Rusby, Day, Rees(Jones) Clark ,Stow, Jarvis(Goodger) Preen. Subs;Whittingham , Passey.