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MERTHYR TYDFIL 3-2 AFAN LIDO
By Peter Reynolds
Another contentious refereeing
decision possibly cost us this match. After
27 minutes of the game Damon Thomas tackled their midfielder won the ball
and laid it off. After he'd passed the ball the Merthyr player tripped
him,
to our amazement the ref only gave a yellow card. His explanation at half
time was that it wasn't retaliation but adopting an aggressive attitude!
We had a fee kick after 5 minutes which Damon Thomas took the ball going for
a corner after hitting their wall, they cleared the corner out of the area
back to Damon who shot over the bar. Nathan Hodgson then conceded a corner
which Rory McCreesh took without a challenge.
On 13 minutes we went
behind,
they played the ball in from the left to their 9 who was a thorn all night,
he received the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal and he
had time to turn and shoot the ball hitting the inside of our left hand post
before nestling in the right side of the net. 5 minutes later Merthyr
caught us on the break they went wide left and crossed in with their striker
knocking the ball just wide from three or four yards. On 25 minutes we had
a corner which Remi Whitelock took, he found Shaun Morgan's head but he
couldn't direct his header on target from six yards.
10 minutes before
half
time we had our best passing movement of the game involving at least 10
passes strung from one side of the field to the other, it ended with the bal
being played to Umberto Brassiello but his left foot shot went over the bar.
We headed clear a Merthyr free kick and caught them on the break, Tom
fed Corey Thomas but his shot went over the bar. We had two
chances just before the break, firstly from a free kick Shaun Morgan found
Luke Borrelli but his shot was straight at the keeper and Luke also had the
last chance of the half but shot over the bar.
Four minutes into the second half we were level, we were awarded a free kick
25 yards out slightly to the right of their goal, Remi Whitelock took it and
scored with ease. Shaun Morgan then lost the ball and we were light at the
back but luckily the Merthyr players were caught offside. Just short of
the
hour mark Luke Borrelli found some space 30 yards out and shot but
unfortunately it was straight at the keeper. Some of our defending was
sloppy and we paid the price after 63 minutes when we went 1-2 down, we had
a throw on the right near half way, for some reason Shaun Morgan took it, we
lost the ball, ironically their 10 who was involved with Damon scampered
down the wing and laid the ball into the path of their 9 who buried it from
just inside the penalty area. Just afterwards Matthew Beynon replaced
Shaun
Morgan and he headed clear a shot that looked goalbound. With a quarter of
an hour to go their 8 dribbled through several challenges got into the box
and squared it but somehow they shot wide of the far post.
With four
minutes to go we went 1-3 down, they went down the right and crossed, there
was a poor challenge and it cost us a goal. To our credit from the
kick-off
Carl Payne played a beautiful ball between the two central defenders and
Luke Borrelli timed his run to knock the ball past the keeper as he rushed
out. We weren't able to get an equaliser in the time that remained but a
couple of poor individual moments in this match cost us at least a point.
Lido side
1 Rory McCreesh 2 Darren Franks 3 Tom
Darlington 4 Nathan
Hodgson 5 Shaun Morgan 6 Carl Payne 7 Luke Borrelli 8 Damon
Thomas 9
Corey Thomas 10 Umberto Brassiello
17 Remi Whitelock
Subs
Sam Nolan not used
14 Steve Hughes for
Umberto Brassiello 72
15
Matthew Beynon for Shaun Morgan 67
Bookings Darren Franks 70
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