| Merthyr Town 1 – 2 Marine |
| J Evans 67′ | Newell 24′ |
| Sinclair-Smith 90′ |
Finlay Sinclair-Smith scored a 90th minute winner to hand Merthyr their first home loss of the season on a dreadful day at Penydarren Park, in front of over 1,500 fans and a number of ex players.
The famous definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Well there is certainly insanity at CF47 after gifting another late winner – this time to Marine.
How many times over the past 18 months have we seen the team try and play out from the back in the dying stages, give the ball away and concede. 5 times? 10 times? It is now at the point where it is becoming a joke – we can all see on the terraces but they continue to do it. Naive. Criminal. Stupid. Take your pick but it is blowing my mind.
The Martyrs came racing out of the blocks and should have taken the lead within the first 20 seconds after Elis Watts found himself in space at the edge of the box, but his shot was inches past the left post. Shortly later, a short corner was put deep to the advancing Jack Evans, whose shot went high and wide. Merthyr continued to pile on the pressure and probably should have been 3 – 0 up but Pearson was also just wide of the target. What a start to the game.
Marine, having weathered the early storm, started to settle with the dangerous Sinclair-Smith whipping in dangerous balls before combining with Whelan and Newell to force Cogman into a great save on his near post. Cogman was also called into action soon after, with Doyle dinking a ball over the top of Margetson to Jolley – meaning Cogman had to be on his toes to react first.
On 20 minutes Foulston thought he had scored, after his glancing header from a corner was superbly saved by McIntyre and tipped over. It was then Jolley who would be disappointed not to have scored, after playing a neat 1-2 with McDonald on the edge of the box before his shot was straight at Cogman. At this point, the game was so open with chances at both ends it could have easily been 4 – 4.
The deadlock was finally broken on 24 minutes, after superb play between Jolley, McDonald and Sinclair-Smith allowed Sinclair-Smith to square the ball across the goal to Newell to tap in at the back post. A great goal and one that had the Martyrs reeling. Merthyr 0 -1 Marine.
Merthyr were continually trying to get Pearson and Simpson into the game but the balls were easily being dealt with by Wardle and Drysdale at the back. By the time the half came to an end, we looked out of ideas and were struggling to hold the ball up and had started to lose the midfield battle.
Half Time: Merthyr 0 – 1 Marine
The second half didn’t start any better as The Mariners stepped up the physicality, meaning Merthyr were second best to the majority of challenges and struggled to hold onto possession. Darby and Whelan were finding themselves in acres of space and were setting off Sinclair-Smith at any opportunity out wide.
Despite this, Maddox had McIntyre at full stretch to deny the equaliser and the momentum slowly started to shift back to the home side. The struggles continued up top but somehow Merthyr found the equaliser on 67 minutes. A great challenge from Simpson on the left allowed a quick throw in to find itself to Jack Evans, who struck his shot first time from the edge of the box which flew past the helpless McIntyre. Game on. Merthyr 1 – 1 Marine.
As the game wore on it became more and more niggley, with a lot going on off the ball and not being picked up by officials – much to the frustration of players and fans alike. Spiers was getting stuck in (as always) but you started to feel like this could spill over at any moment.
Disaster struck on 90 minutes when Humphries gave away possession after trying to pick out a pass from the back, instead of just clearing his lines. McAleny gleefully played in Kattah, who fizzed the ball to the back post to the unmarked Sinclair-Smith to smash home from a few yards – right in front of the delighted travelling fans. Merthyr 1 – 2 Marine.
Full Time: Merthyr 1 – 2 Marine
Another home loss to Marine, another goal conceded to Sinclair-Smith and all in all an awful day at the office. Eyes now turn to Darlington in a couple of weeks, where hopefully we can get back on track.
UP THE TOWN!
Gavin Burns
