Cirencester Town FC
The home of football, corporate events, courses and celebrations
Cirencester Town FC
The home of football, corporate events, courses and celebrations
After The Tuesday night defeat at home to North Leigh, Cirencester were looking to put in a good performance against Merthyr and bring with it a run in the cup.
The match got under way on a water saturated pitch after heavy rain including thunder and lightning and it was within the first minute that Jason Welsh the Merthyr No. 10 fell awkwardly and suffering a bad shoulder injury and was taken to hospital. He was replaced by Joe Leahy. 5 minutes later Kris Leek fired a shot into the open Ciren goal before Matt Sysum, at full stretch, cleared off the line.
In the 18 minute a good run down the left by Bennett saw his shot rebound out to Collier who's left footed shot was skied over the bar.
Within the next 17 minutes Merthyr had 3 good opportunities to take the lead. Many of the Merthyr attacks were coming from Ian Taylor down the left flank. In the 35th minute the Merthyr keeper was caught outside his area and Jamie Reid reacted quickly to fire a shot from 35 yards, only to see it flash past the post.
Two minutes later, from a Merthyr corner, they saw a header come back off the bar. Merthyr were now applying most of the pressure and it was that man Taylor again who's fine shot skimmed the post.
Steve Williams, the Merthyr captain, suffered an ankle injury in the 42nd minute and was replaced by Griffiths. Good play from Ciren saw Reidy split the defence with a ball into the path of Allard whose cross was cleared for a corner.
In the closing minute of the first half, Alex Allard was booked for what looked to be a perfect tackle with Allard winning the ball.
First half finished goalless with Merthyr having the best of the half and could easily have been four up.
Brian Hughes must have given a good pep talk as Ciren came out all guns blazing at the start of the second half with Allard bringing out a fine save from the Merthyr keeper.
Ellis Dunton was putting in a good display down the left side and it was in the 56th minute he was bought down with a late tackle which earned Davies a yellow card.
In the 64 minute Griffin replaced Bennett. Cirencester were now dominating play and it was totally against the run of play when in the 68th minute Leek, who made a good run from the half way line, and from 20 yards fired a left foot shot low and hard, beating Bath into the right hand corner of the net to give Merthyr the lead.
Ciren continued to press forward with Ben Wells firing a shot just over the bar. This was followed with chances inside the Merthyr box and in a goal mouth scramble the ball was eventually cleared out,
Ciren were awarded a free kick from which Wells floated a dangerous ball in that was put out for a Ciren corner. From the corner, Scott Griffin's powerful header which was goal bound, was cleared for another corner which this time came to nothing.
The last ten minutes were played out with Merthyr containing play in the corners. However Ciren had their chances, and if a couple of decisions had gone our way in those few remaining minutes it could have been a different result!
Final score Cirencester 0-1 Merthyr.
We now travel to Swindon Supermarine on Bank holiday Monday. Kick off:3pm.
It seemed in the second half the Ciren supporters got more behind the team and this had the effect of spurring the them on, so lets give the lads our full support from start to finish. We have a new team and with a couple more matches under the belt, who knows!!!
Attendance: 108
Referee: Stacey Woodley
Cirencester Town:
1. Matt Bath
2. Aiden Bennett
3. Ellis Dunton
4. Matt Sysum (C)
5. Ben Wells
6. Chris Thompson
7. Jamie Reid
8. James Mortimer-Jones
9. Sam Collier
10. Alex Allard
11. Sam Packer
12. Scott Griffin (on for Aiden Bennett - 60 mins)
14. Sean Bailey
15. Joe Shepherd
16. Nathan Hawkins
17. Danny Hale
Merthyr Town:
1. Giles Cutlan
2. Steve Williams (C)
3. Jon Newall
4. Andrew Thomas
5. Gary Colborne
6. Jamie Rewbury
7. Kris Leek
8. Nathan Davies
9. Luke Jones
10. Jason Welsh
11. Ian Taylor
12. Matthew Harris
14. Alun Griffiths
15. Joe Leahy
16. Jack Howe
17. Jamie Wearn
18. Marcus Griffiths
20. Dan Payne