The Welsh Cup is one of the longest standing club competitions on gods green earth. Wrexham won the trophy for the first time in 1878 and up until 1996, one of my favourite competitions to watch my beloved Merthyr Tydfil FC in. 1987 saw Merthyr win the damn thing 1-0 in a replay final at Ninian Park against Newport, they then proceeded to beat Atalanta 2-1 at penydarren park before getting done 2-0 in Italy in the 87-88 Cup Winner Cup. I was only 5 so can't really remember this, but it's all good.
Then to everyone's disappointment we were excluded from the cup as we played in the English System. Merthyr joined Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Newport and Colwyn Bay as teams excluded from their own national cup competition. Booooo
Then news came out at the start of this year we (now of course Merthyr Town) we once again invited to join, along with the other 5! 3 accepted (Merthyr, Newport and Wrexham) and the excitement began. Now as Merthyr play in a very backwards league at the moment (and who knows for how long) we joined in the 2nd qualifying round, playing 2 games in 2 days and with a second string beating a small team 5-1. All good. The draw came out and Merthyr got Barry Town in the first round. Much additional excitement!
Merthyr and Barry had an awesome rivalry back in the day, yes now both teams have fallen on hard times and dropped down the respective league systems, but the rivalry was still there. This was potentially the tie of the round with the Welsh Premier and Blue Square Premier teams not joining for 2 more matches.
Game day came and Merthyr put their team on twitter and I went what? It was a second string. I knew at that moment we'd get beat against by all accounts a tidy Barry side. I'm very sorry but who exactly do Merthyr think they are playing 'fringe' players in a cup match against a team that'd give our first side a potentially even match.
What was the thinking?
Is the Welsh is (was) not a priority? Then why enter it, nobody had a gun to their heads.
Did we disrespect the opposition? Arrogance? Someone needs to have a long hard look at some of the players in the side, even the first team, then have a look at the teams who've beaten us in competitions so far this year and reassess how good they think we are again. Last years league wasn't a pub league, but it certainly wasn't high quality, had to be won, but don't get carried away.
Did the manager(s) misjudge the game? They both played in Merthyr v Barry games, they know the rivalry. Sounds a bit naive to me.
Anyway, Barry won easily and deservedly 3-0 and Merthyr sit out the business stages of the competition. Based on that as well looks like I'll be saving myself some £7's in the upcoming weeks, oh well!
Showing posts with label FA Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FA Cup. Show all posts
Monday, 3 October 2011
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Merthyr Town / Non league football
I took the bank holiday weekend to revisit the world of non-league football.
I support Arsenal as I'd imagine the vast majority of people reading this will know are not non-league, far from it (and no I don't want to talk about Sunday). But as much as I want them (and Swansea) to do well, my team has always been and will always be Merthyr Town (formerly Tydfil) FC.
The team has just returned to play in Penydarren Park, after a year in exile (which I didn't make a single game in) 20 or so miles away in Taffs Well. So I trotted down to the park yesterday to watch them play league pace setters, the undefeated Brislington Town (where??). It was then I realised I quite missed watching football like this, TV is comfortable, gives you replays, you can stop, rewind and all that shit, you have commentators telling you whjat to think any any given moment, stats popping up on screen, and generally speaking it's of a higher standard.
But being right up next to the pitch, taking it all in yourself, the experience is so much better.
The game itself was quite decent, Merthyr looked tidy passed the ball quite well, sometimes overly so and they could have done with taking a shot more. While at the back, but punts forward were a bit haphazard. Brislington had one or two tidy players, their left back looked good, while on the reverse their no4 looked like we was as likely to fall over at any given moment than successfully run in a straight line. Both keepers showed some... interesting positioning, but proved to be good shot stoppers when needed.
There was a few moments of marking (mainly the English side to be fair) that would I'm sure would give both sides coaches nightmares for a while. Even the ref had mostly a good game (although the away penalty was a bit of a mystery).
Happily Merthyr won 2-1 and moved 3rd in the table. Next week they have 2 matches in 2 days in 2 different cups (FA Prelim Round, Welsh Cup 2Q) and if I'm able I'll take the chance to pop down for the Welsh Cup game on Sunday.
Next week is an international break, no Prem games, no Championship games, which means come the weekend many football fans are at a loose end (Wales playing Friday). So if that applies to you, why not go see a team a bit further down the pyramid than you're used too? Go see Newport, Merthyr, whatever lower league teams are around, whoever's closer, you might like it! It's not always a comfortable as a sofa and sky sports, it's likely to be less conformable than a seat in the Liberty or CCS, but it's fun!
But speaking of armchair fans, the US Open started yesterday and I do love my tennis. I'll happily go see it in person if anyone wants to shout me flights and tickets. Please?
I support Arsenal as I'd imagine the vast majority of people reading this will know are not non-league, far from it (and no I don't want to talk about Sunday). But as much as I want them (and Swansea) to do well, my team has always been and will always be Merthyr Town (formerly Tydfil) FC.
The team has just returned to play in Penydarren Park, after a year in exile (which I didn't make a single game in) 20 or so miles away in Taffs Well. So I trotted down to the park yesterday to watch them play league pace setters, the undefeated Brislington Town (where??). It was then I realised I quite missed watching football like this, TV is comfortable, gives you replays, you can stop, rewind and all that shit, you have commentators telling you whjat to think any any given moment, stats popping up on screen, and generally speaking it's of a higher standard.
But being right up next to the pitch, taking it all in yourself, the experience is so much better.
The game itself was quite decent, Merthyr looked tidy passed the ball quite well, sometimes overly so and they could have done with taking a shot more. While at the back, but punts forward were a bit haphazard. Brislington had one or two tidy players, their left back looked good, while on the reverse their no4 looked like we was as likely to fall over at any given moment than successfully run in a straight line. Both keepers showed some... interesting positioning, but proved to be good shot stoppers when needed.
There was a few moments of marking (mainly the English side to be fair) that would I'm sure would give both sides coaches nightmares for a while. Even the ref had mostly a good game (although the away penalty was a bit of a mystery).
Happily Merthyr won 2-1 and moved 3rd in the table. Next week they have 2 matches in 2 days in 2 different cups (FA Prelim Round, Welsh Cup 2Q) and if I'm able I'll take the chance to pop down for the Welsh Cup game on Sunday.
Next week is an international break, no Prem games, no Championship games, which means come the weekend many football fans are at a loose end (Wales playing Friday). So if that applies to you, why not go see a team a bit further down the pyramid than you're used too? Go see Newport, Merthyr, whatever lower league teams are around, whoever's closer, you might like it! It's not always a comfortable as a sofa and sky sports, it's likely to be less conformable than a seat in the Liberty or CCS, but it's fun!
But speaking of armchair fans, the US Open started yesterday and I do love my tennis. I'll happily go see it in person if anyone wants to shout me flights and tickets. Please?
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