Merthyr 2 Marine 1

Pitching In Southern League Premier South | Saturday 8th March 2025

Merthyr 2 Marine 1

Posted by Keith Yeomans on March 9th 2025

Match Report from Pete Crockett

MARINE MERITED MORE

Marine players, management, and supporters left the home of Merthyr Town feeling they merited a point for the quality of their display. Playing the top of the table team, who were undefeated in the league since late August 2024, Marine halved a 2-0 halftime deficit and outplayed their high flowing opponents throughout the second half.

In his post-match interview Stuart Fleetwood aptly reflected the view of many travelling Marine supporters when he stated that “I don’t think anybody who’s come to that game can deny that we were on top all second-half and deserved to get a point. We had a team who are 26 unbeaten, top of the league and probably going to win it, massively on the ropes for 50 minutes of that game.“

Merthyr’s Ricardo Rees opened the scoring in the 7th minute
Photo courtesy of Alex White Photography

The Martyrs had the first chance of the match when Kieran Evans played in Ricardo Rees but his effort was well saved by Fiachra Pagel in the Marine goal. In immediate response a Marine corner led to a Jake Lee back post header having to be tipped over the bar by Jamie Cogman in the host’s goal. Marine had a series of corners and balls flashed across the face of the goal home team goal whilst Marine players also spurned decent opportunities to fire a shot on target.

With seven minutes elapsed Fiachra Pagel clearing under pressure, and conceivably forced to kick with his weaker foot, did not get quite the distance he might have hoped for. The ball was picked up forty five yards out and played to Kieran Evans. He in turn played in RICARDO REES on the left edge of the penalty area who drove the ball into the back of the net at the end of his angled run.

On thirteen minutes Marine found themselves 2-0 down. Marine gave away possession some forty yards from goal. The ball was played to KIERAN EVANS who jinxed by three visiting defenders to fire past the keeper. Two nil down and less than fifteen minutes gone Marine supporters feared the worst. The visitors now found themselves under a bit of pressure. The Martyr’s Noah Smerdon saw a 30-yarder just clear the crossbar. Meanwhile the home team’s Crawley Cox had a header from a corner come off the cross bar.

A Marine corner flashed across the goal with Merthyr keeper Jamie Cogman struggling to get the cross
Photo courtesy of Alex White Photography

Marine though were also creating openings and Ryan Campbell cutting inside the box fired a shot towards the top corner that the host’s keeper pushed around the post. Marine also put other flowing moves together and were certainly posing the Martyrs defence concerns.

In the second half Marine took the game to the home team and produced an impressive half of football. Substitute Lucius Vine fired a powerful shot at goal that the keeper could not hold, it deflected off Olly Mehew looping over the keeper’s head, but the keeper was able to turn and collect it on the bounce as it was about to cross the goal line.

Well timed substitutions also helped Marine build some momentum and on 68 minutes one of those substitutes, OLLY MEHEW, got Marine back in the match. He drove into the box with the ball at his feet and finished well firing a low shot past the diving keeper. It was now very much game on. For the final twenty minutes it was pretty much one way traffic. Lucius Vine saw a fiercely driven shot saved by the legs of the host’s keeper.

A first half chance for Anton Dworzak but Cogman saves
Photo courtesy of Alex White Photography

Minutes later Lucias Vine found the back of the net with an excellent finish, a deft lob into the far corner. His effort was disallowed apparently for a push as the ball came across the penalty area. A decision which caused a sense of stupefaction and anger amongst the Marine supporters behind the goal who saw no contact of any consequence. Indeed, as one supporter sagaciously commented they very much doubted if the offence would have been awarded for an attacker if a penalty award was the consequence. Indeed, in the early first half Marine attackers were on the end of a robust buffeting on at least one corner that went unpunished.

Lucias Vine was also having an impact on the game. He fired a number of shots on goal in addition to the disallowed goal cited earlier. One angled effort in the 86th minute from fifteen yards looked destined to nestle inside the far post but home keeper Jamie Cogman, at full stretch, made an excellent save to claw the effort wide of the post. Some of the Martyr’s defending was getting ever more desperate and twice Marine had central free kicks some twenty five yards from goal. In both cases Nick Peare’s efforts agonisingly just cleared the cross bar.

Zack Kotwica is fouled by former Marine player Kane Simpson
Photo courtesy of Alex White Photography

The loud cheers at the final whistle from the thousand plus home supporters made it clear that they were immensely relieved their team had hung on for victory. This was a harsh result on Marine who went toe-to-toe with a top of the table side and deserved to come away with a point.

In his post match comments Stuart Fleetwood expressed some disappointment that in the early stages Marine were reluctant to fire shots on target. He compared this to the ruthlessness of the Martyr’s Simpson, Rees, and Cox. He also relayed how at half time he encouraged his players to “believe in themselves.” He also cited the contributions of substitutes Olly Mehew and Lucius Vine who caused several concerns to the Merthyr defence.

When asked what message he would convey to his players before next Saturday’s match the head coach stated that he would say: “Look at what you’ve just done to the team that probably going to win the league. It’s very easy to get yourself up for these games and enjoy a lovely pitch and a big crowd but we’ve now got to go and replicate that at home. You have to have that sort of desire and energy in the legs that we had in that second-half and in the first half in spells - we have got try and replicate that and if we do we will pick up more points than we lose.“

Lucias Vine tested the Merthyr defence
Photo courtesy of Alex White Photography

Reflecting on the head coach’s post match remarks two observations struck me as particularly pertinent. The first was the reluctance to get shots away when in good shooting positions. The second the need to produce that level of performance in our final eight games of the season.

At the end of the match Marine supporters were the recipients of many positive plaudits from home supporters on how well their team had played. The harsh reality is that those Marine followers would happily have sacrificed positive plaudits for procuring points. As we come to the business end of the season these next eight games require every player who dons the Marine shirt to show the qualities evident in that second half display. If they do that then valuable points will accrue.

Marine star man was Nick Peare, who was outstanding defensively.
Editors Merthyr Star Man: Kieran Evans
Editors Marine Star Man: Nick Peare

Attendance: 1,296

Come on Marine!

Line Ups

MERTHYR TOWN
Manager: Paul Michael
Colours: White & Black
Line-up: 1. Jamie Cogman 2. Callum Ryan-Philips 3. Tom Handley 5. Jay Williams (7. Frazer Thomas 67’) 6. Carl Jarvis (8. Adulal Sambu 90’) 9. Kane Simpson 10. Ricardo Rees 15. Noah Smerdon 17. Lee Lucas 18. Cawley Cox (4. Aneurin Livermore 63’) 19. Kieran Evans (20. Nick Rhodes 88’)
Subs Not Used: 13. Ben Whale (GK)
Goalscorers: Ricardo Rees 7’, Kieran Evans 13’
Cards:
Lee Lucas 17’ Yellow Card
None Red Card
None Yellow & Red Card