Barry Town 3 Monmouth Town 2

MONMOUTH Town returned home with no reward after an enthralling Welsh League Division One game against former Welsh Premier League Champions Barry Town last Saturday (9th January).

The Kingfishers arrived at the recently refurbished Jenner Park Stadium looking to build on the previous weekends victory against Aberbargoed and pull themselves away from the relegation threatened clubs at the wrong end of the table.

The Kingfishers, playing in their all red away strip, welcomed back Kieron Blackburn in goal along with Nick Harrhy who also returned after being sidelined with illness the previous week. The back four and midfield remained unchanged after impressing with a rare clean sheet.

The visitors came with a plan to be solid and patient in possession, knowing that, despite conceding the ball to the home side, they themselves are very dangerous on the counter attack.

Monmouth couldn’t have dreamt of a better start when, after only 90 seconds, Alex O’Leary crossed from the left where in form striker Richard Greaves powered home a header off the underside of the cross bar. Things got even better for the visitors when, on seven minutes, Ashley Ford crossed from the other flank where Greaves again flung himself and punched a diving header into the corner of the net to give the Kingfishers a two goal lead and quieten the vocal Barry Town supporters into shock.

Barry responded well and kept the ball well on the rain soaked surface but struggled to get in behind the well marshalled Town defence. On the rare occasions the Barry front three did get in behind, they were thwarted by either a sharp Blackburn or the linesman’s flag for offside.

The day nearly got even better for Town when Nick Harrhy struck the post with a curling effort from twenty five yards. Monmouth looked exciting and dangerous on the break and the pacy Elliot Ford nearly got in on numerous occasions.

Monmouth were comfortable and solid after half an hour, but Barry soon realised that they were going to struggle playing through the Town rearguard, instead deciding to stretch play out to the flanks. Barry pulled a goal back on 36 minutes when James Dixon, who was voted player of the round in last month’s Welsh Cup competition, got to the by-line and fired across the six yard box where the unfortunate Sam Palmer scored into his own net.

Barry were in the ascendency and, with two minutes remaining until half time, they were level in somewhat controversial circumstances. As the ball was played in behind, the Monmouth defence had seem to hold their line well and leave the Barry centre forward in an offside position. As the back four waited for the linesman flag that never appeared, the Barry centre forward squared the ball to Dixon who tapped home.  

With just 40 seconds on the clock in the second half, Elliot Ford was upended on the edge of the box and, as the referee blew for a free kick, he was quickly informed by his assistant that the offence had taken place inside the box and a penalty was awarded.

Harrhy, who had scored all five penalties he had taken this year, stepped up but found his spot kick saved.

For the next thirty minutes, chances were few and far between as Barry attacks were continually flagged off side, while the Monmouth attackers looked a little leggy when they had the opportunity to break.

On seventy two minutes, Barry got themselves in front. They finally broke the Town’s offside trap and, after Blackburn had made an impressive first save, the danger seemed to be over. Despite this, the normal reliant Ashley Ford misplaced his pass from the edge of the box that resulted in two Barry players able to pass around Blackburn and fire home.

With ten minutes remaining, manager Smith shuffled his pack and replaced centre half Jacob Guy with young forward Jac Hardman in a bid to rescue something out of the game. The change, which resulted in Monmouth going with three at the back, made them vulnerable defensively but gave them more impotence going forward. Barry could have wrapped the game up on a couple of occasions but Blackburn produced heroics in the town goal and in the final few minutes Porter, Macdonald, Palmer and Graves had good opportunities as the visitors piled pressure on the home goal. Unfortunately for the visitors time ran out and the referee ended the game that was enjoyed by the near 300 strong crowd that had come to watch.

Smith was reflective in his after match comments: "I can’t fault the boys for their work rate and attitudes today. Barry are a very very good side and they’ll be in the mix for promotion come the end of the season. It again shows that we should be amongst that group near the top of the league, not where we currently are now. I’m proud of the lads today, I’ve told them that wasn’t a must win game today.

“We now have to produce that level of performance and that level of desire against sides in the bottom half of our league in order to climb this table. I’ve been critical of the lads in recent weeks but I can’t fault them today.

“We have to produce that now week in, week out and we’ll be ok.”