Briton Ferry 1-0 Pontardawe Town

Saturday 26 February 2000

Welsh League Division One

An absolutely dire game of football saw Pontardawe sink closer to the relegation mire as they went down to a single goal at local rivals Briton Ferry.

Manager Ray Pennock made two changes from the team that drew with Maesteg, with Lee Brown coming in for Chris Lovell, whilst regular keeper Adrian Barnsley made a return to the first team.

To say that little happened during the game would be to give it more credit than it was worth. On an atrocious pitch, Ponty were unable to play any kind of flowing football, whilst the home side adapted better to the conditions, by hoofing the ball upfield at the earliest opportunity. The solitary goal arrived after ten minutes via the “route one” method – a long ball towards the penalty area that Ponty keeper Adrian Barnsley totally mis-judged, and allowed to bounce in front of him. The ball promptly hit Barnsley, and cannoned off him to let the lone Ferry striker put the ball into an empty net. And that was that for the first 45 minutes.

The second period was marginally better. Anthony Winchester missed two half chances, flashing an attempt at goal just wide, and blazing another effort over the bar. Ponty could have sneaked a draw with the last kick of the game, as a corner flew across the face of the goal, but there was no Pontardawe player at the far post to convert what would have been an easy tap-in.

Pontardawe were shocking in a game that was played in a mud bath, but of more concern to the management team was the lack of fight in the side, something that must be put right as soon as possible. “The worst performance of the season” was how manager Ray Pennock described the team’s efforts.

PONTARDAWE: Barnsley – Matthews – Emmanuel – Brown – Singh – Morse – Waters – Richards – Miller – Winchester – Davies Subs: Quinn (for Davies 70) – Andrews (for Emmanuel 70) – Moran (for Brown 85)