An Eifion Williams hat-trick (sic - see bottom)on Wednesday night at Jenner Park gave Barry the win they needed to top Group B of the Premier Cup, dubbed the 'Group of Death' by the BBC.
Heading Swansea and Wrexham is a superb achievement for Barry and guarantees a home game at Jenner Park in the quarter-finals.
The game was never a classic and Caernarfon made Barry fight all the way for their win. In fact, often the North Walians played the better football.
Barry again playing their four squad players, with Gary Lloyd out of action for a month and Andrew York, Mark Dempsey and Richard Jones on the bench.
The North Walians were early into the attack with Sadler going close with a couple of efforts. When Barry attacked, their attempts on goal were long-range with Danny Carter having the best effort, going just wide.
After Darren Davies had an angled shot saved, it was the visitors who opened the scoring, Horrigan converting a superb free-kick giving David Wells no chance.
Barry replied in the best possible manner with an immediate equaliser, Williams scoring his first from a Carter corner. When Rowlands headed back to his goalkeeper, Justin Perry nipped in and unbelievably hit wide from close range.
With Darren Davies on a nice run, his shot on target as saved by the goalkeeper and no further chances coming to Barry.
Barry's fluent football of just weeks ago is sadly missing and they are working their way through a bad patch.
Gareth Shone proceeded to have a great second half, sending in dangerous crosses from speedy runs down the right wing. His first cross was met by Davies but the centre was cleared.
It was Gary Barnett however, who created the second goal, a great cross to Perry, who set up Williams to place the ball home for 2-1.
Davies then proceeded to give the ball away three times in as many minutes, putting the Barry defence under pressure.
A number of Caernarfon attacks had Barry looking shaky, with goalkeeper Wells looking uncertain on crosses. The Dragons survived the onsluaght including Barry heading over from close range and a Horrigan free-kick going just too high.
It was a gutsy and determined performance from the North Walians with nothing to gain but pride and looking for an equaliser to match their first goal of the competition.
Barry almost netted again when Barnett's deep pass found Williams, but the striker hit wide.
It was Shone though, who provided the cross for Perry, who again set up Williams to get his third goal with 12 minutes remaining.
So, a win for Barry, but they will have to play a lot better on Saturday when Aberystwyth are the visitors in a top of the table clash, kick-off 2:30p.m.
Links to other sites on the Web
Barry Town homepage
'What the Papers Say' index
Barry and District News 17.12 match report - Carmarthen Town v Barry Town
Barry Gem Sports 17.12 report
Barry Gem 17.12 'sponsorship' report
Barry Town results 1998-99
F.A.W Premier Cup results and tables
Caernarfon Town website
This page edited by the Yellow Dragon, 1998.
This report first published in the Barry and District News, 17.12.1998.
Barry Town 3 Caernarfon Town 1, 15.12.1998. F.A.W Premier Cup Group B.
Please note that Eifion Williams scored only two goals in this match, with the second goal officially being an 'own goal' scored by Caernarfon Town's Paul Rowlands.
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