In this first floodlit home match of the season, Carmarthen battled tenaciously against reigning league champions, Barry Town, but came out losers in an eight goal thriller. Barry took the lead after the Carmarthen defence had failed to clear an innocous Barry attack, when the ball was picked up by Darren Ryan on the by-line who turned back towards goal and his cross was headed home by Craig Evans. In the eighteenth minute only a last ditch clearance by Simon Rocke prevented Barry's recent �25,000 signing from Caernarfon, Eifion Williams, extending the lead.
In the twentieth minute, Barry extended their lead to two goals, when Llanelli born Gary Lloyd hit a first time cross from the left which was headed home again by Craig Evans who was unmarked some ten yards from goal. At this stage the Carmarthen supporters had a feeling that Carmarthen had to pull something out of the bag quickly to prevent being over run.
This was to prove the case in the following minute when Carmarthen's number nine Simon Jones reduced the arrears when Colin Pascoe laid the ball to him on the edge of the box and in full flight hit home from eighteen yards to give Higgins (sic - actually Knott) no chance. In the fortieth minute Wayne Jones clearewd off his goal line and from the ensuing break Simon Jones picked up the ball on the edge of the Barry box and beat two defenders and his left foot shot curled in at the far post to again give Higgins no chance.
The biggest crowd of over 900, the largest seen at Richmond Park in recent years in a Welsh league or League of Wales fixture shouted on the home side. But they were stunned on the half-time whistle when Carmarthen's Simon Rocke was adjudged to have brought down Darren Ryan for Chris Pike to again give Barry the lead from the penalty spot.
In the early part of the second half, the home side did not have the same fluency as in the first half and Barry took the initiative but were unable to increase their lead until the eighty-sixth minute. Carmarthen, who had been pressing forward for the equaliser, left gaps at the back which were exposed by Darren Ryan, who ran through to pick up a well placed through ball to give Morgan no chance.
This appeared to be the end of the scoring only for Simon Jones to reduce the Carmarthen arrears in the last minute when shaking off the attentions of two Barry defenders and the onrushing goalkeeper he found the back of the net from just inside the penalty box. In the last minute Carmarthen threw everything into attack to try and gain an equaliser only to find themselves exposed at the back when Darren Pugh's (sic) pinpoint cross from the left found Eifion Williams unmarked on the far post to give Barry their 5-3 win.
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Carmarthen Town match reports - September 1997
This page maintained by the Yellow Dragon, 1998.
This report first published in the Carmarthen Journal.
Match report, League of Wales, Carmarthen Town - Barry Town, 10.09.97.
This report can also be found on the Carmarthen Town website - 'The Other Viewpoint' (see link - above)
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