by Stephen Johnson
WITH Eifion Williams sold to Torquay for �70,000, all eyes turned to new strike force Jodie Jenkins and Justin Perry as Barry started life without Evo with a home win against struggling Rhyl.
The Dragons duly beat their North Walian opponents, and Justin Perry even scored a goal - set up by Jenkins's enthusiastic running - but the Town still made hard work of beating a poor Rhyl side who had trouble retaining the ball for more than a coupleof passes.
The title may be won, but there are plenty of important games left, all against Inter Cabletel, in the Gilbert League Cup and the FAW Premier Cup. With the recent signing of two new strikers, Jenkins and Perry will be under pressure to produce the goals soon rather than later.
Against Rhyl, the loss of Eifion highlighted how the likes of Mark Dempsey, Danny Carter and Gary Barnett are to the team. It was the efforts of those three which drove Barry on and their fitness, along with Paul Mitchell and Richard Jones, will be essential if Barry are to lift any more silverware this season, especially the coveted and lucrative FAW Premier Cup.
Barnett, Carter and Dempsey were at the heart of everything on Saturday as the Town completely dominated Rhyl. It was Dempsey who opened the scoring with a fine solo effort as he ran at the back-peddling Rhyl defence, shimmied to his left and from the edge of the penalty area put the ball into the bottom right hand corner, past the diving Rhyl goalkeeper, Paul Smith.
The Barry goal sparked a mini revival in Rhyl and Steve Gibson brought a fine save from John Roberts, in for the injured David Wells, after the Rhyl striker had robbed Lee Barrow on the half-way line.
Prior to Barry taking the lead Jenkins had twice gone close, shedding Eifion's shadow. His first chance was smothered by Smith when Jenkins failed to hit the shot first time. Shortly after, he had an effort cleared off the line by Gary Curtiss. Full of running, it was encouraging to see Jenkins getting into goal scoring positions.
It was his determination to chase that led to the second goal in the 57th minute. Jenkins chased a back pass, forcing Smith to dive in and clear the ball feet first. The ball fell perfectly for Perry, who, from all of 30 yards, with an open goal at his mercy, side footed home.
Lee Barrow almost made it three following a free-kick which Barrow launched himself at with a diving header. Although he made contact with the ball, he put it over the bar.
The club haven been hit by a spate of injuries with Richard Jones, Darren Davies, Dave Wells, Andrew York and Danny Carter all picking up knocks, but the five should all be fit for the Inter game on Tuesday, April 6. Not so lucky is Gary Lloyd who will be out for six months with a cruciate ligament injury,a massive blow to both player and the club.
Earlier in the season, Lloyd had turned down a move to first division Crewe, preferring to stay at Barry. He also put in a fine performance against Northern Ireland in the B international played at Wrexham.
Barry have a break this weekend, but resume their league campaign at Inter Cabletel on Tuesday evening.
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This page edited by the Yellow Dragon, 1999.
This article first published in the Barry Gem, 01.04.1999.
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