WHEN Everton avoided relegation under Joe Royle a few seasons ago, their success was attributed to their midfield dogs of war. In Barry Town's quest to win their fourth successive League of Wales title, the Dragons have reprised the situation and have unleashed their own hell hounds.
It is doubtful whether Chris Pridham and Gary Lloyd will take too kindly to being described as dogs of war, even if the original source is from the quill of Williams Shakespeare - (Cry, havoc! and let slip the dogs of war - Julius Caesar), but a midfield battle by any other name is still a midfield battle and the Newtown supporters were calling for the head of Paul Mitchell, who was not shy in putting in the odd robust challenge or two and picking up a first half booking for his troubles.
There were glimmers of some good football from both sides and on each occasion, should have led to some stunning goals, but instead led to some stunning misses.
The pattern to the game was not too dissimilar to the previous weekend's encounter with Bangor - it's just that Newtown are a better team. Eifion Williams was again missing through injury, as was Andrew York, while Gary Barnett sat this game out. Once again, without Williams, it was difficult to see where the Barry goals were going to come from.
While the Town had the edge in possession, Newtown were far more incisive in attack, with Paul Line shooting over, and Barry goalkeeper, Dave Wells, was called on to pull off a couple of fine full-length saves from Yates and Ward.
As against Bangor, out of the blue Barry took the lead. A quick break down the right, a one-two between Jones and Carter, and Carter was inside the Newtown penalty area. He managed to hold off a strong challenge from Newtown defender Ecclestone to put his right-footed shot across the front of the keeper into the left hand corner. Barry's hard-earned reputation is such that the goal completely changed the face of the game. Newtown visibly shrank in demeanour, not by much, but enough, while Barry grew in stature.
This was exemplified during the second half as Barry maintained possession and launched a number of sweeping attacks, especially down the right, where the Town were finding a great deal of open space, but despite this domination, Barry could not score the all-important second goal.
Earlier in the season Barry would need at least three goals before making a number of substitutions in the last 20 minutes. It's a sign of the growing confidence Barnett has in his squad that Shone, Pridham and Darren Davies were on from the start. Not that Barnett had much of a choice, but all three acquitted themselves well, while even with just the one goal lead, the Barry player/manager had no qualms in bringing off the experienced and influential Jones and Carter, replacing them with Jodie Jenkins and Justin Perry.
Now 11 points clear of second placed Inter CableTel, and with just seven games to go, Barry need 11 points to clinch the championship and could, ironically, gain their fourth successive title against Inter at Leckwith Stadium on April 6th.
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This page edited by the Yellow Dragon, 1999.
This article first published in the Barry Gem, 18.03.1999.
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