THE great and good of football's governing body, Sepp Blatter, Fifa president and Uefa's general secretary, Lennart Johannson, witnessed a Lee Barrow diving header midway through the first half which set Barry on the road to an unconvincing 2-0 victory over TNS at Jenner Park last Saturday.
The visiting dignitaries, in Wales for a Fifa conference which is being held at Miskin Manor, might have wondered just which club were heading towards their fourth consecutive League of Wales title.
While the three points are welcome, performances of late have fallen far short of what is expected from a Barry Town team.
In their previous two games the Town drew 0-0 with bottom of the table Rhayader and were knocked out of the Welsh Cup by Connah's Quay Nomads.
TNS, skippered by Jenner Park old boy, Darren Ryan, were expected to feel the mighty wrath of a Barry backlash following the ignominious exit from the Welsh Cup. Some backlash.
For long periods, Barry were outplayed and forced back into their own half to defend in numbers. TNS were doing to Barry what Barry normally do to others.
Time after time the Town were forced into desperate defence, constantly struggling to deal effectively with corners and crosses as well as John Whelan's long throws. This has been a chink in the Barry armour all season, but fortunately one which the rest of the League of Wales is unable to take full advantage of.
For the second successive week the Barry midfield were more than matched by the opposition. Whereas before Christmas, the football was instinctive and one touch, in recent weeks there has been a greater hesitancy, with players dwelling on the ball, unsure of the right course of action. Subsequently, both Connah's Quay and TNS, who have come to Jenner Park with the intention of harrying and closing down space to deny Barry time, have found that task a great deal easier.
TNS's misfortune was not to score the first goal. But it was not for the want of trying. Twice in the first half hour TNS hit the cross bar. First, a thunderous free-kick from Ricky Evans, following a foul on Darren Ryan by Paul Mitchell, was pushed onto the bar by David Wells. The ball was played back towards the goal and Ryan forced it into the net, but the referee had already blown for offside.
Following a further failure by Barry to deal with a Whelan long throw, Gareth Wilson sent an overhead kick crashing against the bar.
Without Mark Dempsey, Barry were struggling to find any width. Richard Jones was pushed up front to join Eifion Williams, which meant that Barry mere missing two significant parts of this season's game plan - Dempsey's marauding down the flanks and Jones's ghostly running from deep. As a result, Barry were looking predictable and pedestrian.
They had come close to scoring in the 8th minute when Eifion Williams, watched by Cardiff City manager, Frank Burrows, rode three tackles to fire an angled shot across the face of the goal, which Mulliner got a hand to, and was cleared for a corner by Dewi Parry. A promising start but one which soon evaporated as TNS went on to play Hit-the-Bar.
Then Barry scored. Just a minute earlier Richard Jones had managed to reach the by-line and put over a great cross, but there was no one there. From the opposite side of the field, Carter curled in a cross, and Lee Barrow launched himself at the ball to send a diving header into the TNS net.
The goal highlighted the crucial difference between the two sides. When given the chance to score, Barry took it.
TNS fought back and David Wells had to be at his best to tip over a blistering 30-yard shot from Ricky Evans, but despite this scare, the Town managed to maintain their 1-0 lead at the interval.
For the first 20 minutes of the second half, Barry were pushed back by a TNS side determined to get an equaliser, but gradually they started to tire and when Mike Gallagher put into his own net while trying to prevent Eifion Williams from scoring on 69 minutes. TNS's belief in themselves started to ebb away to such an extent that Barnett substituted Williams with Jodie Jenkins shortly after.
Chris Pridham was also given a run-out, coming on for Darren Davies, and apart from Jenkins, who almost caught Mulliner out with a clever reverse shot, the game quietly ran out of steam.
It is fortunate for Barry that Merthyr Tydfil FC are in the hands of the receivers and organising a FAW Premier Cup quarter-final between the two sides is not so straight-forward. In this jaded state, Barry would have great difficulty in overcoming the Martyrs. As it is, the most likely date for this much-waited clash, though this has yet to be confirmed, is Tuesday, 16th March, at Jenner Park.
This weekend, the Dragons travel to mid-Wales to play Newtown.
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This page edited by the Yellow Dragon, 1999.
This article first published in the Barry Gem, 25.02.1999
Match report, Barry Town v Total Network Solutions, League of Wales, 20.02.1999.
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