Barry goalscorer: Eifion Williams 38'
Inter goalscorer: Dave Wells (own goal) 57'
Barry: Wells, Evans, Davies, Jones, York, Barrow, Barnett, Pridham, Williams, Dempsey.
subs: (not used) Perry, Shone
Inter: Wager, R.Williams, Wills, Brazil, David, Dyson, Davies, Wharton, Dyer, Evans, Parselle
subs: Mardenborough (for Dyer 22'), Wile (for R.Williams 75'), C.Williams (for Evans 85')
Booked: Barry: Pridham 10', York 54'
Inter: Wharton 7', Mardenborough 81'
Red Cards: Barry: none
Inter: Wharton 81'
The outcome of the Boxing Day Derby has become spookily easy to predict. Four years in the past five it has ended as a draw. The other game? That was cancelled due to the weather.
The same thing happened on Boxing Day, 1998, our last League of Wales meeting. Inter Cabletel were on fire, with a run of good form having taken them to fifth spot in the table, a position they have since improved on. Barry were doing equally well, with perhaps their best performance of the season only a week earlier, when they thrashed then second-place Aberystwyth 5-1.
However, it was a depleted Barry side which took the field against Inter, a victim of regular injuries and the influenza bug which was doing the rounds in Barry at the turn of the year, and led to the cancellation of the League of Wales match against Cwmbran a week later.
Barry's goal came five minutes before the half-time break, when a move down the left, involving Mark Dempsey and Darren Davies, saw Davies fire in a low cross. Eifion Williams was the first player to react, breaking away from his marker, Richard David, and firing past Gary Wager in the Inter goal.
However, it wasn't long after the break that Inter returned to level terms. Like Wager in the first half, Barry keeper, Dave Wells, had difficulty in judging the flight of the ball, which was heavily wind-assisted. Inter were awarded a corner on the right, and John Wills's well-flighted ball came into the box only for Wells to misjudge its trajectory, and could do little more than palm it back into his own goal.
Having held the majority of possession in the first-half, including an electric movement of more than 40 successive passes, Barry were rocked by the equaliser, and nearly found themselves a further goal behind, when Wills attempted to repeat his earlier feat. On that occasion, Wells saved comfortably.
At the other end, Wager saved well from repeated efforts by Jodie Jenkins and Eifion Williams, while Inter found themselves down to ten men after a second booking for captain, Sean Wharton. However, despite the one-man advantage, Barry could make no headway, and for another season, both sides had to be content with a point for Christmas.
the Yellow Dragon.
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This page edited by the Yellow Dragon, 1999.
This article first published in the Barry Town Matchday Magazine, v Inter Cabletel, 02.03.99.
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