The 2007/08 season is finally over and it has been a bit of a rollercoaster.  A finish of fourth is an excellent achievement when you take the whole picture into account.  There is no question that Carmarthen and Bangor are paying quite a lot more wages than us and you could maybe throw Neath into it as well as more teams below us.  Others would know more about it.  One of the first things that came into my mind after Saturday’s win over Llangefni was how many points we have actually dropped over the season.  It’s all hypothetical and other teams throw games away too but these are the games where I feel we lost points when we shouldn’t have based on the performance. 

Caernarfon (Away)  Lost 3-1.  Should have been driving past Trawsfynydd with three points by half-time.  Dyfan Pierce put us one nil up with a great strike (must have pissed in the manager’s tea that day as I don’t think we saw him after that) and we had GOOD chances after that.  Defensive errors let them back in after the break and this combined with missed chances and a missed last-minute penalty cost us at least a point. 

POINTS DROPPED – 1 (maybe 3)

Haverfordwest (Away) Lost 2-1  Once again, as so often under Tony Pennock, we had a load of chances with quick attacking football. We didn’t take them in this game either and rued the misses once again.  We should have been coasting at half-time but let our hosts score twice to take advantage.  A late consolation header from Liam McCreesh and a fair bit of pressure in injury time wasn’t enough to share the spoils.

POINTS DROPPED - 3  

Airbus (Home)  Not a memorable encounter and can vaguely remember us having a couple of chances so

POINTS DROPPED – 2

TNS (Away) Lost 2-1  Quite a bit of possession second half but never really looked like winning

POINTS DROPPED –  1 (Maybe)

Welshpool (Home)  Drew 1-1  With the visitors reduced to nine men for a large part of the game you should be taking the points.

POINTS DROPPED – 2

Bangor (Home)  Drew 0-0  The result was pretty fair with both teams having good chances

POINTS DROPPED – 0

Llanelli (Away) Lost 8 (Eight) 0 We wouldn’t have won this even if we had held a hot dog to Nico’s head.  The only thing we threw away was our pride.

POINTS DROPPED – 0

Carmarthen (Away) Drew 0-0  Two or three great chances to their one great chance gave Nicky Tucker a good point in his first match in charge. Should have been three.

POINTS DROPPED – 2 (Maybe)

Rhyl (Home) Lost 1-2  Our first home defeat of the season in the league and a lot of missed chances meant we should have had something

POINTS DROPPED – 1 (at least)

Newtown 0-0 On a pitch so poor the Soupies would have felt at home on it we missed a lot of great chances.  Newtown had none.

POINTS DROPPED – 2 (Definitely)

Neath (Home)  3-3  At 3-1 up and cruising, only defensive mistakes could have let Neath back in to this derby.  Forget Andrew Dyer’s comments, only one team threw the points away here.

POINTS DROPPED – 2 (Definitely)

Haverfordwest (Home) 2-2  At 2-1 up with a minute left.  Defensive error again.

POINTS DROPPED – 2

Airbus (Away)  Lost 1-0  Could still be playing now and we wouldn’t have scored. 

POINTS DROPPED – 0

Bangor (Away)  0-0 A very good second half performance from the Blues saw Bangor relieved with a point.

POINTS DROPPED – 2

Llangefni (Away) Lost 4-1  Weren’t there but from what I heard and from what I saw on Y Clwb Peldroed we didn’t deserve anything

POINTS DROPPED – 0

Rhyl (Away) Lost 5-0 A relaxed Rhyl with nothing to play for smashed us.  So what happened to the relaxed Rhyl who played Porthmadog on Saturday???????????????

POINTS DROPPED - 0

TOTAL 20 ish

We had one recognised striker for half of the season.  I’m sure Nicky will be looking for someone to chip in with a few alongside Rosey next season.  If Dylan, Liam and Scott????? can keep banging a few in from midfield and the defence has a good consistent season I’m sure we will make more progress again. Well done to Nicky, the players and Staff on finishing fourth.  

A big well done to the hardcore too for their vocal support.  Hela, Les the Trumpet, MP,  Gwyn,  Matt and Dan,  Wrexham Kev, Jason and Beegee, Simon, Sput, Kevin and the Guvnor.  A Big BSB thank you to Leon and Debbie for organizing the Supporter's events.  Let's kick it on in the summer. 

How vital is keeping Scott Barrow?

Will them Turk people be sniffing around Surms again?

Who will be in goals next season?    

Please leave your comments!

ALLEZ ALLEZ!

Confirmation of another fruitless trip to Belle Vue wasn’t too much of a surprise as the full time scores rolled in on Saturday afternoon. Away days at Rhyl have never been productive. What did surprise me though was the level of our defeat.

Rewind back 10 days ago to our last game. Playing Camarthen at the ReMax in what was always going to be a difficult game, the Blues played the Old Gold off the park with a fully deserved 2-0 win. The side Tucker sent out were man for man better than their opposite number with us looking assured in defence, midfield and going forward. Individually and as a team we looked hungrier for the win. If the rest of the league needed reminding who wanted 4^th spot the most, then this was it. The Blues supporters went home happy as did the team, with a confidence booster going into the difficult Rhyl game.

Forwards again to Saturday, the same side (with the exception of two) finish the first half against Rhyl losing 3-0 after a desperate first 45 minutes. Another 45 minutes later and the Blues are on the end of a 5-0 trouncing with an uncomfortable trip back to South Wales to ponder what could’ve been. 

It is easy to sit behind a keyboard and be critical, I didn’t even manage to get to the game but, how many times have we seen the above happen this season? Hopes raised by promising performances then the following week all the hard work is undone by the same group of players with a lacklustre defeat.

The most frustrating thing in all of this is that the players are setting the benchmark themselves showing that they are able to put in the level of performance needed to push PTT forwards. It is hard to expect the level of performance that was shown against Camarthen each week but any sort of consistency has been remote when it’s been needed. The defeat on Saturday let us slip in the league and it has become very tight which is through our own inability to take advantage when we had the opportunity.

It’s been a difficult season, lack of progress in the cup competitions, the Tony Pennock era, coupled with our inconsistency and false hopes of Euro qualification have made it long and difficult. Unfortunately I think there are several members in the first team who despite reputation need to be replaced for next season to refresh the squad. The current squad has shown that we are unable to make ground and push on to the next level regardless of performances that these players are capable of.

The silver lining for the season has been the arrival of Nicky Tucker who’s has plenty of time to asses the squad going into the summer. Our lack of consistency for whatever reason, attitude? preparation? ability? will hopefully be addressed by Tucker who’ll have a full summer to prepare the squad for the dream of achieving European football next season.

Matt_Toffee

On Friday the 'Old Gold' came to Town in a game which was billed on the Web as 'The battle for fourth!.  The talk on the BSB guestbook before the game was whether Josh Payne or Kristian Rogers would start in goal.  Talk after the game was that we could have played Gerald Payne or Ted Rogers in goal.  Scrap that, we could have played Dusty Bin in goal. 

Blues made their intentions clear from the start as Lee John and Mark McGibbon (OII!) attacked with pace down the right flank. Carmarthen huffed and puffed and the closest they came during the early exchanges was a wide long range effort from the boy Sasha.  The old gold widemen had their wings clipped and their feathers ruffled during a cagey start.  The Blues fans then had a trill a minute as the home team took control of proceedings.  Thommo (who has been a bit of a thorn in our side since he flew the nest) made a decent save from Liam McCreesh but the rebound was fired back across goal for a flying Martin Rose to convert.    Half-time: 1-0 Blues

The second half started as the first one ended.....Blues on top.  Crisp attacking football all over the field with Gazza putting an abrupt end to any of Carmarthen's efforts to do the same.  Any Carmarthen player in possesion was quickly closed down and the result was usually PTT winning the ball and quickly counter-attacking.  Port Talbot's verve was soon rerwarded as a calamitous mistake by a Carmarthen defender (think it was the one with Bird s*it on his head) left an open goal for McCreesh to hammer home.  

Full time: 2-0 Blues. 

A super performance from the Blues and Tucker can really get these boys playing.  If the players are more consistent in performances like this next year then we can really go places.         

He's quick alright! 

A big four games start for our football club from Friday.  The Blues have a chance to claim our highest ever finish in the WPL if we come fourth.  We have some tough home games against Carmarthen (currently fourth) and Llangefni (fighting for their lives and suddenly doing a good of it, go down please!).  We also have two really tricky, tough away trips to Rhyl (Mother Theresa had more points on her driving license than we've had at Rhyl) and Welshpool (league of gentlemen meets one man and his dog) so we have it all to do. 

With European qualification a no-no after Rhys Griffi, sorry, Llanelli's beating of Rhy in the semi-final, why is it important to claim fourth.  Because it would be a huge achievement in many ways.  We started in average fashion.  A good pre-season draw at home to Swansea and a great competitive start against Neath in the cup raised a fair bit of optimism at the Remax.  The throwing away of three points at Caernarfon threw a bucket of cold water on it.  Emphatic wins at home to Newtown and Druids showed that we were certainly an attacking team with plenty of pace to trouble and punish weaker opponents.  With the addition of pace however, we lost a bit of backbone and with the loss of Dean Johnston (a fully commited midfielder with a great engine and the ability to score important goals) and the near loss of Dylan Blain (see Dean Johnston) we were unable to pick up points on the road especially against the stronger teams.  This all culminated in probably the most embarrasing defeat in many PTT supporter's eyes for a long, long time.  We went crashing out of theWelsh Cup after woeful defending and out of the Premier Cup and missed out on a potential cash bonanza when we lost at Carmarthen.  We had a corner in the last minute as we held a 1-0 lead and there was hardly anyone in the box to attack it.  This lack of any tactical know-how invited the 'Old Gold' to go up the other end and score and Easter, egged on by the home crowd, slotted home.  Nathan Cotteral exposed a woeful lack of pace to score the winner in extra-time.  The blues went crashing out of the cup, Tony Pennock went crashing out of management.   

Played 19 Won 7 Drawn 3 lost 9

Paul Reid took charge for the next two games against Connah's Quay and Porthmadog and we took six points from two hard-fought victories with Sam Baker influential in both.

Played 2 Won 2 

 Enter Nicky Tucker.  Out of all cups with not much to play for.  Next season will be his season.

So far

Played 17 Won 8 Drawn 5 Lost 4 

We haven't won anything but finishing fourth would be a great achievement.  

It was a case of 'After the lord mayor's show' in reverse Friday Evening because the Blues were so bad in Llangefni they were always going to play better against the mighty turks of Stebonheath.   In front of a decent crowd of 403 the Blues restricted Llanelli to set pieces (long throw-ins) and if we had taken our chances would have won the game comfortably but unfortunately that has been the story of our season.  To be fair, the Turks had only half chances but managed to tuck one away while we squandered a few sitters again.  We have fallen behind in the race for fourth and have let Aber, Neath and Haverfordwest get near us again but we are still only 4 points off fourth.  A win against Porthmadog at the Remax is a must on Saturday. 

Where can we go after this season?  Will Robbie Walters sign in the summer?  Which players will be surplus to requirements, ie - who will sign for Neath?

The biggest problems we seem to have at the moment are finding the net (French anyone?), indiscipline and the players struggling to raise their game against s*ite opposition.  The fact that we are creating chances is encouraging and I am sure Nicky Tucker will address all of the above.   

Please leave some comments to let us know who you would like to see in the blue shirt next season

Found these few gems on the Llanelli forum,

  "one final thing the attendance tonight was 403?if thats the case then there must have been 1500 in stebo on tuesday night"

"If us reds fans didnt travel to port talbot in our numbers i think that they would have been lucky to have about 150 in the ground, well done to everyone for going up on friday"

"at last there are people out there seeing that we will not play well all the time and that sometimes we got to just grind the results out.....port talbot just dragged us into a dog fight but little did they know that this squad can play and grind things out.....these are the games which win the club titles and cups"

TURKS, DON'T YOU JUST LOVE 'EM! 

PS.  An old friend is making his way down to South Wales for the Porthmadog game on Saturday.

UP THE TOWN!

Apparently, as the Caersws players were walking off the pitch to a chorus of 'We only need nine men' their (angry) Manager Mike Barton shouted at them 'Hark at that, hark at that'.  Whilst i am surprised to hear somebody under the age of sixty use the word hark his anger comes as no surprise.  Lets face it, Caersws were very poor and hardly threatened the nine men of Port Talbot Town.  What made it a very pleasing second half from our point of view was the character and battling of the remaining players.  You'd like to think the support helped the players and it's important we take a few up to Bangor on Saturday.  The team are staying overnight so we need to get up there on the day of the game to do our bit in what is a big game in the race for third place. 

Ken McKenna has announced he is stepping down at the end of the season.  Love him or loathe him, his teams have done the business on the pitch.  He has had a big kitty but he has used it well.  Whilst I am not a big fan of merged clubs and clubs named after businesses in particular they have represented our league well in Europe (big draws help) and the Prem Cup (last season) when they controlled the game at Spytty Stadium or whatever it's called.  I wouldn't mind TNS winning the league this year for Ken McKenna just because I have always found him gracious in defeat and he tells it like it is (and Llanelli can go **** off).  Compare that to the likes of Hulse and Davenport and it's quite refreshing.  Absolute nutter at times but there you go.  Good on yer Ken!

PS: Our discipline is shocking!  

Friday got off to a bad start.  All the players were available and there were plenty of supporters but the bus decided to turn up one hour late.  As if that wasn't bad enough they even had the cheek to give it the taxi spiel on the phone.  "It will be five minutes.....he's just around the corner!"  He turned up 55 minutes later. They probably answer the phone with that line.  We got there at 6-50 on a bus fuelled more by alcohol than diesel.  Fair play to Aber on putting the kick off back to 7-45.  Many clubs wouldn't have.

25 Blues turned to 35 in the clubhouse with a few players parents already there and we were all eagerly anticipating how the Blues would play after two good wins on the bike.  After a nervy start under some Aberystwyth pace and pressure we steadied and put together some good attacks on the break.  McCreesh and Rosey were causing problems and the midfield were quick in supporting them.  We had stollen the lead after a slice by their keeper which Mr Kipling would have been proud of.  Rosey duly took the ball round him and slotted left-foot into the empty net.  0-1 Piece of cake.  Cue the celebrations as Rose followed his nose and found the whisky-addled Blues on the far side (hic).  We stayed with the attacking and threatened a few more times before one of their players got in behind Leigh De-vulgt to find an unmarked player in the box. 1-1. Fuck! Here we go again, same old.  Cue celebrations in the Dias stand as the schoolkids went mad.  Fair play to 'em.  It sounded like Barney had just walked on stage.

We set up camp in the Dias at half-time and wondered which Port Talbot would show up in the second half.  We weren't left wondering for long as LDV lost a tackle on our left side which Aber capitalised on again as our defense were upside-down.  2-1 down and Barney had been joined on stage by Bob the Builder.  The travelling Blues weren't lying down and after a bit of vocal encouragement the players stood up to be counted and Aber were torte lesson after a good cross from the impressive Burgin was spilled and the ball was slotted home by none other than Craig Hanford.  2-2 and the Blues are back in it.  The momentum was with us now and we were soon back in front.  A quality Burgin corner swung in and hit the far post and run along the line before Lee John fired it in.  Cue delirium in the Dias as Johnno, McGibbon et al were mobbed by some rather well oiled South Walians.  2-3. The job was finished by Dylan Blain who gave an impressive display on replacing Lee John.  A long throw by Mark McGibbon was well flicked on by Rosey and Dylan nipped in before the defender to angle a left foot shot into the top corner.   2-4 Goodnight! We absorbed any remaining pressure like a sponge.  After showing the support their appreciation the players walked off as the Blues fans serenaded a dark and empty Park Avenue with such classics as 'Allez Allez' and 'Port Talbot are back'.

As the now rum-fuelled bus headed off back to the South Wales coast the feeling was that we have a strong squad who are capable of going places and Tucker knows where he wants to take them and that this was up there as one of the top away trips......Allez Allez!

Football: Tucker’s still got his eye on Robbie Walters

Today sees the closing of the transfer window and we have managed to latch on to a couple of good 'uns.  Our defense has been bolstered with the key arrivals of James Burgum, a young left back from Swansea City and Carl Evans from Afan Lido.  It is believed/alleged/rumoured Robbie Walters wanted to sign but Bryntirion have held him back.  It ain't very nice when a player who wants to play at a higher level is denied the chance but on the other hand we know what it's like when clubs like Newport, Llanelli etc come sniffing around our best players.  The main difference in this case is that we are not far behind Llanelli apart from the difference in the bulge of wallets.  Llanelli could only offer our players more money and a quick ride on the red bubble.  Bryntirion are in the Welsh League and have not applied for promotion and Robbie Walters is suspended for their Welsh Cup tie against Welshpool on Saturday.   

Speaking of Llanelli, it turns out that they have given lots of tickets entitling people to half price admission to Stebonheath to a load of Carmarthenshire clubs only for the tickets to end up in the hands of Neath supporters for their 3-3 draw with the league leaders.  Whilst the Turks are undoubtedly upset I think it's great that the Neath fans are showing a bit of scally terrace culture.  Maybe there's hope for the derbies yet.   

The Aberystwyth roll call is getting bigger and promises to be a good night.  With the transfer window it's like summer all over again, same weather too.  Optimism is high.  Two consecutive wins and some tough aways at Aber and Bangor ahead.  New manager, new signings, new skin and hopefully horn's of plenty.  Les the trumpet is ready with a victory fanfare.       

Check out the latest article from Afan FM's Hash on the official site http://www.porttalbottown.co.uk/januaryafanfm08/

Allez Allez!

Port Talbot Town 0 Goytre 1

A comedy goal which saw a low struck free kick from near the touchline go through a penalty area full of players cost the Blues victory in a game they should have won.  Triallist Robbie Walters missed a left foot sitter before Swans Loanee Matthew Wright shot straight at the keeper in a one on one.  Youth Goalkeeper Josh Payne had one (good) save to make and gave a sound performance.  The young left back from Swansea also looked like he'd be worth another look (unlikely with the window closing Tomorrow).  These games are not really about winning and it is very difficult judging a player on one game.  Matthew Wright was pretty quiet and never really got in the game and Walters was unlucky with a late header which hit the bar (if the post is called the upright what is the crossbar called??)

There are a few names down for Aber and hopefully a few more in the next week.  We took four fans to Airbus and three to Druids.  Where has our away support gone?  Will we be able to take numbers to the big games at least?  The only time we have ever won at Airbus (a real uninspiring place) was when we took numbers and a vocal support.  Distance, work and families put's a lot of people off but we need to try and get the troops together for the likes of Aber, Rhyl, Bangor Etc.  Allez Allez in the Dias - you know it makes sense!      

The atmosphere was back with a vengeance as the Remax Stadium of Port Talbot Town again proved too much for perennial champions TNS.  The Burns Road end upped sticks and joined the regulars, aka the Nasty Bank (the bank that likes to say F**k OFF!) in the far end of Gerald's Stand.  The noise brought back memories of the Swansea night and the TNS games (Cup final and league last season) and the blue shirts responded with a spirited performance which was defensively perfect.  We defended as a team and when the oppurtunity arose Lee john took advantage of a defensive mistake to claim the victory which was fully deserved.  Paul Evans came in from the Lido and looked strong and assured and even smashed the post with a good header.  Surms was colossal as he took charge in Reeso's absence.   Mark McGibbon was up and down the pitch so much he made Stephen Carr look lazy and LDV had a sound game at Left Back. 

Nicky Tucker made some brave decisions in his team selection and it paid off.  He has had his hands tied since he took charge with our indiscipline catching up on us and being out of both cups but we have one two on the bike now and kept two clean sheets.  The win at Druids has been described as winning ugly by those diehards who travelled.  After dominating games without winning it makes a refreshing change to snatch a victory without playing well. 

It's Goytre Tonight and a few triallists on show.  You'd think a Striker was top priority with the departure of Chad and Kerry. 

Hopefully we will take some numbers up to Aber next Friday for what's always a good trip.

Up the Town!

Allez Allez!