Following two good home victories, Hanwell Town made the long journey down to South Wales to face Merthyr Town on Saturday (24 August 2024) but they were unable to bring home the points, despite defender Will Hall’s 1st goal of the season just before half time.
In a game that manager Chris Moore always called one of the toughest in the league, the Geordies started well against the Martyrs and matched the home side’s workrate as the teams exchanged chances on goal.
After keeper Sam Beasant had made a great early save from the dangerous Merthyr striker Ricardo Rees, Hanwell’s Elliott Beynon’s curling attempt on goal was blocked by the Martyrs defence as the home side had work to keep the Geordies at bay.
A few minutes later, Beynon made contact with a loose ball in the 6 yard area, diverting it towards goal, but the Merthyr keeper Jaimie Cogman scrambled across to clear the ball off the goal-line.
Just before the half hour, Rees had another attempt from a narrow angle but Beasant blocked the shot down by his left hand post as the keeper showed his class.
It looked like it would be goalless at the half time break but Hanwell took the lead following forward Jordan Edwards’ corner into the penalty area. Merthyr couldn’t clear the ball as it bounced around loose, Will Hall then stabbed the ball towards goal, it rolling into the bottom corner.
The opening period of the second half saw Merthyr dominating play and possession, with the best chance falling to midfielder Lewys Twamley but his attempt from distance was always going wide.
Arguably the turning point in the second half was the substitution of Hall with what appeared to be a hamstring injury on 71 minutes, and as the Geordies tried to adapt and reset themselves through the introduction of Leo Donnellan, the home side took the game away from them, with two goals in 6 minutes.
First on 74 minutes, a Twamley cross into the penalty area was not dealt with by the Hanwell defence, it falling to midfielder Cole Jarvis who struck a fine shot past Beasant from close range.
Merthyr then increased the pressure on Hanwell, and in the end, the Geordies couldn’t quite manage to hold out, as another Twamley cross was met at the back post by Rees, who have slipped away from the covering defender to head the ball into the Hanwell net.
With just 5 minutes to go, Hanwell had a couple of great chances within a couple of seconds in a goalmouth scramble, the attempts from close range by substitute Nathanael Boayke striking the post both times before the ball was scrambled wide. In the end, it was all to nothing as the assistant referee had raised the flag for offside during the action.
In the seven minutes of added time, with Merthyr pressing, Rees was brought down in the penalty area and the referee had no hesitation on awarding the penalty. Rees himself stepped up to take the kick, but Beasant demonstrated his experience by diving correctly to his right to block it and denying Merthyr a third goal.
Post-match, manager Chris Moore, explained that “it was the ease of them getting the ball into the box from wide areas that was our worry today and in the end, that was our downfall, for the first goal at least, I’m sure.”
The Geordies will look to recover quickly as they will play Marlow on Bank Holiday Monday at the Powerday stadium, with a 3 pm kickoff.
1 Sam Beasant, 2 Dan Carr, 3 Cameron Rohart-Brown, 4 Callum Woodcock, 5 Dwayne Duncan, 6 Will Hall (Leo Donnelan 71′), 7 Kameron English (Rod Orlando-Young 88′), 8 Mat Mackenzie, 9 Elliot Beynon (Ezekiel Coker 90′), 10 Jordan Edwards (Nathanael Boayke 69′), 11 Chris Regis (Kyron Richards 85′).
Substitutes
12 Nathanael Boayke, 14 Leo Donnelan, 15 Rod Orlando-Young, 16 Ezekiel Coker, 17 Kyron Richards.
Attendance: 891
