FA Cup - 2nd Qualifying Round

Attendance 789

Merthyr Town 4 Vs Torpoint AFC 0

A Cawley Cox hat-trick eased Merthyr Town into the next round of the FA Cup against a spirited Torpoint team to make it three wins on the bounce for Paul Michael’s men.

Three changes for Merthyr after the victory over Worksop, with Jay Williams, Nye Livermore, Cole Jarvis starting in a strong line up and Jayden Bourne promoted from the U19s academy to the bench against the south coast visitors.

As expected, it was the home team who started the strongest and dominated the early possession whilst continuing to probe a Torpoint team who were happy to sit with 10 men behind the ball early doors. Despite the early pressure, it took until the 14th minute for the first shot on target, with Livermore testing Rickard from range. Not long after Merthyr were close to breaking the deadlock, with an inviting ball from Handley across the area to meet the sliding Cox, who was unable to beat the advancing Rickard.

The visitors were finding it difficult to clear their lines and to get up the pitch, with Livermore and John disrupting any kind of momentum they were trying to build. An early change due to Lucas going down meant Sambu slotted onto the left and his impact was felt a few minutes later. Livermore picked the ball up deep in Merthyr’s half and was allowed to drive into the middle of the park, before dinking a ball left over the Torpoint defence to Sambu. Controlling it first time, he was able to cut inside and then out and shoot towards goal, with the retreating Haslam putting the ball into his own net. Merthyr 1 - 0.

Sambu continued to look a threat, particularly with shots from the edge of the area, testing Rickard on more than one occasion. Despite the dominance of Merthyr, Torpoint were unlucky not to equalise on 43 minutes. A long ball was put in behind Merthyr and a mix up at the back with Jay Williams allowed Pearson to nip in and get a shot off inside the box, with Cogman producing a great save to stop a certain goal. The resulting corner had Alex John heading off the line and Torpoint certainly felt an equaliser coming.

Two minutes into injury time, a clumsy sliding challenge from John brought down Hicks, who was too quick in reacting to the ball. Penalty. Up stepped Damerell to take the spot kick, but Cogman was able to get a fingertip to his bottom left and push the shot onto the post. Once again this season it was Cogman to the rescue.

Despite the heavy possession and dominance of Merthyr, Torpoint would have been very disappointed not to have gone into the break with at least an equaliser (or even the lead). All to play for in the second half.

As the heavens opened, Merthyr started the second half the quickest and were certainly pushing for another goal. Alex John could (and probably should) have scored on 63 minutes after being put through on a 1 on 1 with Rickard. His shot was straight at the advancing keeper, with Rees open to his left but Torpoint were starting to tire. 60 seconds later it was 2 - 0, with Jarvis firing across an inviting ball from the right into Cox, who was able to get in front of O’Brien and slot the ball into the corner.

Cox got his second of the match after a John corner was directed to Handley, who headed the ball to Cox’s feet to stab home. Shortly after, a proud moment for Merthyr Academy’s Jayden Bourne, who made his second competitive appearance for the first team, when he came off the bench for Twamley. Bourne showed very little nerves, with some great early touches and using his pace to continually put Barker on the back foot. He looks like a real talent.

The visitors continued to work hard but were chasing shadows at times and Cox was able to complete his hat-trick in injury time, with Matty Harris doing good work on the edge of the area and slotting Rees through the back line, who squared to Cox for the finish. The match ball was Cox’s and his first senior hat-trick for Merthyr.

The last action of the game came from the impressive Jayden Bourne, who picked up the ball deep on the right, cut inside two players and ran to the visitors box before cutting inside Haslam, who proceeded to hack him down. A stonewall penalty if I ever saw one, which the referee waved away, blowing the final whistle. Can’t help but feel if that wasn’t the final play, the penalty would have been given but no complaints from the home side with a professional performance.

All credit to Torpoint who continued to push Merthyr for the full 90 minutes and certainly gave a good account of themselves. All eyes are now on the third round draw, with the tie due to take place on Saturday 27th September.

Gavin Burns