Goytre - 0

Troedyrhiw- 2

IT was yet another disappointing and dispiriting home performance for Goytre on Saturday as they huffed and puffed their way through a tedious 90 minutes that will live about as long in the memory as the drying of paint.

Following on the heels of a match of laboured grunt and groan, painful for both players and supporters alike, club chairman Paul Greenhalgh revealed to the Chronicle, "I've just been talking to a supporter who I think hit the nail squarely on the head when he said to me, 'Paul we played like a team with nothing to win and nothing to lose out there today.' And that's pretty much the essence of it.

"There was no urgency to our game, and it's match we'd like to put behind us and firmly forget," sighed the disappointed Goytre stalwart.

Goytre went into Saturday's match at Plough Road, sitting seventh place in Welsh League Division Three, just one place above Troedyrhiw.

As such the threat of relegation and the promise of promotion has become pretty much a distance spectre for both teams this season, and so the fixture played itself out from end to end with any highlights being very few and far inbetween.

Greenhalgh told the Chronicle, "It didn't help that we were without some of our key players on the day. Lee Wadden was unavailable due to work commitments, and Kevin Wallace has now been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury he picked up four weeks ago.

"We also decided to drop our regular strike-force of Ryan Andrews and Lee Grimes to the bench, and give Graham Mason and Jamie Wilkins a run up front. Mason has come off the bench twice in recent games to score, so he definitely deserved a starting place."

Greenhalgh added, "We beat Troedyrhiw 3-2 away earlier this season, so we were hoping for the double, but it just wasn't to be.

"However, you have to give the players credit on the day for putting their hands up after the match and admitting on their own behalf that the performance just wasn't there."

After an even and relatively settled ten minutes, Goytre's first chance of the game came when Craig Joliffe picked up a loose ball in the centre of the park.

Seeing that the Troedyrhiw keeper was of his lines, Joliffe put in a superb lob that beat the frantically backtracking keeper, but unfortunately the ball just went over the bar.

Shortly after Troedyrhiw piled on the pressure and Goytre conceded a number of unspectacular free kicks, which keeper Julian Phillips, deputising for an injured and out for the rest of the season Gareth Williams, dealt with comfortably.

A Goytre attack shortly followed, only for the Troedyrhiw keeper to calmly collect the ball and launch an almighty clearance kick upfield into the Plough Road penalty area.

With the defence rushing to get back it was Dean Taylor who got his head to a ball, which breathtakingly beat the keeper, but luckily for Goytre, just inched over the crossbar.

Goytre's best chance of the first 45 minutes fell to Graham Mason, but instead of backing himself to take the strike he tried to play the ball to Jamie Wilkins, which resulted in Mason's pass being intercepted by a Troedyrhiw defender.

With the first-half coming to an end a last-ditched long-throw by Goytre's Julian Richards was headed onto the near post by Mark Jones, but Matthew Cameron failed to connect and the two teams went into the interval without a goal to their names.

Into the second-half and Troedyrhiw came out with all cylinders firing. The visitor's revamped attitude paid off after only eight minutes when their striker swept through the Goytre defence - who appealed in unison and in vain for offside - and netted through a ball in off the post.

1-0 ahead and Troedyrhiw seemed content to just sit-back, protect their lead and let the Goytre come onto them.

This tactic seemed to pay dividends, as the home team seemed incapable of creating any clear-cut chances.

Until a fantastic opportunity for an equaliser presented itself when a ball from Graham Mason cut through the Troedyrhiw defence, but with only the keeper to beat, Jamie Wilkins's shot from six yards out went astray and the chance was lost.

Goytre immediately paid the penalty for the miss, when a Troedyrhiw ball over their heads

caught the Plough Road defence napping and led to goal number two and the end of a lacklustre affair.

Greenhalgh grimly concluded, "Saturday's game was definitely not one for the record books. It was a very disappointing and forgettable performance.

"Yet on a more upbeat note, with nine games remaining we've pretty much secured our survival for another season."

A cautions Greenhalgh then warned, "However, that's no reason for us to remain complacent, and hopefully this weekend's break will be just the ticket needed for us to return to the fray and make sure each and every one of those remaining nine games sees us deliver the goods in the style and manner we know we are capable of."