Pre Season Game 1 Llanharan FC v Barry Town Pan Disability FC 06/08/24

The ball finally got rolling for Barry Town Pan Disability FC as the first pre-season game of the 2024/25 season saw them face off against Bridgend and District League Division 1 side Llanharan FC on a windy Tuesday evening at Llanharan Welfare Ground.

This is the second meeting of the teams with the first game being won by Llanharan 6-0 in 2023, so Barry were looking to improve on this result this time around.

Llanharan have played several pre-season games before they faced Barry which meant they started the better of the side and deservingly went in front. As the first half went on the Barry players couldn’t get to grips with the way Llanharan were playing the ball around, the Barry players were being dragged all over the pitch, which was creating lots of gaps and space between their midfield and defence. To try and counter act this space, the Barry defence were defending on the halfway line, which meant that the space between them and the Barry goalkeeper was vast. Due to the very experienced players of Llanharan, they noticed this and played balls over the top of the Barry defence which allowed the Llanharan wingers to run onto the ball and create numerous goal scoring opportunities. Barry had a few half chances in the first half but they didn’t trouble the Llanharan goalkeeper as much as they wanted to do. The half time score read Llanharan 4 Barry 0.

As the Barry players re-grouped at half time, they made a few positional changes which meant that the second half was a performance the Barry players can be proud of. In the second half, Barry were much more organised and played football in the correct areas of the pitch along with some very good pressing which the Llanharan defence didn’t like. Llanharan continued to create scoring chances which resulted in goal number 5 and 6, but dispite these goals going into the net, Barry continued to create more scoring opportunities through Joe, Jason and Euan, all of them were unfortunate not to be on the score sheet. With around 15 minutes to go until the final whistle, Jason picked up the ball from the right-hand side after some good work by Greg and Joe following a throw-in, Jason cut inside onto his favourite left foot and let fly from around 20 yards out which flew past the Llanharan goalkeeper into the bottom right corner. Barry had achieved their target for this match which was to score at least 1 goal, which they failed to do the last time these two teams faced off in Barry in 2023. Llanharan were still able to find another goal towards the end of the game.

The full-time score read Llanharan 7 Barry 1.

Barry Town Squad:

Bradley (GK)

JJ (me)

Phil

Taran

Rob

Lewis

Matt

Ryan

Jason (Captain)

Kieron

Ibby

Brandon

Curtis

Euan

Joe

Images captured by Barry Town Coaches and Supporters in attendance at the match.