This was an historic victory for the club. Who would have thought, whilst we struggled along in the Hellenic League, that we could gain promotion to the Southern League Premier Division at Step 3 in the Pyramid, the third tier in Non-League football? It was beyond our wildest dream.
Credit, first is due to Bobby Wilkinson and the players, who have had their critics on occasions, myself among them, but who rose to the occasion and thoroughly deserved to beat Merthyr in the Play-off final, even though the visitors did a league double over us, as well as knocking us out of the FA Cup.
Secondly, it was a triumph for Chairman Steve Skipworth whose organization was superb on the day, and the many committee members and supporters, who worked so hard to make it a success, even though it meant they often did not see much of the game. Thank you to all of you.
Merthyr, backed by a large contingent of supporters from South Wales, who gave their team magnificent vocal support from the start, were soon on the attack and Ryan Newman shot wide early on, but we had a great chance when Mark Draycott picked up a clearance from Giles Cutlan and fed James Clark, whose shot was well off target, and Draycott‘s cross-shot from way out on the left was easily saved by Cutlan. Merthyr came back for Jamie Rewbury’s shot to skim off the top of the bar and Gary Colbourne’s shot being deflected for a fruitless corner. Andrew Thomas was booked for a tackle, the referee appearing to bring out a red cared by mistake, but the yellow was the correct decision. Referee Derek Eaton had an excellent game, allowing the game, which was played at a frantic pace, to flow, as both teams gave everything to gain ascendancy, but half time came with the game still goalless, although Draycott headed straight at Cutlan from a Mark Hughes cross just before the interval.
The second half started in sensational fashion with Draycott scoring from a Dean Stow corner only 2 minutes after the restart, but the advantage was short-lived, for Newman equalized with a terrific 25-yard shot in the 50th minute and the unrelenting battle continued as Strudley saved well from a Ryan Prosser header, although the dangerous Merthyr striker was soon replaced by Marcus Griffiths whilst we created more width in the attack as Alan O’Brien came on for Scott Rees but Clark headed wide with another chance and was replaced by Harry Goodger, but near the end of the 90 minutes, Merthyr had their best spell and earned 3 corners and forced a good save from Strudley from as free-kick on the right.
We started well in extra time, but Aaron Cornwall shot well over the bar, whilst Newman, perhaps encouraged by his goal, tried another long-range shot, which was miles off target. We re-took the lead in the 104th.minute when Goodger headed on and Ian Herring was there in head in, and then started the second half of extra time with a terrific goal, O’Brien outpaced the defence down the left and Goodger did well to reach his hard-low cross and score from close range. Merthyr had nothing left to give and their supporters were at last silenced as we comfortably played out time to record a great win, the dominance of Jon Boardman and Matt Day at the centre of the defence playing a crucial part in the victory and players and supporters joined in an ecstatic chorus of “We are going up”
It had been a memorable victory and a glorious occasion for the club, making up for those three FA Vase Semi-final defeats and that string of Berks. & Bucks Senior Cup defeats, before we eventual lifted the cup in 1982.