Semi Final

[jadegoodiesfridge]

Good Morning sport fans ,Here we go !!!!!!!!!.........Best of luck to Ebbw,can't think of a better team to follow. Everybody get their backsides off the sofa and get yourself down to Pandy Park to cheer the boys on .Forget the telly ,no atmosphere.Come on Ebbw !!!!!!!!!!!..........by the way ,Carl Davies ain't coming.Nobody to look after his dog .( God almighty !)

[tinker]

What a performance from Ebbw Vale. I am gutted that they lost as the work they put in was phenomenal every one of them. Unfortunately had the English commentary on S4C. I had to go back to Welsh because of the one sided drivel spoken by, I think, Rick O'Shea was doing an almighty disservice to Ebbw's performance.

Well done boys you can hold your heads high and you could have turned over the "Champions" with a little more rub of the green. As with most tight matches they turn on one simple incident and this was no different. But Ebbw fought till the end and came close to pulling it out of the bag. I was on the edge of my seat most of the match and feel bad for our boys who must be disappointed.

Keep up the hard work you've got a lot of support, and well done.

[html junkie]

It seems strange to be congratulating the coaches and players after a loss, but I thought the performance was fantastic and deserved a win. Well done everyone, it showed how far we've come after our disappointing start to the season. I watched the game this morning and must say how fantastic Cam Reagan was. Also, our young second rows are developing into excellent players, having had to fill the enormous shoes of Damien and Ashley. Dale Mackintosh said, "Ebbw Vale were outstanding." I wouldn't want to argue with The Chief!

Where were the Merthyr supporters? There was a small group in that uncovered terrace between the clubhouse and the main stand, mainly consisting of their youth team (much less obnoxious than at Ebbw last year) and I saw one or two yellow/green scarves around the place but the covered banking was wholly red, green and white. For all his time, money and hard work, Sir Stan doesn't seem to be shifting the fine people of Merthyr from the Martyrs to the Ironmen, does he? Never mind, Caer Wern will look lovely with townhouses and retail units all over it in a few years time

Good luck to Merthyr in the final, be nice to see you up against our regional friends and partners.

[jadegoodiesfridge]

Managed to get home in one piece despite the train disruptions,totally gutted.Haven't felt that bad since a certain Josh Navidi broke my heart back in 2011 .However a few pints later and a chat with a few Ebbw supporters who also managed to get home,we all came to the conclusion that Ebbw actually showed a lot of guts and were so unlucky not to get the win last night .It was backs against the wall in the second half ,no argument,but amazingly despite Merthyrs obvious class ,they never really looked like scoring.Their constant efforts of a catch n kynes failed every time.and we were all just counting down the minutes,then.........Well we all now what happened next .No need to dwell on it now .A superlative effort from the boys ,and ,yes,Cammie was supreme .brilliant game.
Just as myself and my brother in law were about to leave spoons last night ,who should walk in ,but a very cheery Greg Woods,he spotted us and came over for a chat and a beer for a good 45 minutes.What a top bloke,who had nothing but praise for his team and the Addicts.After that conversation ,I'm really looking forward to next season,
Totally agree about the lack of support for a very good Merthyr.Reigning champions,Running away with the league,Cup Semi Final.....and there were barely 40 supporters there .Pathetic.

[Halftime Pint]

What a performance from One to Fifteen; all deserve massive credit and definitely did not deserve to lose.
Another high point for me was the tactical masterclass that Greg Woods handed out to "The Chief", carried out with a great tenacity by our team. Ladies and Gents, we have a very astute coach who I look forward to seeing in action next season. I don't think I need to remind anyone here on what a ball ache Cross Keys were to play under his stewardship, and how they always seemed to "suss us out" and beat us!
I have now watched Merthyr on a few occasions, and am still somewhat underwhelmed by them considering the resource and knowledge they have behind them; in my opinion the only sensible thing Rick O'Shea said all afternoon (he must have been drinking from the river judging by his commentary), was that their replacement 10 "has scored a winning try against Toulon, so he should be able to handle 20 mins at Pandy Park" which speaks volumes about the strength in depth of their squad and they still could not break us down. As for their support: I suppose that a few hundred thousand will buy you considerably more in rugby success than football, but for me Merthyr was always a football town. Treorchy anyone?
Anyway, I digress; a magnificent performance (despite being a loss), and the future is looking bright.

By the way, didn't realise Stan was a 'Sir'. Was that for services rendered to mediocre savoury products?

[viewfromthestand]

Now the pit of my stomach and heart have stopped aching I feel I can comment on the game. Firstly, can I applaud every player, coach , backroom person and anyone else who worked tirelessly to make this fixture a spectacle. Ronny , you and your team did us proud. I would personally like to thank every person who attended on Saturday. I am a nobody and don t really have the right to thank anyone but my team and my town made me proud to say I m from Ebbw Vale. We swarmed on Pandy Park and as many asked OUR SUPPORTERS became the 16th man.
The game was a great battle between two teams of hard but fair players. Not a yellow card issued by Craig Evans. So yet another positive. We lost a game TO a mistake.Being human we all make mistakes.
I was wondering if Powie was taken off before he got his kit dirty, love him put the TV on the ground and Powie has a mare every time. Never see him miss many kicks. Overall I thought Craig Evans did a good job of reffing the game but having watched again and again only to see myself on TV i felt there were one or two times when he called the penalty on us and it was clearly a penalty to us. The main one i refer to is the time in front of our posts Dom Franchi went down on the ball and was not allowed to get back up. The Merthyr player stood astride him and did nt move. Should have been a penalty to us. Merthyr seemed to fly into rucks with only one ambition and that was to take the man out. They did it well , another ref would have penalised them. I have no sour grapes and no axe to grind , we played our hearts out. We played for the badge and if you said to me pre Christmas we would be cup semi finalists I would have chortled in your face. We have come miles forward since those dreary times. I m positive we can do well against any opposition now. So BRINGTHEMON !!!!!!!!!!!!
PS Thank god Merthyr got a youth team, otherwise they would have had about 50 people there. Not an advert for throwing hard cash to get your team to the top. You can t buy support.

[DaiLew]

I'm sure I saw the Merthyr Supporters' bus parked outside the Cross Keys clubhouse with Sir Stan The Man's private registration plate on it. Subtract him and his driver and there couldn't have been many on board!

Joking aside, this was yet another occasion to be proud of everyone connected to our club. I certainly was and still am.

I am not going to blame officials for our loss but in my opinion the Merthyr loosehead would struggle to use a protractor to measure a straight angle, couldn't resist an early shove in every scrum and won a penalty for exactly what he had already been penalised for! Add the forward passes, crooked throws and taking players out beyond the ruck and I'm still feeling frustrated and one-eyed 3 days later! Dan penalised for not rolling away/releasing when he's flat on his back with all 29 other players lying on top of him - shocking decision. Most of these were spotted using several slow motion relays during the last 3 days!

Money can't by the commitment that we saw from every Ebbw player on Saturday or the support that they received. Thanks again boys and everyone else for making me feel so proud of my club.

[david brown]

Firstly,i could not have felt more pride even if we had won My concern is about the late driving maul,were in control of the ball,the maul was going forward at a fair rate of knots .Yet the ref kept shouting USE IT ? why ,we were doing everything by the rule book.Have played it over and over and am baffled by his decision ,not sour grapes but IF ONLY will concern me for some time to come.