MATCH PREVIEW: Tredegar Town vs Bridgend Street
Welsh League Three’s bottom placed team are hoping to further dent the promotion chances of Bridgend Street when the east Cardiff side visit the Tredegar Leisure Complex on Saturday.
With only three league wins all season, Tredegar Town are at risk of dropping out of the Welsh League, but recent performances have given the management hope that they can leapfrog their relegation rivals at the bottom of the table – despite playing the majority of recent games on the road due to postponements at home. A credible draw at Chepstow was followed by a 3-1 defeat at Llantwit Major, one of the league’s form teams and they are looking to further dent the promotion chances of ‘The Mission’, following their draw at Ynysygerwn last weekend.
Assistant Manager Liam McCann felt his side could have got more out of that game. He said, “For that game it felt like we didn’t turn up and there were a few odd decisions from the ref, including the sending off of James Price. A lot of opposing teams have been questioning how we are bottom with the way we are playing – but unfortunately we’ve been conceding too many silly goals. We’ve brought in a new centre half in Ryan Hill and he should be making his debut at the weekend.
“We’ve got a good squad of young lads, we always seem to have 18 available, which is a real positive. We think in a couple of years there’ll be some really good players here. We think it might take seven wins to have a chance of staying up and that’s what we’re aiming for.
“We’ve been scoring goals, Ian Pettit is in good form and Craig Hewitt, too. So we’re hoping to get something out of the game on Saturday.”
In October, Town visited The Willows and left on the wrong end of a convincing 6-0 defeat. McCann said, “They always seem to play well against us. They are a strong physical team, good going forward and have good centre backs. It’ll be tough, but I think we can get something.”
Bridgend Street Manager Craig Dale is hoping for a response from his players this week. He said, “Myself and Simon [Croker, joint-manager] weren’t happy with the performance last weekend, but we didn’t have to say much to the lads, they know the standards that we set and that we fell short of them. What’s important is that we bounce back this weekend.
“Past results mean little. We’d beaten Ynysygerwn 3-0 and 5-0 previously and you can see what happened last weekend. No matter where Tredegar are in the league they are a tough nut to crack at their own place and this Saturday will be no different.
“We’ve got a couple out tomorrow through injury and work commitments, and a couple are going to play for the Reserves to get some match time. We’re hoping to add a few new faces to the squad this week.”
Dale reflected briefly on the League Cup semi-final draw with Haverfordwest, but was keen to stress it was league football that was the focus right now. He said, “Whoever we drew in the cup we were going to be the underdog and probably the team everyone else wanted to draw. But for now we take each game as it comes.”
KO: 2pm Venue: Tredegar Leisure Complex, NP22 4BH
