The opening minutes of the game saw Merthyr camp in the City half without even threatening the goal and when they finally did give the ball away the Romans went straight up the other end of the pitch and took the lead. The ball was hit long toward Foster and his flick header sent Milsom racing clear. Showing the confidence that two goals in his last three outings breeds the big striker drew Braybrooke before placing a sidefoot shot past him into the corner of the net. A shot from Haines, which fell narrowly wide, briefly threatened Hervin's goal a couple of moments later but City were now clearly in the asendancy. A mistake by Braybrooke saw Williams send a header toward goal, only for Elliot to clear from under his own bar, and Foster was denied a goal after 20 minutes by a linesman flag. City's top scorer then saw another chance go begging after a poor touch and Milsom's cross-shot was blocked by a defenders arm but the referee waved play-on. In between these incidents Knox was denied by a great tackle from the back-in-form Towler and Powell headed a corner off the line. It appeared that City's pressure had finally paid off on 30 minutes when Foster was pulled back in the area and, this time, the referee pointed to the spot. However, Gosling's penalty kick was saved by Braybrooke and the search for a second goal continued. It looked as if this would never arrive, Foster heading over then Badman seeing his effort hit the underside of the bar, but seven minutes before the interval Merthyr's defence was finally breached again. A Gosling free-kick found Foster and his shot beat Braybrooke, with ex-City defender Rollo helping it over the line. And just three minutes later City grabbed their third. A Powell cross was fumbled by Braybrooke under pressure from Milsom and Foster. The ball fell to Gosling and he slotted it home from 10 yards.

The visitors made a change at half time, bringing on Dodds for Thomas, switching to a three-man attack and within six minutes of the restart it paid dividends. The substitute had alrady fired one shot wide before combining with Davies, the striker seeing his shot turned past Hervin by Powell's attempted clearance. Suddenly City were on the back foot and Knox should have further reduced the deficit after 58 minutes, slicing wide from just five yards out. Further chances came and went for Knox and Dodds before the latter headed a Haines corner past Hervin to make it 3-2 on 69 minutes. City were suddenly facing a very difficult final twenty minutes but two minutes later a rare attack saw them restore their two goal lead. Milsom was again involved as his challenge saw the ball drop to Foster, and from an unmarked position six yards out he coolly slotted it past Braybrooke. This finally broke the Martyrs resistance, although Hervin had to save smartly from Mumford's well-struck shot in the closing minutes, leaving City to enjoy their first Saturday home success of the season that lifted them to the dizzy heights of 14th place in the league.