FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round Replay Tuesday 3 October 2006 - Penydarren Park - kick off 7.45pm

Report taken from by Richard Gadsby

When Merthyr opened the scoring on 18 minutes it came from the game's first real chance. Paul Evans, who kept City in the competition on Saturday, completely misjudged an inswinging corner from Jon Kift and there was a slow motion moment as Tom Billing's scuffed header hovered in the air for an age before falling into the far corner of the open goal. The game ebbed and flowed but another goalkeeping error handed City an equaliser. A good move which started on the right ended with a through ball to Mike Green on the left. His low shot should have been dealt with comfortably, but keeper Ashley Morris somehow let the ball squirm under his diving body. With the half coming to a close, City thought their work for the half was over and a through ball from Kris Dimond caught the defence napping. No-one picked up Kift's run and he calmly slotted past Evans. It was harsh, but City only had themselves to blame and very nearly went 3-1 down at the start of the second half.

A quick run from Paul Keddle caught City on the break and his threaded ball found an unmarked Craig Steins, who blasted wide. The wake up call was duly heeded and City responded with the best spell, with Scott Rogers, Lewis Hogg and Jim Rollo all coming close. Merthyr were just getting back into it when Hogg blasted City back on to level terms. A Rogers corner was only half cleared and when the ball landed on the edge of the area Hogg was waiting to rifle home. With 15 minutes to go, City looked likely to go on and win it. Instead they found themselves trailing again two minutes later. In a move which infuriated John Relish, Merthyr won a corner despite a foul on Steve Jones. A protesting Relish was still being ordered to sit down by the linesman when the ball was swung to the back post for Billing to head home the winner. The understandably elated striker ran to the crowd and was mobbed by overjoyed Martyrs fans - but the moment was soured when the pedantic Neil Radford showed him a yellow card, his second of the night, for excessive celebrating. The match threatened to get out of control after that with the Penydarren faithful baying for blood every time City made a tackle. They were finally rewarded when Chris Holland received a second yellow for a perfectly-timed challenge on Steins late on. Still City pressed but with Steins realising he just had to go to ground and the Merthyr fans would win him a free-kick, the game staggered to an end. What Relish would give for that kind of atmosphere at Twerton Park.