CARMARTHEN TOWN 1 PORT TALBOT TOWN 1 (Town go through 4-1 on penalties)

Following the dramatic win Town boss Deryn Brace typically played down his hero status.

“I don’t know how goal keepers do it every week. I’ve got a bad back, I can’t lift my arms above my shoulders, my left hand is all swollen and I can’t turn my head because I’ve got a stiff neck. Apart from that I’m fine”.

What were his thoughts as he faced the penalty shootout? “I found myself for the first time in a long time in ‘football zone’. People who play the game will understand. For some reason I knew that I had to, and was going to, do something. In all fairness to Neil Thomas and Kev (Malloy) the goal keeping coach they gave me some great advice and fortunately enough on the two occasions I did guess right I managed to dive far enough to save the balls”.

What then was the advice? “Once I’ve chosen the way to go, make sure I dive full length. All the players will look to do is get it on target and probably go for corners. When you look at it they were all towards the corner of the goal”.

Why did Town look somewhat disjointed? “Probably the tenseness of the game and certain factors within the game held us back. We weren’t as fluid and as cohesive as we have been in the past but our bottle, our character, our drive not to lose carried us through”.

“Neil Thomas was never troubled and even when I was in goal, yes he’s (Rose) scored and he’s hit the post. But probably he wouldn’t have done that with a proper goalkeeper because a goalkeeper would have made better decisions.

Brace was quick to praise his players. “In terms of me being in goal I had very little to do. I though the players in front of me excelled. Some were on their last legs, they were all hobbling around the pitch but they somehow found that extra to snatch the equaliser and, as they say, the rest is history.

“Yes the sending off and the injury to Tomo did rock us back a little bit. The players were most probably thinking ‘what else can go wrong?’ But we came back well and it was another big game when we’ve gone behind and still won. I think that’s critical”.

“It was a big occasion and in all fairness to Port Talbot they played their part in it. It was a case of who was going to grind a result out and fortunately for us we had enough players to hang on in there and hold their nerve at the end”.

Town : N Thomas (Brace 74'), R Hughes (Hicks 46'), Smothers, Palmer (D Thomas), Dodds, K Thomas, Roberts, Fowler, C Hughes, Hudgell.

Deryn's Dugout