"It's Something To Build on"

With the eyes of the Welsh footballing world fixed on the South Wales coast as Barry Town, the former giants of Welsh football made their eagerly awaited and long overdue return to the top flight, Town ensured that they earned a share of the spoils with a hard fought but deserved draw thanks to Jonny Spittle’s 82nd minute equaliser cancelling out Ryan Newman’s opener for the hosts.

Neville Powell, managing his first competitive game for the Seasiders, was pleased with the outcome from his side’s trip to the seven time Welsh Champions.

“We’ll take the positives from today. The subs looked lively when they came on, we created chances and the back four were outstanding again today and are getting some real communication going between them." He told atfc.org.uk after the game.

 “An Aberystwyth Team of the past would have folded at a goal down but not today. Through the spine of the team we looked really solid. We’re all really pleased with the performance.”

There was a carnival atmosphere on the South Wales Riviera on Sunday afternoon. After years of bleak and dismal problems on and off the field, Barry were returning to a league where they’ve previously been dominant. With the Sgorio cameras beaming the game around the world, it was to be a stern test for the visitors in green.

“Before the game we’d have settled for a point. With it being Barry’s first game in the Welsh Premier League, we knew it was going to be difficult and we they were going to come at us at 100 miles an hour.”

Despite this, Aber started well before conceding with just a little under half an hour played although the boss was pleased with the resolve and recovery his side showed afterwards.

“We started the game well, managed it well and all of a sudden we found ourselves a goal down off our own attack. We struggled for ten minutes to get a foothold in the game but for the last ten minutes of the half, we started to control the game and created a couple of good half chances where we should have taken at least one of them and we didn’t want the half time whistle to come.

"I told the lads at half time to keep the energy levels up as Barry can’t play like they did first half for 90 minutes and so it proved. We’ll settle for a point but the lads are a bit disappointed in there that we only got the one.”

Although few in the ground could argue that Aber deserved a share of the spoils given their superiority in the second half, the manner in which it came from was somewhat controversial with question marks raised on whether the ball had crossed the line.

But to Aber’s good fortune, the linesman deemed Spittle’s strike to be a goal, the least they deserved given the chances created throughout the game. Powell was pleased that his team got their rewards for their efforts.

“The goal was the least we deserved to be fair. Some decisions go with you some don’t. The linesman’s made the decision and we’ll go with it. It’s a good point, we’re disappointed not to get all three but it’s something to build on"

You can hear the full interview with Neville Powell on our Youtube channel.