Barry Town kick off their pre-season games with a friendly 5-0 hammering! (From Barry And District News)

Barry Town kick off their pre-season games with a friendly 5-0 hammering!

TREHARRIS 0BARRY TOWN 5

(PRE-SEASON

FRIENDLY)

Barry Town showed why they are among the favourites for promotion back to the Welsh Premiership this year with this crushing disposal of Treharris - thanks to a Gareth Hemmings hat-trick, that included a possible goal of the season.

Treharris, who narrowly missed promotion to Divi-sion 2 last season, typically raised their game against the famous yellow shirts to occasionally threaten a Barry team strengthened from last year's campaign.

But Barry's quality shone through, and the passing ability of Leigh Vick and the clinical finishing of Barry's strikers dashed the valleys team's hopes of a pre-season friendly shock.

Barry took a 1-0 lead at half-time, thanks to a Gareth Hemmings shot from inside the penalty area in the 20th minute after a Leigh Vick cross from the left.

The lead was doubled 11 minutes into the second half, when Barry's new Portuguese striker, Owen, capitalised on poor defending by Treharris to slot home a goal on his debut from ten yards.

The classy Owen tormented the Treharris defence with his ball tricks and his ability to hold the ball and lay it off for teammates to mount attack after attack.

As Barry's confidence grew, they played the kind of passing football that followers of the yellow shirts have come to expect over the years.

Barry Town's third goal in the 62nd minute was met first by stunned silence, then applause from the home crowd.

Vick, from deep in his own half by the right touchline, chipped the ball down the channel for Owen with one touch to stroke the ball square to Hemmings advan-cing on the edge of the area, who again with one touch swept the ball into the Treharris net.

This three-touch goal crushed the Treharris team, who were fortunate to concede only two further.

In the 72nd minute, Hem-mings took advantage of sloppy defending to hit Barry Town's fourth, while the Dragons completed the rout in the 81st-minute when a Vick diagonal shot from 25 yards found the top left of the Treharris net.

Although missing their main four defenders and a first-choice keeper, Barry Town signalled their promotion ambitions to the rest of Division 1, and provided much-needed celebration for Barry Town fans.