Bedford Town boss Lee Bircham even more up for the fight after Merthyr Tydfil drubbing

The result was one-sided, but not the performance with the home side so much more clinical.

“A positive is that it could have been more, though we could have scored a few too,” he said.

“It's really tough as we haven't looked like that all year.

“Give credit where it's due, we may have caught them at a very good moment, but they looked a good side. They were like our Kryptonite at times.

“But it has probably made me feel even more up for this fight – I do love a fight, and this is a big fight.

“I think in general the lads are giving this club all that they have got, but just sometimes you have limitations.

“We knew coming into this season what a hard job we'd got.

“And if takes a 7-1 to get us into gear for next week then that's what it takes.

“When you are down there you are not good enough as a team and we have to put that right and put it to bed. We still have a lot of good lads in our side.

“Sometimes you need a result like that to call a few of them out. I am looking forward to seeing a reaction now.

“When I was a player, if you got done like that the next week was everything and you wanted to put it right.”

The scoring started as early as the fourth minute, as Bedford took the lead on a brilliant counter attack, after Noah Smerdon’s cross was headed away by Greg Taylor, with Ryan Cole pushing the ball forward to Tyrone Marsh, who in turn fed Callum Ebanks.

From the edge of the area, Ebanks got between two defenders to slot the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.

But 90 seconds later, another Smerdon cross into the area dropped nicely for Jordon Garrick, and the forward restored parity with a strike from six yards.

There really was nothing to separate the two sides, as a cross from Josh Castiglione was headed just wide by Marsh, then Cawley Cox went off target at the other end.

Just over the midway point, Marsh’s effort was half cleared, and George Moncur took up the slack to stick the ball back into the area, but as Castiglione was gearing up for a shot, the ball was taken away as Ebanks stretched for a touch and directed the ball away.

A couple of minutes later, Cole’s searching cross demanded proper contact, but bypassed everyone.

Merthyr took the lead on 29 minutes, when Lewys Twamley crossed in from the right byline for Garrick, who completely fluffed his lines, with the ball going behind him to an unmarked Cox, and he made no mistake, firing in from close range.

Then 60 seconds later the home side had a third after an attempted clearance from a cross took the ball away from Rohan Luthra, straight to Garrick, on the far post, and with the gaping goal in front of him, accepted the present and popped the ball in.

Twamley then fired wide for the hosts, before Ebanks headed a pass just over the bar.

Bircham made two changes at half-time, with forward, Jevani Brown, and defender, Carl Mensah entering the fray at the expense of Junior Gyamfi and Manny Maja.

Bedford had the first action of the second half, as Marsh received a pass with his back to goal, turned and attempted to lob Jacob Dennis, after the keeper had started to come out, but got back in time on his line to catch.

Will Spiers then tested Luthra, who certainly didn’t deserve to pick the ball out of the net three times in the first half.

There was nothing he could do for Merthyr’s fourth goal, as Twamley, looking for a pass from just outside the area, decided to shoot, and stuck the ball into the top right of the net.

Just before the fifth goal, Merthyr had a loud penalty shout when Mensah took the ball off Cox, and the forward fell down, but the referee was unperturbed.

A minute later, the first of three Merthyr substitutes to score, Tom Handley, forced a great save off Luthra, when connecting with a cross to the far post from the right.

Unfortunately for the Bedford keeper, the ball rebounded up when he was down, and was powerless to deny Handley from heading the ball into the net.

Still coming back, a Bedford corner found Mensah, but he couldn’t get proper purchase on the ball to head on target.

With 10 minutes left, Luthra raced out to deny, substitute, Tate Xavier-Jones, but a few seconds later, with the defence reorganising, Xavier-Jones got the ball back, and stuck in a low cross for another sub, and also an unmarked Kiben Rai to direct home from close range.

The hosts countered for goal number seven, following a Bedford free kick, and at the other end, Luthra saved Twamley’s shot, but could do nothing to deny Xavier-Jones, as he fired the rebounded ball into the empty net.