Tag: Cymru Leagues

Dool worldie saves Nomads but are Bala ready to challenge?

Such is the cruelty of football sometimes, you can watch your team pull off the game plan almost to a tee, nullify your opponent and create chances at the other end, only to be undone by a 25 yard worldie in the 4th minute of injury time.

Sameron Dool’s brilliant, bamboozlimg blockbuster denied Bala Town a memorable win on the opening day of the 2020/21 season, while ensuring Cymru Premier champions Connah’s Quay’s title defence did not begin with a defeat.

Bala were excellent and for most of the match made Nomads look mediocre. Apart from a spell early in the second half with Andy Morrison’s words no doubt ringing in the ears of the champions, Bala dealt with Connah’s Quay’s direct, physical style comfortably. Bala’s goalkeeper Ramsey wasn’t required to make a meaningful save until he kept out Michael Wilde’s injury time header and sustained a bloody nose. Ironically the treatment for this provided the additional time in which Dool made his intervention.

Colin Caton’s side might rue missed second half chances, particularly a couple of opportunities Chris Venables failed to take, but generally they should take confidence from their performance on Deeside. Having flirted on the outskirts for a few years, some observers have pushed Bala’s title credentials during the summer and this kind of display validates those predictions.

Bala look to have recruited well during pre-season. Will Evans and Nathan Peate were both excellent on debut, Alex Ramsey is as good as any goalkeeper in the league. With the likes of Henry Jones on the bench, there is also more strength and depth at Maes Tegid.

It’s only the first round but this was an impressive start for Bala. Less so for Nomads, whose robust style is unlikely to change but looked predictable and laboured on Saturday evening. When bombarding the opposition isn’t working, what’s the back-up plan? Ultimately, a wonder strike in the final move saved them from a defeat that wouldn’t have been undeserved.

There is no doubt better to come from the champions.

The New Saints began their bid to reclaim the Welsh football crown with a dominant 3-0 win at Jenner Park against Barry Town. It’s certainly a big statement win from Scott Ruscoe’s side, especially as the Linnets have proven a thorn in TNS’ side in recent campaigns, albeit usually at Park Hall.

In isolation it’s not overly concerning for Barry, who many may fancy for a top 4 finish regardless of results against TNS. Hoeever, on the back of their Europa League humiliation in the Faroe Islands, Gavin Chesterfield’s side will need to find some momentum and get back the kind of form that has seen them challenge at the top over the past two campaigns.

Flint Town have waited 22 years to play top flight football again and they got off to a superb start. Nathan Craig’s free kick (shock!) was enough to give the Silkmen a 1-0 win over Newtown, despite playing with 10 men for most of the second half following Rob Hughes’ red card.

Ollie Hulbert had a Cymru Premier debut to remember. The teenager, who joined Cardiff Met on loan from Bristol Rovers last week, scored twice in the final ten minutes to help the Archers come from behind at Aberystwyth Town and claim a 3-2 opening day win. Elliot Evans was also on target for the visitors, with Liam Jarman and Harry Warwick (the latter also on loan from Bristol Rovers) featuring in the attack, fears about Met’s goal threat this season may prove short-lived.

The other fixture played saw Penybont take a point home from Caernarfon Town. Mael Davies fizzed home a debut goal from distance before an equally superb finish from Mike Hayes earned a point for the Cofis at The Oval.

Haverfordwest’s home match with Cefn Druids was postponed on Saturday morning by the FAW after Cefn Druids allegedly failed to meet the FAW’s Safer Return to Football protocols. Druids vehemently denied this claim and on Twitter the club account stated it was “appalled” by the FAW’s statement. On Sgorio, Cymru Premier General Manager Gwyn Derfel said the FAW would be reviewing whether Druids next two league fixtures can go ahead.

Hopefully the truth of the matter will see the light of day, but overall a thoroughly disappointing and deflating turn of events on the opening weekend of the Cymru Premier.

Ruscoe concedes more than just the points advantage in Nomads loss.

Connah’s Quay Nomads’ 1-0 win over The New Saints at the Deeside Stadium on Friday night confirmed we ACTUALLY have a phase two Cymru Premier title race. Craig Curran’s goal amidst swirling winds of Storm Ellen was enough to send Andy Morrison’s challengers four points clear at the top with seven rounds left to play.

The game itself wasn’t a great advert for the Cymru Premier as a spectacle, although it is easy and lazy to direct accusations of “poor quality” at a semi-professional league based on one game played in conditions that would have affected games at several “higher” levels. Judgements should always be relative and what is more important to take from this game is that we have a genuinely competitive title race going into the latter stages. I would argue a league’s competitiveness and strength in depth is as important as what is perceived as “quality”.

The Cymru Premier has now provided plenty of talking points for the coming months and for the right reasons this time. Along with the title race, we have an intriguing three-horse fight to avoid possible relegation between Penybont, Carmarthen Town and Airbus Broughton. A battle between Cardiff Met and Cefn Druids for the final Europa League play-off spot. Not to mention the ongoing scuffle between Barry Town and Bala Town for 3rd place; which potentially guarantees European football next season depending on the final destination of the Welsh Cup. There are few dead rubbers at the moment, so the focus should be on matters on the pitch instead of the usual “gaffes” the wider media often jump on for clickbait.

Ironically, the best entertainment came after the turgid 90 minutes between Nomads and TNS when the latter’s manager Scott Ruscoe spoke to the media. Clearly rattled, Ruscoe launched his very own ‘Kevin Keegan moment’ when he was highly dismissive of Connah’s Quay’s title credentials and, less surprisingly, the direct style of Andy Morrison’s outfit.

Speaking to Sgorio‘s Nicky John, Ruscoe said the match was “probably one of the worst games we’ve been involved in. Poor conditions, poor quality throughout.”

Nothing controversial there I’m sure most viewers would agree. Ruscoe admitted conditions played their part in his side’s struggles and acknowledged it was something “both sides had to deal with” before launching a thinly-veiled attack on the Connah’s Quay approach to the game.

“They play like that every game,” Ruscoe told Sgorio, “they play like that in the wind, in the rain and if it’s nice, they like that on a good pitch or if it’s a bad pitch, it doesn’t really matter.”

Adding in an interveiw with The New Saints’ in-house media: “we like to get the ball down and the conditions are not conducive to pretty football. The wind was as bad as you’re going to get and it was very difficult for us to get any momentum in the game.”

This kind of snobbery isn’t new in football or exclusive to Ruscoe, but it smacks of the bitterness and the tension that is clearly being felt in the ranks at Park Hall. It’s ridiculous to criticise the style of a team that has just beaten you in a crucial title “six-pointer” and taken a four point lead at the top.

The best was to come when Ruscoe told both Sgorio and TNS TV that “We’ll beat Connah’s Quay at home so we’ll be hoping for someone else to get a draw.”

When asked if Connah’s Quay were pushing TNS as hard as anyone has, Ruscoe dismissed the notion “we’ve been pushed harder [and by better teams] than what these are.” Ruscoe denounced the prospect of Connah’s Quay navigating their way to the title.

“They are not going to win seven games in a row. No doubt, no chance at all,” he told TNS TV, stating “I think we’ll be alright.”

Although, Connah’s Quay only need to win six games from here to secure their first ever Welsh league title.

The comments are telling of the pressure Ruscoe is under as he now faces the real possibility of being the manager that oversaw the end of TNS’s monopoly of the Cymru Premier / Welsh Premier League title. Having led Nomads by four points at the end of phase one, Ruscoe’s side have now taken a single point from their first three matches in the ‘Championship Conference’ phase while Andy Morrison’s side have been unerring. The title isn’t in their hands anymore and it has been a long time since TNS were in this situation.

I doubt Andy Morrison will be losing any sleep over Ruscoe disrespecting his side; the interviews probably provoked a smile if anything. Nothing is won yet and the smart money would still back The New Saints to secure a 9th consecutive Welsh league title. However, Ruscoe’s public display of vulnerability confirms the threat from Deeside is being felt acutely in Oswestry but it also the kind of interview that shows the Cymru Premier matters more than than it’s low-profile.

It’s also added even more fuel to the fire of what is becoming a sparkling title race and we need more of it.

Wellmen’s young men leading club’s fightback?

The last couple of years have been rough for Taffs Well. Let’s be honest the club has been a bit of basket case when it comes to competitive senior football. Managers and players have come and gone like the shifting of the weather. In fact there have been too many managers, probably 8 or 9 if you include caretaker roles. It got to the point where the resumption of the club’s membership in the third tier of Welsh football for the first time since 2004 looked inevitable (and it’s still a possibility).

This has all come in the midst of a few ground-breaking years for the club. Three times they have hosted lucrative friendlies with English Football League side Cardiff City, attracting thousands of fans to Rhiw’r Ddar for those moneyspinners. As a result, Taffs Well have been able to launch what I presume, due to FAW funding rules, is an entirely self-funded academy to compliment an already strong youth team set-up.

But the senior side has been sliding backwards.

The appointment of Lawrence Badman as Steve Williams’ successor (sacked last November) in January has seen a recent upturn in results. Following 10 defeats in the previous 11 matches, The Wellmen have hit back with 7 points from their last three fixtures. Whether this is a familiar jolt of forward momentum amidst the decline or truly the start of a turnaround remains to be seen.

I watched them lose 6-0 at Pontypridd Town last month and as that result would suggest they absolutely dreadful that night. It couldn’t have been easier for Pontypridd and Taffs Well couldn’t have done any more to make the Cymru South nomads look better. Something has definitely changed between then and now because in this Cymru South encounter against Undy Athletic there was at least some work-rate and desire from the Taffs Well players to give the side a platform from which to play. There wasn’t very much of that at USW 3-4 weeks ago.

One thing Taffs Well have had to deal with, as well as the upheaval in the dugouts, is a loss of some experienced players. The likes of Jason Bertorelli, Jacob Isaacs and Jack Fox have all departed over the winter, and while a few familiar veterans remain or have joined, there seems to have been a move towards bringing through and into the first team younger, hungrier players with something to prove. You cannot judge the entire picture from one look but it was noticeable in this game the prominence of four young players in this improved display.

Anyone who has been following the Cymru South/Welsh League division one for the last 12 months or so will be aware of Jordan Carey. The 20-year-old attacker broke into the side last season and has been practically ever-present since. His physical stature may be slight but his presence on the pitch is large. His energy is relentless and should be infectious among his team-mates but he possesses real quality to go with it. Impressive though is his mentality; despite his lack of experience he never gets himself down about mistakes, always looking to be involved and take responsibility in the game. I suspect already there are several clubs watching him.

Dylan Jones (18) is another great hope for The Wellmen. A very talented ball-player with very good technical ability and the ability to create time on the ball; I’ve heard some at Rhiw’r Ddar are even more excited by his potential than Carey’s. Carey and Jones were complimented by two other stand-out young players on the night: Thomas Gameson (22) and Liam Martin (20). Gameson has arrived from Aberbargoed Buds I believe, has very good feet and a big personality on the pitch. Martin, before being sent-off, looked a very composed figure and another player with good ability on the ball, as you might expect from a player that has previously been involved with Bristol City’s academy.

On the night, Taffs Well definitely merited the win against an Undy side that is always well-organised and competitive at this level. The Wellmen dominated most of the play from the off with Undy always looking most likely to threaten from mistakes and counter-attacks.

Carey was involved in practically all of Taffs Well’s best moments in the first half and probably should have done better with a couple of opportunities that came his way. Undy came closest though in a goalless first half, a drive from midfield beating Cael Jones but hit the top of the crossbar.

When Martin was sent-off early in the second half for a poor tackle it looked like the game might swing the way of the visitors, but Cymru Premier ref Gavin Townsend flashed his red card again within 90 seconds, showing a straight red to Undy’s Rhys Aherne, presumably for what was deemed another dangerous tackle.

With parity restored in terms of personnel and more space on the field, Taffs Well went on to secure the win. Carey scoring first from the penalty spot before Richard French scored with a close range header to seal the points. An excellently struck free-kick from Ollie Smith (another talented young player at this level) in injury time threatened a late comeback but there was little time for Undy to mount any pressure so the points, deservedly, went to the home side and took them out of the potential relegation places.

Match Notes
11.2.2020
Taffs Well 2-1 Undy Athletic
(Jordan Carey 70′ pen, Richard French 89′; Ollie Smith 90+2′)
JD Cymru South
Rhiw’r Ddar, Taffs Well
Attendance: 55 (approx) | Entry: ÂŁ5

Field of Dreams: how Ammanford built a football club

BOOMBOOMBOOM

“WE’RE THE BLACK AND WHITE ARMY!”

As I stepped out of my car the sound of this being belted out from the stand less than 100 yards away let me know I was definitely where I wanted to be. Forty minutes before kick-off and ‘The Black & White Army’, Ammanford AFC’s band of noisy ‘ultras’, were already going through their repertoire. Although the back of the stand obscured much of the view, the buzzing of activity in and around the ground was an early indication that this game might just live up to the hype.

For those that follow Welsh fooball, the Welsh Cup is a special and cherished competition. It is the most inclusive national competition in Wales, open to all teams that play football in the national pyramid. It provides the opportunity for small village clubs to propel themselves onto a national stage and, if they are lucky, earn a visit from the Sgorio cameras. Once it gets going with the entry of Cymru Premier clubs in round three we do see clashes between clubs from “recreational” leagues and the more professional, ambitious clubs that play in the higher divisions; players used to slick 3G pitches having to overcome a team of chancers of a local mudbath.

Although this fourth round tie between Cymru South side Ammanford and Cymru Premier, Europa League chasing, Caernarfon Town doesn’t have that minnows v mammoths story (it’s was a tier 2 v tier 1 clash), it did bring together two clubs that have undergone enormous growth in recent times and enjoy a level of community support most clubs in Wales are envious of and hope to replicate. Certainly for Ammanford, while maybe not a culmination, the match was an important marker in their transformation over 18 months from a fairly amateurish football club in a Welsh “backwater” that only groundhoppers and a small group of locals ever visited to a club pulling off the slick and professional looking hosting of a football match in front of 1200 spectators broadcast live on national television.

The last time I visited the Ammanford Recreation Ground was 18 months ago and it a cut a very different scene then. There was no seating, just an old bus stop type stand that would probably have been condemned if anybody would have been bothered to inspect it. No floodlights, no spectator facilities inside unless you count a portable hot water caddy for serving tea and coffee in plastic cups (although the nearby rugby club acts as the clubhouse). Even getting a teamsheet or a programme involved a mad dash to a printer by one of the club’s volunteers.

Fast forward to the present day, the Rec boasts a very smart 250 seater stand, including provision for disabled spectators; the addition of floodlights has allowed the club to host Friday night games which are apparently popular with the locals; although the 150 printed programmes is a woefully short run for such a big crowd, they were there and ready for sale as well as club crest pin badges. There is still no permanent food and drink facilities on-site but Ammanford had the foresight to bring someone in to sell hot food and the rugby club still seems to function as the place for pre-match lubrication of the vocal chords.

As the ground has developed and the club has embraced a much more professional approach (partly enforced by FAW ground regulations for playing in the Cymru Leagues), improving connections with local businesses, doing much better community engagement, setting up a charitable trust in memory of Jac Lewis, a popular local figure who tragically died in February 2019. The club now offers season tickets to supporters, has given away hundreds of free tickets to local schools, improved its social media profile and, of course, there has been the emergence of The Black & White Army.

Groups of loyal and noisy supporters are rare on the Welsh football scene, so much so that anybody trying to generate some atmosphere gets noticed. The supporters in the B & W Army have certainly invigorated the matchday experience at The Rec and they are usually there with a drum and their booming voices at most of Ammanford’s away games. They have helped raised the profile of the club on mediums like Twitter, inside Cymru Leagues grounds and among the town’s community as a game at The Rec is now increasingly seen as a place to be. Attendances have reflected this as the old joke about “one man and his dog and the dog looking the other way” watching Ammanford has been smashed by some impressive home crowds in the last 18 months, including nearly 800 for this season’s Amman Valley derby with Cwmamman United and now the ground record attendance for Caernarfon’s visit.

While the story off the field is fantastic and probably worthy of a much deeper study (as with Caernarfon Town), the matter at hand was the Welsh Cup tie and place in the quarter-finals for the winners. Ammanford had pulled off the result of the third round, thrashing Cymru Premier side, and another local rival, Carmarthen Town 4-0 with the help of a Lee Trundle goal that went viral.

That result, plus the strong possibility of a large crowd, probably induced Sgorio to select the game for broadcast. Although the decision to televise the game on Friday night drew criticism from some quarters, making the trip harder for Caernarfon Town’s players and supporters, ultimately the incredible local support (plus 100 hardy members of the Cofi army) put such doubts to rest.

A record crowd enjoyed Ammanford’s tussle with the Cofis at The Rec

If it was a big success as an event, on the pitch the game didn’t really deliver what the television executives, home fans and neutrals would have hoped for. The loss of Lee Trundle to injury before the game was a massive blow for Ammanford and had he played it may have been a different game; the former Swansea City frontman certainly would have provided a bit more physical presence and quality in the final third.

Despite that loss, Ammanford started the game well and there were one or two half chances in the first twenty minutes but once Sean Eardley’s Caernarfon had navigated the initial choppy waters and taken a first-half lead through Sion Bradley’s fine finish the cupset never looked on. A sensational goal from Darren Thomas (which I somehow missed despite behind stood behind that goal) doubled the Cofis lead before half-time.

Ammanford rallied early in the second half and introduced another Swansea old boy, Andy Robinson, to try and bring some quality and composure to their play but the gulf in class between the two sides was just too great. Noah Edwards added a third 11 minutes into the second-half to kill any hopes of a comeback before Darren Thomas scored his second late in the game to complete a comfortable and resounding win for the top flight outfit.

On the Ammanford Twitter feed they commented after the game that the team may have lost the game but the town had won. If there is some comfort to be drawn from a disappointing match result it is that Ammanford certainly delivered the event on the night and the community got behind the club.

There, I believe, is the story of what Welsh football is and should be about. It’s not about millionaire players, international owners, commercialism and corporatisation; it’s about the town, village or place you come from, local identity and the community. If more clubs can get their communities behind them in this way our leagues and our clubs will get better and that matchday buzz can be felt at grounds all over our nation.

Match Notes
25.1.2020
Ammanford 0-4 Caernarfon Town
(Sion Bradley 26’, Darren Thomas 39’ 84’, Noah Edwards 56’)
JD Welsh Cup 4th Round
Recreation Ground, Ammanford
Attendance: 1203 | Entry: ÂŁ5