AFC LLWYDCOED (The Ron Jones Stadium)

FAW AMATEUR TROPHY 4th ROUND, AFC LLWYDCOED 3-1 NEWPORT CORINTHIANS, ATTENDANCE: 34 (h/c)

The fourth round of the FAW Trophy took centre stage this weekend and, not for the first time this season, I was drawn to South Wales. The big attraction was a chance to witness a game at the Ron Jones Stadium in Aberdare where AFC Llwydcoed are playing their home games whilst their Welfare Ground is being redeveloped to meet Welsh Tier 2 standards.

An historic location having being used for various sports since the late 19th century, the stadium complex was built on the site of the old Ynys Stadium which was the home of Aberdare Athletic, who were members of the English Football League between 1921 and 1927. There is no overlap of the original pitch with the current grass pitch, an all-weather pitch is located on the site of the original football pitch, just beyond the athletics track.

The stadium was opened and named in honour of Ron Jones, who still remains one of Wales' greatest athletes having won 12 national sprint titles between 1956 and 1970. He competed at three Olympic games and was part of the Great Britain 4x110 yards relay team that set a world record in 1963.

Outside of athletics, he became Chief Executive of Queens Park Rangers in 1976, the first Managing Director at Cardiff City in 1980 and then Managing Director at Portsmouth in 1988. Ron Jones was inducted into the Welsh Sports 'Hall of Fame' in 2013 and passed away in December 2021, aged 87.

This afternoon's trophy tie pitted AFC Llwydcoed, of the Ardal South West League, against Newport Corinthians, of the Gwent League Premier Division. An interesting match up for the neutral as despite the difference in status, Llwydcoed are down near the bottom of the table and in a bad run of form whilst Corinthians sit top of their league, having lost just one game all season.

It suggested an upset but in truth Llwydcoed were always in control of this tie but after creating plenty of chances they were only 1-0 at the interval, thanks to a goal from Ricky Carter after 14 minutes.

It seemed Llwydcoed would pay for their profligacy when Newport equalised within seconds of the restart, Nathan Perkins scoring the goal. The goal, obviously, lifted Corinthians but they couldn't find that second goal and eventually Llwydcoed recovered and once Dewi Abbruzzese restored their lead on the hour, they never looked like losing the tie. Carter scored his second on 75 minutes and that was game over. 

AFC Llwydcoed will now be at home to another Newport team, Newport City, in the next round on 16th December.