I missed out on a visit to Bodedern when they reached the dizzy heights of the Cymru Alliance in 2005 so today seemed a perfect opportunity to put that right.
The overnight weather in North Wales was wretched but there were no problems on the Island and the club club 'tweeted' early in the day to say the game was definitely ON.
I did have slight concerns travelling down the A55 as the rain and hail showers battered my car but upon reaching Bodedern the sun was beating down on the village.
Bodedern is 7 miles east of Holyhead and a football club has been in existence since 1946. After winning the Welsh Alliance in 2005 Bodedern FC were promoted to the Cymru Alliance and finished 9th in their debut season.
After finishing 2006/07 in 13th position, the following season club ran into difficulties and it all came to a head in October 2007 when they were unable to fulfil a fixture at Queens Park due to a lack of players. The club took the decision to resign from the Cymru Alliance on the 16th October 2007 and their reserve team in the Gwynedd League then became their first team.
The club changed their name to Bodedern Athletic and began the process of climbing the pyramid once more. They were promoted from the Gwynedd League in 2010 and made it back-to-back promotions in 2011 by finishing runners up in the Welsh Alliance Division 2.
The club are now established in the Welsh Alliance and sat 4th at the beginning of play. They were taking on Tywyn/Bryncrug of the Mid Wales League, who sat 12th in their league at the start of play (both the Welsh Alliance and Mid Wales Leagues are Step 3 in the Welsh pyramid).
Anything is possible in a cup tie but on paper it looked a home banker and that is how it turned out with the homesters comfortably progressing to the next round.
Bodedern found themselves 3-0 up after just half an hour. The impressive Ryan Taylor opened the scoring after 7 minutes when his cross-shot squirmed under the Tywyn 'keeper. Chris Evans (13) was played in to put Bodedern 2-0 up, again the Tywyn 'keeper got something on the shot but couldn't prevent it going in.
James Burgess (30) toe poked home a cross from 2 yards out to put the home side firmly in control going into the break. Bodedern looked threatening every time they went forward but, in fairness, Tywyn did have their moments too, but were lacking any sort of finish to their attacks.
The game was effectively over just after the break when Joe Peebles (47) glanced a cross into his own goal. Tywyn finally got on the scoresheet after 50 minutes when Ben Richards ran through the heart of Bodedern's defence, played a one-two and shot home for a mere consolation. Substitute Iwan Jones scored with 8 minutes remaining as the homesters went nap.
Cae Ty Cristion has been Bodedern's home since the club re-formed in 2007, having previously played on pitch behind the local secondary school. The ground is fully enclosed and has a seated stand behind the goal, towards the corner. The club secretary introduced herself and told us about the work that had gone into improving the ground over the past 7 years. She was rightly proud of what had been achieved so far. With that in mind, I hope Bodedern get a big club at home in the draw for the next round, they would be deserving of a glamour tie.
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