Damage In The Box!: Chepstow Town

Friday, 3 April 2015

ABERBARGOED BUDS (Recreation Ground)

WELSH LEAGUE DIVISION TWO, ABERBARGOED BUDS 4-2 CHEPSTOW TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 58 (h/c)

The final part of my Good Friday trilogy took me over the Severn Bridge into South Wales for some Welsh league action. Aberbargoed is a small town in Caerphilly and, like a lot a towns in the area, it used to be a mining town. It once contained the largest ever colliery waste tip in Europe, though this has now been reclaimed and turned into a country park.

A famous former resident is Glyndwr Michael whose body was used in Operation Mincemeat. His name was subsequently added to the war memorial in the town.

The local football team, Aberbargoed Buds, was founded in 1957 after Aberbargoed Town folded in 1949. Buds is an abbreviation for 'Bedwellty Urban District Sides'. The Buds were founder members of the Gwent County League, winning their first Championship in 1986.

That same year, Aberbargoed Town was reformed, playing mostly in the North Gwent League. In 1999 Town were approached by the Buds committee to amalgamate the two sides, as the Buds team were on the verge of folding. Therefore some 50 years after Aberbargoed Town folded, it was now the Town who was to save the Buds from going out of existence.

The Town committee agreed to this arrangement which kept the Buds in the Gwent County League and the Town, now known as the seconds, in the North Gwent League. In 2003 the Buds won the Gwent County League but the lack of facilities at the Recreation Ground meant the Buds were not granted entry to the Welsh League Division 3.

After work to bring the ground up to Welsh League standards the club finally gained promotion in 2006. In 2010 they were promoted to Division Two and reached the top flight for the first time in their history in 2013. The Buds stay in the top flight was short lived as they were relegated back to Division Two after one season.

They are hoping for an immediate return and before tonight's game they were in third place behind (already champions) Barry Town United and Caldicot Town, with games in hand.

It was therefore vital they picked up three points tonight and that is exactly what they did, though it was not as comfortable as it could have been.

The Buds went two goals up early doors but Chepstow battled back and levelled things up.

The game turned on a penalty decision and a red card, I thought it looked a harsh decision, but the homesters scored the spot kick and then quickly added another to ensure the victory.

That brought to an end a great day of groundhopping. All that was left to do was to retire to my hotel for the evening, not before sinking a couple of well earned pints of Reverend James for my nightcap!

Saturday, 26 January 2013

CHEPSTOW TOWN (Larkfield Park)

FAW WELSH CUP 4th ROUND, CHEPSTOW TOWN 3-4 HAVERFORDWEST COUNTY, ATTENDANCE: 300 (est)

The story of this trip began on Friday night when a heavy downfall of snow in the North West caused plenty of transport disruption. I, along with another couple of hoppers, was due to fly to Belfast for a cheeky double header of Ballmoney United and The League Cup Final, between Cliftonville and Crusaders, at Windsor Park.

As the flight got pushed back, we had a team meeting and opted to cut our losses, deciding that we could not risk the possibility of not flying or even flying out but then being stuck in Northern Ireland.

This left me with an unexpected free afternoon, but with the recent bad weather games were dropping like flies. After a scan of the now vital twitter, various clubs tweeted that their games were on. Three clubs to do this early doors were Larkhall Athletic, Barry Town and Chepstow Town. This gave me plenty of back up.

When the draw for the Welsh Cup 4th Round was made before Christmas this was my initial choice of game, before the Belfast trip was mooted. It was to the Gwent border town of Chepstow I therefore headed.

Chepstow, of the Welsh League Division 3, were taking on Division 1 Haverfordwest County. Chepstow returned to the Welsh League this season after being in the Gwent County League since 2007.

Volunteers had worked hard to clear the playing surface of snow, but as you can imagine the pitch was very, very heavy. Having a very brief chat with the referee before the game he said the ball was rolling, the pitch wasn't dangerous and, after all the efforts to get the game on, he was happy to give it a chance.

The club were rewarded with a bumper crowd and said crowd were rewarded with a stonking cup tie.

There appeared little chance of an upset as Haverfordwest settled down quickly and were two goals to the good after 20 minutes, through Ben Steele (15) and a Tony Shier own goal (20).

However before the break Chepstow finally got a foothold in the mud and began to make it more of a contest. They had a couple of great opportunities to get a goal back but were unlucky not to do so, Peter Blain in the Haverfordwest goal making a great save on one occasion.

Chepstow continued their push forward in the second half, as the pitch began to deteriorate rapidly (if that was possible) and had a great chance to score when they were awarded a penalty, but the spot kick was rolled wide.

It was then the fun really began!

Within seconds of the penalty miss the ball was then in the Chepstow net, Anthony Owens (70) scoring to give County a 3-0 lead, but moments later the hosts had a goal back when Jason Thorne (71) scored.

Haverfordwest then missed a penalty of their own and Chepstow's Andrew Wenzel was sent off. The 10 men though pulled another goal back, Chris O'Sullivan deflecting the ball into his own net (76). This gave Chepstow renewed hope but within minutes the tie finally appeared over when a Steffan Williams free kick (80) made it 4-2 to The Bluebirds.

However, Chepstow refused to lie down and Thorne bagged his second (85) to again drag Chepstow back into the game. Despite late pressure though they could not find an equaliser and it was Haverfordwest who went through to the Quarter Finals.

There was never going to be quality football played on a pitch such as today's but both teams produced an absorbing encounter. Credit to everyone for getting the game on and to all the players for their efforts.