CPD ABERFFRAW (Cae Cynlas)

FAW WELSH CUP 1st ROUND, CPD ABERFFRAW 0-5 PENRHYNCOCH, ATTENDANCE: 65 (h/c)

A collectors item as
Aberffraw produced
their first ever
programme

After spending last Saturday at the foot of the Erzgebirge Mountains, this Saturday I headed to the Isle of Angelsey. That is the joys of this hobby!














I was visiting the island to watch CPD Aberffraw in action as they took on Penrhyncoch in the 1st round proper of the Welsh Cup. I was actually in the village of Ty Croes, where the clubs home ground of Cae Cynlas is located. This is about 3 miles up the road from Aberffraw.


Aberffraw's journey to this point began in 2008 when they joined the North Gwynedd & Angelsey Sunday league before switching to Saturday football in 2010 and joining the Angelsey League. The club reached the league cup final in it's debut season, losing to Treaddur Bay United. The club took promotion to the Gwynedd League in 2014 and this season the club have decided to enter into the national cup competitions, the Welsh Cup and Welsh Trophy, for the first time, hence my presence here today.

Aberffraw beat Welsh Alliance Division 2 strugglers Gaerwen 4-1 in the extra preliminary round and caused a shock by beating Welsh Alliance Division 1 side Llanrwst United 2-1 in the preliminary round. Today they were facing another Welsh step 3 team in Penrhyncoch. The Roosters are unbeaten this season and are top of the Mid Wales League, so today would be a tough test for Berffro. So it proved.


Berffro were in the game for most of the first half and had chances to take the lead but after 41 minutes a free kick into the box was headed home by Owain James to give the visitors the lead. The tie was effectively decided in first half stoppage time when Jonathan Evans was played through to score, and double the Roosters advantage.


In the second period Penrhyncoch were in control of the game as the home side tried to get back into the game but on 69 minutes a cross from Dylan James sailed over the goalkeepers head to make it 3-0.


Further goals from Nathan Warren (78) and Arron Lemon (87) ensured a comfortable passage through to the next round for Penrhyncoch. Credit to Aberffraw who tried their best but in the end this was just a step too far.

KNIGHTON TOWN (Bryn y Castell Showground)

MID-WALES LEAGUE DIVISION ONE, KNIGHTON TOWN 2-3 HAY ST MARY'S, ATTENDANCE: 63

After last night's game in the Welsh Alliance at Meliden, I continued the Wales theme with a step up the pyramid and a trip to Knighton on the Powys/Shropshire border. The town of Knighton is on Offa's Dyke, hence it's Welsh name of Tref-y-Clawdd (the town on the Dyke).


Knighton Town are back in the top division of the Mid Wales League after being crowned division two champions back in May. Indeed it was tonights opponents, Hay St Mary's, that they pipped to the title by five points last season.





It was the visitors who took the lead after eight minutes when Jack Biggs fired home after a good cross from the left. 

The Saints doubled their lead when Matt Croose headed home a 54th minute corner and should have made it three but Brendan Hackett's effort crashed back off the crossbar.

Matt Croose heads home for The Saints......and duly celebrates!

Matt James (70) did make it 3-0 to The Saints when he capitalised on a poor back pass to run in on goal and fire home. Game over, well not quite as it turned out.

The Robins responded with a late comeback, scoring two, what turned out to be, consolation goals. A free-kick was parried by the Hay St Mary's goalkeeper before being turned into the net by Oliver Richards (86) before substitute Lee Sutton headed home in stoppage time. Too little too late but it made for great drama. Overall a tremendous evening in Radnorshire!

CPD LLANFECHAIN FC (Recreation Field)

MONTGOMERYSHIRE CUP 1ST ROUND, LLANFECHAIN 1-7 LLANRHAEADR, ATTENDANCE: 62 (h/c)

It was a beautiful sunny October afternoon as I made my way down the A483 for some more Sunday Mid-Wales cup action. Last time out it was the Radnorshire Cup but today it was the Montgomeryshire Cup that was the big draw. There was also the bonus that the hosts, Llanfechain, would be producing a programme for the occasion. Who could possibly ignore that combination?

Llanfechain is a small village located in northern Powys between Llanfyllin and Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain. Both these names will be familiar to Welsh football followers, especially the latter at that was once the home of Welsh champions TNS.

The Recreation Field is a pitch in the centre of the village, on Maes Mechain. The ground is basic with only a brick dugout offering any shelter from the elements, however the surrounding views were very picturesque, as you would expect in Wales.

Llanfechain play in red shirts and there was a slight delay to proceedings when the visitors from Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant also turned up with red (away) kit, as their regular blue shirts were used 24 hours earlier.

After a quick phone call the blue shirts eventually arrived just after 2pm, but there was another delay as the referee had yet to show. Nobody had told him it was a 2pm kick off and he turned up for the usual Welsh default kick off of 2.30pm.

The programme notes were lamenting the homesters poor recent record in this competition that they last won in 1974 and today, once again, offered no joy to Llanfechain. 

When the game eventually started and it was effectively over within 16 minutes with Llanrhaeadr 3-0 up. Llanraheadr play two divisions above Llanfechain in the Mid Wales Division One, having come down from the Cymru Alliance. The visitors were 5-0 up by half time and in cruise control.

Llanfechain scored a penalty in the second half but finished up and the wrong end of a 7-1 defeat. In fairness they kept plugging away and created chances but lacked the composure when the opportunities did come along.

The Llanrhaeadr goals came courtesy of Michael Roberts (who scored four) a Gus Harris penalty, Hamish Clifton and Sam Sefton. Craig Scott replied for Llanfechain from the penalty spot.

Another grand afternoon out in God's country.

The club linesman has a well
deserved ciggie!

FORDEN UNITED (Forden Community Centre Ground)

MONTGOMERYSHIRE CUP, FORDEN UNITED 2-5 WATERLOO ROVERS, ATTENDANCE: 66 (h/c)

After yesterday's festivities of a Merseyside Derby (which was a marvellous 3-3 draw) I decided to blow the cobwebs off by taking a trip down the A483 to Powys and the village of Forden (or Ffordun for our Welsh viewers).

Football is back in the parish after an absence of 5 years. Forden United folded in 2008, after 58 years in existence, due to a lack of players. United had been crowned champions of the Mongomeryshire League Division Two in 1984, 1998 and 2002 and the new incarnation of the club also started this season off in Division Two. They are managed by ex-Welshpool manger Neil Breeze, who began his career as a 15 year old at the club.

The ground is a pitch behind the village bowling club, there is no coverage but luckily the rain held off, despite it's best efforts in trying. Behind one of the goals and to the side there is a large embankment, which offers great views of the pitch and also the surrounding countryside.

As you can imagine the game was not technically the best but it was a fantastic watch nonetheless. It was end to end and the scoreline could have been anything given the chances that were created. There were also plenty of 'robust' challenges to say the least.

In the end though the result was as expected as the higher ranked visitors from Welshpool (despite many of the starting XI playing 24 hours previously) saw off the challenge of the homesters.

The club pulled out all the stops today by issuing a basic 4 page programme, which was a huge bonus, and they also had plenty of food and drink for the hungry and thirsty hordes. The homemade soup at half time was excellent.

I hope it was a worthwhile exercise for the club and they made a few extra quid out of the day. I can only speak for myself when I say it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in mid-Wales.

BODEDERN ATHLETIC (Cae Ty Cristion)

FAW WELSH CUP 2nd ROUND, BODEDERN ATHLETIC 5-1 TYWYN/BRYNCRUG , ATTENDANCE: 108 (h/c)

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.