PENYFFORDD FC 3 – 1 OVERTON RECREATION

10^th January 2015 – Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division

After a Christmas and New Year period where surprisingly I managed to watch the grand total of ZERO games either through postponed games or illness (and legitimate illness and not Christmas hangovers if that’s what you’re thinking), I was chomping at the bit to attend my first game of 2015 to make up for a lack of games during the festive period. After questioning which game to travel to on Twitter, a tweet came back from my mate Nick Owen (@NickOwen1) asking if I fancied watching his side Penyffordd play at the weekend, especially as he had now been brought back into the first team fold. Together with an encouragement from the Penyffordd Twitter account as well (@penyfforddfc), the decision was made – a trip to Penyffordd it was!

As you have read in previous blogs, this would not be the first time I have seen Penyffordd play this season as a few weeks prior to Christmas I had seen their Welsh National League match against Ruthin Town. That day they had been decimated by the home side as their defence was as watertight as a bottomless bucket, leading to a rampant Ruthin to dispatched them by the crazy scoreline of 9-4. Clearly I had caught Peny on “one of those days” and the performance did not give the true reflection of how decent the team was considering they were second in the league at the time. So I was interested to see how they fared on their home ground and if they had improved defensively since the first time I had seen them.

HOLYWELL TOWN 4 – 1 LLANRUG UNITED

20^th December 2014 – Welsh Alliance Division 1

It was the final weekend before Christmas and unlike previous weekends where there were an option of games I would have liked to have visited, there was only one place I was planning on venturing to for some festive entertainment - the home of Holywell Town, Halkyn Road!! My hometown team were playing in their final game of 2014 at home in a Welsh Alliance League game against Llanrug United, in what was all set to be an excellent game to finish off what has been an incredible year for the Wellmen.

As you might have read in previous blogs I have written, Holywell Town (@HolywellTownFC) are having an amazing season, arguably their best season ever in the history of the club! The Wellmen are enjoying a 100% winning record in all competitions so far this season, achieving 20 wins from 20 competitive games with 11 of those wins coming in the Welsh Alliance Division 1. Their previous league fixture had been a hard fought victory away at Pwllheli, where they managed to resist a resolute home comeback and tough team to win 5-3 and continue the winning streak. This had left the Wellmen top of the table on maximum points (33 points) and 10 points clear of second-placed team Llandudno Junction (who would be the opponents for the first home game of 2015). Holywell were also looking to go through the whole of 2014 undefeated at home, as their last home defeat had come in early December 2013. However on that day they had lost 2-0 to today’s opposition!

RUTHIN TOWN 9 – 4 PENYFFORDD F.C.

13^th December 2014 – Welsh National League (Wrexham Area)

For this whole week prior to this weekend, I was completely undecided on which game to travel to. Cymru Alliance games at Conwy and Llandudno looked very appealing, as did the Welsh Premier game at Bala and even venturing over the border to Eng-er-land to see Witton Albion play was also on the list. However after some careful consideration, I committed myself to head in a southerly direction into delve into deepest Denbighshire to encounter my first game of Welsh National League action this season. The WNL game I would endeavour to watch was Ruthin Town take on Penyffordd in another Denbighshire versus Flintshire derby. This match stood out for me initially as Buckley Town’s manager Tom Taylor advised me it would be a potentially decent game to go visit from the list stated above. Plus I was keen to see the standard of football in the WNL this season as I have not been to a WNL match in a long time, and to compare it with the standard of the similar levelled Welsh Alliance (both leagues are on the third tier of the Welsh football pyramid). Finally it was a great chance to tick off another ground from the list as I had not visited Ruthin’s ground before.

It looked promising to be a decent match as it was second versus third in the table, with Penyffordd having the better start to the season. They were 6 points ahead of their rivals today but had played a couple more games. Both teams were looking to get back on track after both suffering defeats the previous weekend – Penyffordd surprisingly losing in the NEWFA Challenge Cup to fellow Flintshire side AFC Brynford 3-1, whilst Ruthin had taken the lead but were narrowly beaten by league leaders Hawarden Rangers 2 goals to 1 in their last WNL game. With both teams aiming to regain some momentum going into the Christmas & New Year period, I was looking forward to this match!

AIRBUS UK BROUGHTON 5 – 1 BANGOR CITY

6^th December 2014 – Welsh Premier League

The first weekend of December allowed me to make the journey to a venue I am very familiar with, probably more familiar than other ground I have visited. The Hollingsworth Group Stadium (or The Airfield to give it its pre-sponsorship name) is the home of Airbus UK Broughton and a stadium I drive past every weekday to and from work. Throughout my lengthy employment with their parent company, I have seen the team and ground develop from a mid to lower table team that had a temporary small trailer for a stand and a grass pitch, to a title-challenging, Europa League qualifying team that now possesses two permanent stands and a state of the art 3G artificial surface! The club and Airbus itself should be highly praised for putting in the investment (or arranging the funding) to steadily improve both the team and the facilities to make The Airfield an excellent Welsh Premier League venue and Airbus UK Broughton a tough team to beat. The Airfield was also the starting and finishing point for my 1888 Challenge charity tour that I did in 2013!

The start of the 1888 Challenge Tour in July 2013 at Airbus UK Broughton

Despite all of this, I still had yet to actually watch Airbus play at The Airfield. Therefore this was my opportunity to rectify that anomaly especially I was the “lone wolf” this weekend due to all my other groundhopping accomplices either working or being hungover from the night before! I made the well-trodden journey from HQ, down the A55 to the Airbus ground hoping to watch Airbus take on Bangor City in the Welsh Premier League.

BUCKLEY TOWN 0 – 1 HOLYWELL TOWN

29^th November 2014 - Welsh Cup Round 3

Anticipation was at fever pitch prior to this Welsh Cup match between two Flintshire rivals, with the match getting the deserved attention and build-up in the local media. In fact the promotion and local excitement of the cup fixture started as soon as the draw was made as it was set to be a clash between two Flintshire teams who were having fantastic starts to the season. Buckley Town had begun the season in impressive (if surprising considering the pre-season predictions) form by sitting high in the top half of the Cymru Alliance table and staying undefeated at Globe Way all season so far. Holywell Town were having an even better season by being 10 points clear in the Welsh Alliance Division 1 table looking like certainties for promotion, whilst also winning all their cup games up to this point ensuring The Wellmen still maintained a 100% record in all competitions in the 2014-15 season. With this ferocious local battle between two inform teams, it would be intriguing to see who would come out victorious and which record would come to a screeching halt: Buckley’s home record or Holywell’s 100% winning record.

In the newspapers both managers were cranking up the pressure by saying the opposing team were the favourites going into the match. On paper Buckley could have been considered favourites due to their higher position in the Welsh football pyramid, playing the second tier Cymru Alliance whilst Holywell Town applied their trade in the Welsh Alliance Division 1, a league below. However Holywell had reached the Welsh Cup semi-finals in a historic cup run last season and defeated a number of higher-league placed opposition along the way before they were finally vanquished by Welsh Premier League team Aberystwyth Town. This season they were dominating their league and had defeated another Flintshire-based Cymru Alliance team in Mold Alexandra in the previous round (my report of the game can be found here). Therefore it was tough to predict which team would come out victorious, especially as the old football cliché of “form books can be thrown out of the window” can be used to describe such a derby cup match.

FLINT TOWN UNITED 2 - 3 DENBIGH TOWN

22^nd November 2014 – Cymru Alliance

With Holywell venturing down into deep Mid-Wales for their away cup game against Tywyn-Bryncrug in the FAW Trophy, and myself not being able to travel the approximately 2 hours down there, it left me looking for another game to occupy me on the Saturday afternoon. After some scouting of the local fixtures, with options such as Rhyl, Llandudno and Witton Albion being available, the choice was made to go to Cae-y-Castell to see Flint Town United take on Denbigh Town in a “Shire Derby”. Considering the ground is only a 10 minute drive from my house, and my friend Greg lives “off” Flint (plus he couldn’t be bothered travelling too far due to working that morning..pffft a poor excuse ha!), it was an easy and obvious choice to make.

I have been to Cae-y-Castell before so this was not a new ground to add to the list, however I hadn’t been there for many years so it would be interesting to see how the ground had developed from my last visit and also to see the playing standard of the Flint team. They were going well in the Cymru Alliance and were coming up against a Denbigh side who were just a point and position above them in the table, so I was expecting a close game between two teams who were expecting a top half finish this season. As a Holywell Town fan, I was going into this match with no favourites and a complete neutral considering the historic rivalry between The Silkmen and The Wellmen, and also the recent rivalry between Denbigh & Holywell in the Welsh Alliance League the previous seasons (last season still pains me!). I was wondering whether it was possible for BOTH TEAMS to lose??? Haha! In all serious though, I was intrigued to see the playing standard of both teams this season and looking forward to a good derby game (Flintshire versus Denbighshire).

PRESTATYN TOWN 2 - 1 PORT TALBOT TOWN

15th November 2014 - Welsh Premier League

After researching into several options for a game I could watch during the weekend, which included potential trips across the border to watch Football League football, I chose on an easier option and to travel the 20 minute journey down the North Wales coast road to Prestatyn for some intense Welsh Premier League action. Even though Prestatyn is literally “just down the road” for me, it was another local ground and team I had not managed to visit over the years. Therefore it was an easy choice in the end to visit Bastion Gardens and rectify that anomaly of not visiting the Seasiders.

Accompanying me on this short journey was my friend Simon, who was making his first groundhop and attendance of a Welsh Premier game. The ground is fairly straight forward to find (even more so for a local lad like myself who knows the route to Prestatyn/Rhyl very well) and is just off the main coastal road and located near to the Pontins holiday park complex. The advice I would give to any future visitors to Bastion Gardens is to get to the ground fairly early as the club’s car park (situated right next to the ground at one of the goal ends) is not the biggest and can fill up quite quickly. I managed to get their about half an hour before kick-off and was lucky to find a space, with people less fortunate parking along the road heading to the ground. The entrance to the ground is at the end of a residential street so be aware if you have to park up alongside the road. Try not to block people’s drives as I don’t think the locals would be too fond of that!