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!

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.

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!