Croesyceiliog 1 v 0 Garden Village

Saturday 28st January 2017
Welsh League Division Two
Woodland Road, Cwmbrân
Admission: £4.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 50 (estimate)
Match Rating: 3

Today would be my second visit to south-east Wales on consecutive Saturdays, and I was hoping for better luck to catch a Welsh League game, having been thwarted late on last week. With that in mind, I considered a visit to the Centre for Excellence 3G pitch in Ystrad Mynach as a safe option, but with positive vibes coming out of all grounds with grass pitches within range of Cardiff, I decided late on my coach journey to catch the train to Cwmbrân. 

Woodland Road is about a five minute walk eastwards from Cwmbrân train station and the football ground is located within Woodlan Road Park, alongside a rugby ground (home to Croesyceiliog RFC) with a cricket field overlapping both in the middle. The football ground is fully enclosed but with see through fencing, and so it is no problem to watch the game for free from outside. Spectators enter along one length, paying admission at the side window of the stand. This stand represents the only accommodation for fans in the ground, brick built and consisting of a few steps with a few chairs available inside. A tea bar window is located within the rear wall, with the changing rooms behind that. There is just hard standing along this length and behind both goals, while the remaining length is grass standing, due to the club sharing facilities with the cricket. Floodlights are not currently installed here, but poles are currently laid out on the ground in preparation. Although facilities here are certainly modest, there is plenty of evidence that work is going on to improve the ground, with some attractive signage and a fresh luck of paint throughout, and there was the fairly typical warm and friendly feel that is usually encountered at Welsh League grounds. The backdrop is pleasant enough, with trees behind two sides and large hills behind. The 28 programme had an attractive cover, with today’s fixture displayed prominently and colour printing is used throughout the programme. But whilst it covered the essentials, was light on up to date interesting reading material and over half of the pages are devoted to advertising.

Croesyceiliog came into this game in seventh place in the league, having won seven and drawn two of their 18 league games, and had won their last four league games. Garden Village were in 14th place in the 16 team division, having won four and drawn two of their 15 league games. When the two teams met in Gorseinon in September, Croesyceiliog won 0-3.

On a bright sunny afternoon, the pitch had apparently only marginally passed a morning inspection and it was easy to see why as the pitch was very heavy, soon cut up badly, and was tricky to play football on, with uneven roll of the ball and players struggling to keep their footing. Somewhat surprisingly, the visitors had the better of much of the first half. They were awarded a penalty on 15 minutes for a shove, although initially the referee did not seem to give it, consulting with his assistant to eventually award it. The penalty was well saved low to the keeper’s right. They came close again on 34 minutes when a free kick, awarded on the advice of the assistant referee for a handball by the keeper outside of his area, was awkwardly skewed over his own bar by a defender close to the line. It was very much against the run of play when the home side took the lead. A diagonal ball through the defence sent Will Lugo through on goal, and he did well to keep the ball under control on the difficult surface, running on before firing the ball across the keeper and into the net. Croesyceiliog had a good spell after their goal, but Garden Village could feel hard done by to be behind at the break.

The second half was competitive, feisty at times, but with neither side looking likely to score what would be a crucial goal until the last 20 minutes, when things did get rather more frantic, and both sides had a great chance to score. Firstly the visitors saw a cross shot agonisingly missed by a couple of players at the far post for a tap-in on 84 minutes, and then on 89 minutes a Croesyceiliog forward broke clear of the defence and just had the keeper to beat, but he sent his eventual shot wide of the far post. In the end, Croesyceiliog held on to claim their fifth league win in a row but remain in seventh place in the league. Garden Village would rue their missed penalty, and a draw really would have been a fairer reflection of the game.

Cardiff City 1 v 0 Burton Albion

Saturday 21st January 2017
English Football League Championship
Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff
Admission: £20.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 15,457
Match Rating: 2

Today’s bargain £1.50 return coach journey from London took me to Cardiff, with every intention that I would take in a Welsh League game. Sub-zero and frosty conditions made me nervous on my way westwards, but there was no indication that my intended game at Pontypridd Town was in doubt until I was already on the train from Cardiff and the club tweeted that their pitch had failed an inspection. Unfortunately that was too late for me to reroute to another Welsh League game, and so I decided to revisit the Cardiff City Stadium, with my only previous visit almost eight years ago, a few months after the stadium opened. Today would be my first visit for a Cardiff City home game, however.

The Cardiff City Stadium is about a 20 minute walk from the city centre, and stands high above the adjacent park land and retail park. The stadium is pleasantly decorated around the outside, with a statue immediately outside one corner, and a nice touch is the presence of the gates from the club’s former ground, Ninian Park, set some way back from the stadium and close to the site of the club's former stadium. The frame of the gates has some memorial plaques, with a basic memorial garden alongside. Once inside the stadium, the concourses are very spacious, and a live band was playing to help generate some atmosphere before kick off. On my last visit, this was a continuous wrap-around stadium consisting of one tier, apart from the two tiered main stand. Since then, the single tiered length has been expanded upwards and is now three tiered and towers above the rest of the stadium. As one might expect from a relative new build, views are excellent and unobstructed. The 68 page programme was a good read and well designed, with plenty to digest.

Both of today’s teams are battling against relegation, with Cardiff in 18th place with 30 points from 25 games and six points above the relegation zone, but they won their last two league games. It is still scarcely believable that Burton Albion are in the second tier of English football, and they are certainly not out of their depth at that level this season. But they are just a point and a place above the relegation zone, with 25 points from 26 league games. When the two teams met back in October, Burton Albion won 2-0.

On a bright, sunny but perishingly cold afternoon, this was a dire game for the most part, with a lack of quality on the pitch and a very subdued atmosphere in the stands. This was certainly the case throughout the first half, with very few goalscoring opportunities being created as Burton focused their efforts on being solid and difficult to break down, whilst Cardiff did not have the creativity or skill to break them down. Indeed, the boos from the home fans on the half time whistle was indicative with a performance that deteriorated into poor passing and decision making. 

Cardiff started the second half much brighter and opened up a couple of good opportunities, and overall they had the better of the things, but as time went on they looked less and less likely to net a winner as a goalless stalemate became inevitable, which would have been a fair reflection of a dour, uninspiring game. But in the first minute of added on time at the end of the game, after a free kick into the box was blocked, the ball was then crossed into the danger area just out of the clutches of the keeper and Rhys Healey headed the ball home to provoke wild celebrations amongst the players and the crowd. Although Burton still had time to create an opportunity to claim a point in the remaining minutes, Cardiff held on to claim a valuable three points to move eight points clear of the relegation zone, which Burton Albion have fallen into following this result.

Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here.

Sutton Coldfield Town 1 v 0 Ilkeston

Saturday 14th January 2017
Northern Premier League Premier Division
Central Ground, Sutton Coldfield
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 283
Match Rating: 3

For the first of four consecutive Saturdays taking advantage of return tickets from London with Megabus for no more than £1.50 return, today I had the choice of games in the Birmingham area. This game was actually about fifth choice when I set off this morning, however a 45 minute delay due to an accident at Junction 1 on the M6 meant that visits to Kidderminster or Halesowen became out of the question. Whilst a visit to a Midland Football League game held some appeal, I decided to visit what would presumably be the better ground, for a game between two evenly matched teams battling against relegation.

The Central Ground, which is also home to Romulus and was, up to last summer, home of Aston Villa Ladies, is about a 20 minute walk from Sutton Coldfield train station, and spectators enter via a prefab turnstile block, behind one length. Immediately to the right of the entrance is the main stand. It is tall, narrow and being quite old fashioned, certainly has character. Spectators have to walk up a steep, enclosed staircase to get to the seating area, which only spans the middle third of the available space. Whilst the elevated view from there is a bonus, railings and supporting pillars obstruct the views. Behind one end there is a very small covered area close to the corner flag, seemingly intended for disabled supporters, whilst behind the other corner is a brick, flat roofed clubhouse. In the front wall of this building there is a refreshment window. Just beyond that corner and moving along the length is a recently installed small metallic all-seater stand, next to which is a small wooden hut housing the club shop. Along the rest of this length there are a couple of uncovered terrace steps. Behind the remaining goal there is a building not used for football but with some cover to the front for spectators. The area from the goal around the corner to a toilet block next to the main stand is currently out of bounds. Some old fashioned panel fencing in club colours of blue and white makes for a fairly nice background, and indeed the ground has a nice mix of a weathered appearance offering character, with some modern touches, with some colourful signage and the installation of a 3G pitch. The 28 page programme, printed on standard paper but using colour printing was an interesting enough read, containing the essential stats.

Both teams came into this match deep in trouble in the relegation zone, with Sutton Coldfield fourth bottom having won four and drawn eight of their 27 league games so far, but six points adrift of safety. Ilkeston were two places and two points worse off, having won five and drawn three of their 24 league games, but have three games in hand on the three teams immediately above them.

On a bitterly cold afternoon with occasional sunshine but which was mostly overcast, this was a surprisingly entertaining game, played at a high tempo, although perhaps predictably the quality tended to fizzle out the closer they got to the final third. The home team certainly were the better team, and came close on several occasions to opening the scoring, although the visitors were more than holding their own. On 32 minutes, Sutton Coldfield were awarded a penalty by the referee, but after conferring with his assistant referee, he changed his mind and awarded a corner instead, jointly deciding the sliding tackle by the defender made contact with the ball. But in added on time, the home team took the lead with a rather fortunate goal. Debutant Max Wright, signed earlier in the week on loan from Grimsby Town, cut back on the right touchline and sent in a high looping cross into the area and the ball went over the keeper and just inside the far post.

The second half was a quieter affair in the main, with Sutton Coldfield looking happy to stick with what they had, but it was Ilkeston who had two great chances to claim a precious point. On 66 minutes, Atkinson broke clear but he scuffed his eventual shot so badly a team mate actually ran onto the ball out wide, and a couple of minutes before the end of normal time, their keeper launched a free kick from just inside Sutton Coldfield's half into the penalty area, and Tehvan Tyrell struck the loose ball goalwards, forcing a very good save by the keeper low to his right.

And so Sutton Coldfield held on for a precious three points, to move within three points of Frickley Athletic (who did not play today) and safety, whilst with their games in hand, Ilkeston have as much chance of staying up - as long as they can start winning games, and will rue losing against one of their biggest rivals in the battle against relegation.