South Wales Alliance League

Division 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 17.59

Cardiff Hibernian 2 A.F.C. Bargoed 2,  attendance 197

14’ 0-1

28’ 0-2

32’ 1-2

89’ 2-2

@ Trelai Park (Ely Racecourse)

Vincent Road

off Cowbridge Road West

Ely

Cardiff

CF5 5AQ

No Admission

£3 Programme * (didn’t purchase as never saw any on sale)

This match was part of the South Wales Groundhop, which is organised by Groundhop U.K.  It is the second time I have visited Cardiff Hibernian when they have hosted a ‘Hop Match’ , as they were on the 2016 Groundhop, when they lost 2-4 versus Cardiff Airport, in a match played at their former home, Archer Road. This season has seen them move here for their home matches. Sadly, the Secretary of Cardiff Hibernian, Stephen Price, died a week before the match, so it was decided that this would become a memorial match, with any profits going to his family.

* Apparently, very few programmes were produced, and there was certainly no effort made to sell any. As the ground is little more than a railed off pitch, in a huge expanse of grass (last used as Ely Racecourse in 1937) then it is not possible to charge for admission, so the majority of the close on 200 crowd would have paid nothing. There was not even a collection made, which was very odd, considering this was supposed to be geared to raising money. With the pitch being so far away from the nearest building, it also meant no refreshments being sold, although it was later mentioned that there were sandwiches and filled rolls available from a table near the dugouts.

As for the match, which was third bottom versus bottom in the league table, it was never going to be a classic, especially on a dreadful pitch that had some pretty deep holes on it, but at least they weren’t full of water, unlike the ones that had to be walked across to reach this one.

The Groundhop continues tomorrow, with a match in the Bridgend Sunday League (which is of no interest whatsoever) before a visit to A.F.C. Butetown, of the South Wales Alliance League, which although I haven’t visited, will be left for another day, as it is certainly not worth the cost of an overnight stop.

Today was another milestone of sorts, this being the 350th ground I have seen a match on in Wales.

Gwent County League

Division 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.04

Newport Corinthians 1 New Inn 3, attendance 8

10’ 0-1

30’ 0-2 (pen)

32’ 0-3

38’ 1-3

@ Coronation Park

Stephenson Street

Newport

NP19 0RB

No Admission

Programme, free, 12 pages (from original match that was postponed on 24th March).

The Gwent County League is certainly not one of the best leagues for finding out information on fixtures. The league website is rubbish and is very rarely updated and around a quarter of the clubs don’t list any phone numbers to contact them !

Corries twitter didn’t even mention they had a match, but at least New Inn had tweeted that they were indeed scheduled to visit Corries today, although there was no news as to whether the match would actually be on. As it was just seven minutes drive from my early match it was a case of head here first and hope everything was okay.

I arrived to see the home players putting up the nets and erecting the dugouts. I ventured into the clubhouse and enquired about whether there was a programme for today’s match, as although it is a (ridiculous) league rule that all clubs have to issue a programme, not all do. I was told, if there was one, it would be pinned on the noticeboard. Sure enough, there were 4 copies there, but all for different matches. Luckily, one was versus New Inn, which had been produced for the match on 24th March that had been postponed.

The Referee arrived around 14.15 and carried out his pre-match checks, confirming that despite it being a little soft, the pitch was perfectly playable. The only concern now ,was whether the away team would be coming, as there was only one player there so far. At 14.35 another couple arrived and at 14.42 the last stragglers drifted in.

The relatively late arrival certainly didn’t affect the visitors. A blistering first half hour had them well in control. Quite how there were no second half goals is anyone’s guess as both teams went for all out attack. A red card for Corries, late in the game, rounded off a bad day for them.

English Football League Youth Alliance

Merit League 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.04

Newport County U18 1 Northampton Town U18 4,  attendance 42

10’ 0-1

47’ 0-2

50’ 0-3

71’ 1-3

90’ + 2, 1-4

@ Dragon Park, Pitch 2

Velodrome Way

Newport

NP19 4RB

No Admission or Programme.

Taking in this noon kick off meant I would be able to visit three new grounds today, with a number of 3pm choices, before finishing up at Cardiff Hibernian, in the South Wales Alliance League at 6pm.

Dragon Park is owned by the F.A. Wales. The main stadium is floodlit and has a seated stand. Pitch 2 is actually about half a mile away and even has a different postcode ! (running parallel, beyond today’s pitch, is the 3G ground of Gwent County League club Lliswerry) It is a grass pitch, but is surrounded by the awful green mesh fencing that is used for 3G pitch cages. To make matters worse, there is no spectator access and they padlock the gate just to let everyone know where they stand regarding viewing options. I assumed the person on top of the gantry, that is between the dugouts, was filming the match, but perhaps he was using it as a watchtower to spot any intruders !

Northampton dominated throughout and looked a bigger and stronger team. The first half wasn’t great, but it was a much improved second half. Perhaps the fact that the padlock wasn’t put back on the gate after halftime helped, as I was able to gain an unrestricted view of the action, albeit from the corner of the pitch. Newport blew any chance of getting anything from the match when they had a penalty saved a few minutes after they had cut the deficit to 1-3.