South Wales Alliance League

Division 2

Sunday 26th August 2018

Kick Off 11.00 Actual 10.54

Vale United 7 STM Sports Old Boys 1,  attendance 165

13’ 1-0

33’ 2-0

35’ 3-0

47’ 3-1 (pen)

74’ 4-1

82’ 5-1

85’ 6-1

90’ 7-1

@ Corntown Road

Corntown

CF35 5BA

£3 Admission

Programme available, but I won’t buy one on any event organised by Groundhop UK.

Originally, I hadn’t planned to visit this ground today. In fact, I hadn’t intended to go to Wales at all today as I had visited two of the three matches on offer at today’s Hop and I didn’t think it was worth an overnight stop for one match. Porthcawl Town had been done during their Welsh League day’s, whilst Llangeinor had already been on a Groundhop back in 2003, It is rather odd that grounds are being re-visited, especially when Groundhop UK have apparently ‘finished’ with the South Wales Alliance League now, when Cardiff  Cosmopolitan, St. Albans and today’s visitors STM Sports Old Boys have not hosted a match and Llanrumney United are also now on a different pitch, albeit within the same complex as their old one.

Anyway, just before 8pm last night I was offered a lift to the match. The poor weather forecast meant the planned cricket trip for the driver was cancelled and the football at Vale United would be the destination for him instead.

The weather was indeed awful. It rained for the entire match, which meant quite a few didn’t bother watching at pitch side. Then again, the football is of little interest to a fair number of hoppers, so not being able to see the whole pitch would not concern them one bit !

Vale were by far the better team. I don’t think league newcomers STM could have had too many complaints if they had lost by double figures, such was the dominance of the hosts. Despite the rain, the pitch stood up well, although the two six yard areas were starting to show quite a few puddles.