Radnorshire Cup
2nd Round
Sunday 24th October 2021
Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.28
Radnor Valley 8 Brecon 1, attendance 66
22’ 1-0
30’ 2-0
55’ 3-0
59’ 3-1
67’ 4-1
70’ 5-1
73’ 6-1
79’ 7-1
83’ 8-1
@ A44 Kington Road
New Radnor
LD8 2AZ
£3 Admission
No Programme.
I had seen Radnor Valley play at home before, which was also a Radnorshire Cup 2nd Round match played on a Sunday, when they beat Presteigne St. Andrews 3-1 (AET) back on 10th November 2002. In those days they played at a ground in School Lane, but having lost the use of it, they have now moved to a new ground to the north of the A44, about half a mile east of the village. In a very short space of time they have turned it from being a field growing crops, into a somewhat typical ground found in Mid Wales at this level. It is still a work in progress. The new changing rooms are not completed yet, so the players get changed at the old ground, then drive in full kit to the new one.
Radnor Valley are in the Mid Wales League East Division (Tier 4 in Wales), currently in fifth (out of 15) place in the league table, following a 2-1 win away at Llansantffraid Village yesterday. Brecon play one level lower, in the Mid Wales League (South). They are third in the table, having won all three of their matches so far, including a 2-1 win this weekend away at Presteigne St. Andrews, which was moved to Friday night, to enable them to have a recovery day before playing today’s match.
The first half was a reasonable contest, with Radnor Valley looking the better of the two teams. They opened the scoring midway through the half, when a cross from the left was finished off with a diving header at the far post. On the half hour mark they added a second, finishing from close range, after a free kick into the box wasn’t cleared. A side foot finish at the far post saw them increase their lead ten minutes into the second half, but a quick reply from Brecon pulled it back to 3-1. The next goal would be decisive, and when it went the way of the hosts, it was game over. The last twenty minutes was one way traffic. Brecon gave up and 4-1 soon became 8-1. Radnor Valley didn’t even bother celebrating the goals. They certainly didn’t have to work for them.
It was a late decision to head to this match. I left home without being able to confirm the game was definitely going ahead. The home club did reply via Twitter that everything was okay, but I was already 100 miles into the journey by then! The SatNav took me two different routes. It was M40, M42, Droitwich, Tenbury Wells and Presteigne going, then back via the shorter route of Hereford, Gloucester, Swindon, M4, then Bracknell and onto the M3 coming back.
It wasn’t until I was adding my weekend matches to my spreadsheet that I realised that this was my 400th ground I’ve seen a match on in Wales.
