Gwent Premier League

Division 1

Saturday 24th August 2019

Kick Off 11.00 Actual 10.57

Coed Eva Athletic 4 Newport Saints 3, attendance 227

4’ 0-1

9’ 1-1

10’ 1-2

36’ 2-2

50’ 2-3

62’ 3-3

64’ 4-3

@ The Birches

Pontnewydd

NP44 5LL

£3 Admission

Programme available, but I won’t buy one at any event organised by Groundhop U.K.

So, for the third time already this season, there was a Groundhop U.K. event taking place. The organisation of this ‘hop, or more to the point, lack of organisation, meant that the full schedule of matches, including teams involved, kick off times etc. wasn’t actually finalised until the day before the first match, when Cefn Fforest and Wattsville tweeted that their matches had been pushed back an hour. The reason for this was to accommodate a Bridgend Sunday League match, slotted in as an extra match for those desperate to get in an extra game on the weekend.. It was a late ‘replacement’ for a match that was called off about a week before, due to the away team not agreeing to play at 11 o’clock on a Bank Holiday Sunday morning, rather than the normal Saturday 3 o’clock standard kick off. Perfectly reasonable really, although perhaps the timing could have been better.

The lack of information on the ‘hop was pathetic, at least for those not on the ‘mailing list’ of the organisers, although at least people were posting bits and pieces on the most popular non-League forum and sharing the information with the entire ground hopping fraternity, so at least it meant that the clubs could get a decent pay day by welcoming those who travel independently (therefore giving all their money to the clubs hosting games) which is probably double the number on the organised trip.

As for the league website, you would be hard pushed to find a worse one. The fixtures on their website were still listed as all being played on Saturday, at the same time, rather than spread over 4 days and they didn’t even match the ones that took place in some cases. Even worse, they still call it the Gwent County League, but it has changed name to the Gwent Premier League from this season!

The first game of the day was at Coed Eva, which is a suburb of Cwmbran. There is a nice pitch with painted rail and posts and a small changing room building, but they can’t use that, as the pitch is deemed too small for adult football, so they play on a pitch beyond the far goal that is just railed off and has no other facilities.

Over the years I have done over 30 games in this league and it rarely disappoints as far as the entertainment value goes and this was no different. It was 2-2 by halftime and a cracking overhead kick saw Saints go 2-3 up early in the second half, before a blistering free kick levelled it up for Coed Eva just after the hour mark, then two minutes later their No.11 notched his hat trick to give them a 4-3 win, although Saints nearly levelled again when they hit the crossbar in stoppage time.