Welsh F.A. Cup
2nd Qualifying Round
Saturday 23rd August 2025
Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.58
Glynneath Town 2 Margam Youth Centre 1, attendance 137
8’ 1-0
13’ 2-0
28’ 2-1
@ Glynneath R.U.F.C.
Abernant Park
New Street
Glynneath
SA11 5BD
£5 Admission
No Programme.
I’d already seen Glynneath Town play a home game, back in September 2023, when they lost 2-5 to Afan United in an F.A. Wales Amateur Trophy match, which was played at their normal home ground at the Welfare Park. The attraction of today’s game was that it was being played at the ground of Glynneath R.U.F.C. They’d played here in the last round too, but I was in Scotland at the time, so I certainly wasn’t going to miss out this time. It was only half an hours drive from my hotel, having stopped overnight following last night’s game in Carmarthenshire.
Abernant Park is a cracking ground. There’s a decent seated stand, with the pitch railed on three sides and floodlit. The bar was open and a tea bar operated from a window on the outside of the building. As with most grounds in the valleys, there’s the usual scenic backdrop too. You might even spot a celebrity. Last time I was here, a statue was unveiled in the town of Max Boyce, a singer/comedian from the 1970’s who’s a former president of the rugby club and lives in the house next to the entrance of the ground. Today, I exchanged nods with the man himself, as he was coming out of his house, as I headed back to my car, having taken a few pre match photos of the ground.
The match was Neath & District League Premier Division (Tier 5) versus South Wales Premier League Division 1 West (Tier 6). A diagonal free kick into the box, which wasn’t dealt with by the ‘keeper, was headed in from close range to give Glynneath the lead after just eight minutes. Five minutes later they made it 2-0, when a ball cut back from the left was finished high into the roof of the net from eight yards. Glynneath also saw a 25 yard free kick hit the crossbar, before Margam pulled a goal back after twenty eight minutes, when a free kick was fumbled by the ‘keeper and followed in from close range. Just after the hour mark Margam were down to ten men, having a man sent off for picking up a second yellow card and three minutes later, they were down to nine, when another player received his second yellow card of the match. Oddly, it was the nine men that looked the more likely to get the next goal, having a point blank effort blocked, then heading narrowly wide from the resulting corner and seeing another close range shot saved by the ‘keeper with five minutes left. Glynneath always looked dangerous on the break, but the final pass always let them down and I think they’d have been quite relieved when they heard the final whistle, having endured six minutes of stoppage time, where it was frantic end to end stuff.
SatNav brought me home via the A465 Heads of the Valleys road to Merthyr Tydfil, which is finally fully open, after years of roadworks upgrading it to dual carriageway. Back to Merthyr in no time at all and a clear A470 down to the M4 and no delays whatsoever saw me back home for seven o’clock.
