Our best home wins were Goytre United on Monday August 26th and Cwmbran Celtic on Friday October 8th. We won both matches 4-1. Our best away result was a 3-0 win at Goytre United on Thursday December 26th. Our worst home defeat was 0-3 to Baglan Dragons on Friday October 4th while we lost 1-5 at Ammanford on Saturday January 4th and Newport City on Friday January 18th

Normally we don’t highlight our junior section here but we’ve been asked to congratulate Iwan Dale and Jenson Phillips who have been selected to represent at under 15 level the Boys Clubs of Wales against Scotland at Stenhousemuir in July. They join a long list of players who’ve been honoured by the Boys Clubs of Wales over the years.

An excellent point at league leaders Llanelli puts us within touching distance of safety. With Goytre United losing, a point from our final two games would mean they could not overtake us. That leaves one place with Penrhiwceiber 2 points behind us and Cwmbran Celtic 1 looking to close the gap. Penrhiwceiber have Ammanford home and Carmarthen away while Cwmbran Celtic have Newport City away and Llantwit Major at home. A point on Friday against Trethomas Bluebirds would go a long way to settling the final positions, failing that a win at bottom of the table Taffs Well on Saturday week would ensure our safety.

Following two excellent home wins which lifted us out of the bottom three we visit Cwmbran Celtic on Saturday looking for a third successive win which would lift us further away from the bottom. Cwmbran Celtic have the same points as us but have a poorer goal difference. With four matches to play safety is now in our hands. Taffs Well are already relegated with Goytre United and Penrhiwceiber four points adrift of safety.

We claimed our first away win of the season in the Boxing Day derby at Goytre United and in the process claimed the double over our local rivals. Liam Thomas opened the scoring on 9 minutes with a close range header off a Travis James cross. He doubled the lead on 21 minutes following a Jonathan Hood free kick which the Goytre keeper could only parry, the ball was played to Liam who netted with a right footed shot. Two minutes later a Sean Hanbury free kick from long range went into the goal but the referee adjudged that the keeper was fouled. Goytre’s chances were few and far between in the first half with Ben Haines not being troubled. Goytre started the second half the better of the two sides and Ben Haines made a fine save on 52 minutes clearing the ball with his legs. We defended well and in a rare Lido attack a Ben Keen header was cleared off the line with a quarter of an hour to go. The latter stages of the game was stop-start with both trainers seeing to injured players so it was no surprise that there was 9 minutes added on. The result was confirmed on 93 minutes when a Callum Leworthy corner was turned into his own net by a Goytre defender. There was however still time for further Goytre pressure and Ben Keen brilliantly cleared a goalbound effort off the line to preserve the clean sheet.

Having won our previous 2 cup ties on penalties today we lost by the same method. Skipper Liam McCreesh Scored the first penalty but the Cambrian keeper saved the next two and we missed the fourth to go out of the competition.

For long periods of our game against Penrhiwceiber it looked as though we were heading for a goalless draw. Neither side looked capable of scoring. With the visitors just above us in the league it was vital we secured the three points. After a drab first half we made a couple of changes with Travis James starting the second half. His runs down the right caused problems for Penrhiwceiber and it looked a possibility we might snatch the lead. However it wasn’t until Sean Hanbury came on after 63 minutes and supplied crosses from the left that it became more likely. We eventually took the lead on 84 minutes and it was a Hanbury cross from the left beyond the far post to James who headed it into the six yard box for Liam Thomas to net to scenes of great delight. Four minutes later the three points were secured when Connah Troy bundled in a Sean Hanbury free kick. Other results meant we moved out of the bottom three.