Grand Slam

Penybont  2  Cwmamman United  0

Welsh Football League – Division One

It’s slightly ironic on the day that Storm Gareth swept the nation, my plan was to head for Wales.

But, on the day when heavy rains and high winds swept across the province, something big was happening in the sporting arena, and that arena was the Millennium Stadium.

Wales v Ireland in the Six Nations, with the hosts a victory away from a Grand Slam. All eyes were on Cardiff, and with that huge distraction combined with the weather, football was without doubt going to be playing second fiddle, and even that with Manchester United playing just up the road at Swansea City.

I’ve had Penybont on the radar for a few reasons recently. Firstly because they’ve applied to join the Welsh Premier League, secondly because they are currently top of the league and unbeaten, but also thirdly because they have a 4G pitch, which is ideal for days when Gareth is at his worst!

There was also another reason to be fair, I’d made an arrangement with a programme dealer from Merthyr Tydfil, and rather than pay postage for my purchases, I’d agreed to meet him on my way down to Penybont as it’s on the route assuming you take the Heads of the Valleys Road.

So unless we had a pile of snow, or the Welsh Football League decided to call all games off due to no one being arsed because of the rugby, it was something of a cert that the game would be on and I could kill two birds with one shotgun.

To be fair to Gareth, I didn’t see any sign of him until virtually crossing the Welsh border just before Monmouth. Ok, the fields around Ross-on-Wye and beyond were completely flooded thanks to rain earlier in the week, but the first specs of water were some time coming.

That said, once on the HOTVR, the winds picked up and the ran got heavier, so by the time I was driving into Merthyr, I would suspect most grass pitches were now pretty well shafted! With the deal done, it was another forty five minutes down through the Valleys before hitting the M4 at Cardiff West and driving Westbound towards Bridgend – or Pen Y Bont as it’s known in Welsh.

I’ve only ever been to Bridgend once before, for a Wedding, a Roman Catholic Wedding to be precise. It went on for ages, and I mean ages, I vowed never to attend such a ceremony again, and I haven’t.

Memories are a bit sketchy, I stayed at my mates place in Brackla, and we did have a drive in to town, taking a look at the Rugby Ground, but that’s about it. What I hadn’t realised though is just how big a place it actually is. It took an age to get from the M4 to the home of Penybont, as I was directed around the edges of the town to the West side, and the suburb of Bryntirion.

Football in Bridgend is quite an interesting story. Bridgend Town were the big name, and were a Welsh Football League side from the late Fifties through to 1973 when they changed their name to Everwarm! The idea of being named after a sponsor didn’t last and then in 1977 they took the decisions to leave Wales and join the Southern Football League. Promotion was won to the Premier Division but they eventually settled in the Midland Division until 1983.

Welsh football again beckoned, and from the point of leaving the English system they remained in the WFL, moving up and down the divisions, until 2013.

Up until 2006 the club played at Coychurch Road, but then having sold the site to a supermarket chain, they shared at Porthcawl before setting up a temporary base at the University of Glamorgan grounds in Treforest. Ambitiously, they moved in with Bridgend RFC at the Brewery Field in 2009 and applied for the Welsh Premier League, but this was not to be and they were forced to vacate.

The solution was in the suburbs, Bryntirion Athletic were a successful club plying their trade in the WFL, so to secure funding, a merger took place with the newly named club formed, called Penybont, and their home would be the well appointed Bryntirion Park.

This season, subject to licencing, they are odds on to win the league and all being well, should secure promotion to the WPL. South Wales has not had it easy over the years in WPL circles, Llanelli were a success but then went belly up, only for the newly formed Llanelli Town to gain promotion at the end of last season, but relegation looms large one year later.

Port Talbot is in the doldrums as both Town and Afan Lido have suffered the drop, while the Neath project disappeared no sooner than it arrived.

Cwmbran fell off the radar, while Haverfordwest have yo-yo’d. Carmarthen on the other hand have managed to hang on in there, but Barry Town United, rising from the ashes of Barry Town, look to be the current success story along with student team Cardiff Met University.

So, a team from Bridgend, one of the largest, albeit rugby mad towns, is long overdue in the WPL.

The ground at Bryntirion Park is tidy, but quite basic. The car park is large, and the clubhouse equally so, while today it was rammed with locals getting set for the rugby. No turnstiles have yet been installed and the only covered accommodation is an Atcost Stand on a bank straddling the half way line. Hard standing surrounds the fully enclosed ground, while it does of course have floodlights and a TV gantry!

Plans are afoot for turnstiles, another stand and some offices, and the club did sound confident that they will get the work done in time.

So, in front of an understandably sparse crowd, albeit a good number from Cwmam….the Anmmanford area, it was a relatively routine victory for the homesters against, to be fair, one of the form sides in the league.

Penybont haven’t lost a game in the league all season, and on their home pitch, it’s easy to see why, they play with a confidence and a purpose, and even with a missed penalty, a goal in each half was enough to seal the three points.

By the time the final whistle blew, the rain was at it’s worst, and just as I was about to get on the M4, the final whistle blew in Cardiff and a nation began to celebrate, Wales are officially the best rugby team in the Northern Hemisphere, and in a World Cup year, that’s not a bad place to be.

It was so empty on the M4, all the way down to Newport, clearly the nation were right behind the lads in Cardiff, and tucked away in front rooms, clubs and pubs to celebrate.

It won’t be too long before they are celebrating in the round ball format over in Bridgend, as finally the town gets what it deserves, a top tier football team in the national league.

Europe Next?