LYM

Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant  2  Ruthin Town 2

Cymru League - North

Some might say that heading to Mid-Wales on a day when matches were falling all over the place due to the weather, was not the most sensible of ideas!

Probably not, but, it was only thanks to the promptness and positivity of Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant (LYM hereafter) on their Twitter account that convinced me to take the journey with assurance and confidence.

I genuinely do believe that some clubs use social media very well indeed and reap the benefits of it, while others could learn a thing or two, and maybe, encourage a few more through the gate in the process.

So, to cut a long story short, I’d had LYM and the game against Ruthin Town in the newly formed Cymru North (it used to be the Cymru Alliance for all intents and purposes), on the radar for a while. And with not much else on in terms of my targets for this season, I thought I’d make enquiries on the Friday night, probably more in hope than expectation.

The response was positive with confirmation to follow in the morning, which duly arrived, no problems, get ones arse in the general direction of Mid-Wales young man!

I missed LYM first time around when they were in the Cymru Alliance, it fell during the “moving in with Mrs L” period when I was being a good little husband to be and only going to Belper Town games. They dropped back to the Mid-Wales League so I kind of forgot about them, until last season when they got promoted again. However, due to issues with the ground and the size of the pitch at Tanllan (Theatre of Trees), they opted to move in with Llansantfraid Village, the former home of TNS.

However, with pitch widened, new stand put in, and one or two other bits and pieces sorted, they were back in the village, and consequently back on my list.

Readers, you are probably wondering where LYM actually is? I’d better try and explain, by describing my journey. Heading West, I went to Stoke-on-Trent and then out through Baldwins Gate to Whitchurch, whereby I took the well trodden route to Wrexham, for a bit anyway.

A left turn then took me on the Ellesmere road, and then once out of Ellesmere it was on to Oswestry and out West again through the town centre. LYM is around nine miles beyond Oswestry, along some very scenic albeit narrow roads. The main road was actually closed so the sat nav kindly took me seven miles along a single file track that was flooded in places, thank you so very much!

So, what is LYM like? Well, it’s most famous for it’s waterfall, or the Pistyll Rhaeadr Waterfall to give it the full name. One of the Seven Wonders Of Wales, along with Max Boyce apparently? Just over 1000 people live in the village, and what I did discover is that it’s well served by drinking establishments, but more on that later.

Once at the ground and parked up, the first person I bumped into was Chairman Mel Roberts, who it turns out is the club Twitter chap. So we had a brief chinwag about the fact that under no circumstances should I go back via the route I came, and if I wanted a pint, head to the Wynnstay Arms in the village, which was a five minute walk away.

The walk to the Wynnstay gave me a chance to admire the prettiness of the place, and once inside, the homeliness struck you. I ended up chatting to a local who was a Black Country man originally, and a big Wolves fan, but due to marriage etc he now lived in the village. He told me just how popular and well thought of the club were in the village, and also, how well supported they were.

That support became apparent when I got back to the ground just before kick-off, I would estimate around 150 were present, but think about that as a percentage for a minute. That’s 10-15% of the population, and if that trend were to be typical we’d see some phenomenal crowds across the land. Belper Town for example would get 3000 a week!!

I really liked the ground. The ground is just off the main road and the car park is entered via a cul-de-sac. The car park sits behind the goal and the turnstiles are in one corner. Once in the ground on the North side is the clubhouse / dressing room building, which is up some steps, while next to it is a brand new seated stand that had to be installed to meet league requirements (very few people sat in it by the way despite it’s elevated viewing position).

Behind the opposite goal is a much smaller seated stand, while hard standing is on three sides, with the side along the road where the dugouts are, out of bound for spectators.

No floodlights, not a requirement of Level Two in Wales, yet, and the pitch was perfectly playable despite the recent bad weather.

LYM had a great start to the season and sat just above half way in the table while the visitors sat below them, but clear of the drop zone.

It was a really good game to watch. Ruthin took the lead in fifteenth minute when Garmon Hafal scored at the near post, but ten minutes before the break Tomos Geraint Evans bagged the equaliser. Right on the half time whistle, Iwan Matthews made it 2-1 to the hosts from the penalty spot, and on balance it was probably the right scoreline.

The second half saw Ruthin come back into the game and it did look as though the hosts would hold on as the game got somewhat more ragged and the yellow card started to get flashed around. 

However, as the game moved into the closing stages, LYM were denied what I thought was a penalty, only for the ball to go straight up the other end, for the visitors to be awarded a penalty!

Up stepped Owain Llyr Morris, 2-2, and that was it, on balance, a fair outcome, which upon leaving, Mel agreed with me as I said farewell.

I took advice around the journey back and went via Llansantfraid, which eventually bought me back out on the Shrewsbury ring road and then back up the A5 / A38 to blighty. What a cracking day out, at a cracking club, a day out that probably wouldn’t have happened had it been for LYM’s excellent communications.

A lesson for many I feel.