7th
November 2015
Haverfordwest
County 0 Newtown 1 (Welsh Premier League)
I suppose I got what I deserved really!
As last season moved into its final stages it became
clear that in Scotland, there was a reasonable chance that Brora Rangers would
be promoted to the Scottish League. When I say reasonable chance, I meant a
50/50 chance as they faced a two legged play off with Montrose to determine who
would win the right to a place in the Third Division.
It tickled me, purely because if they did it,
it would mean that Steve would face a 946 mile round trip from Chesterfield to
re-complete things North of the border, and didn’t I just remind him of it. At
one stage during the play off it did look as though he was going to have to
pack the medication and the Passport, so while the game was in progress I took
great pleasure in reminding him of the fact.
Thankfully for Steve, Montrose turned things
round and the status quo was maintained, but for a wee while, I had my moment
of fun, and Steve, his moment of discomfort.
But then the tables turned, I decided in the
Spring that I was going to conquer the Welsh Premier League, and at that stage
I just needed Carmarthen Town, but I was also aware that it was highly likely a
team would be promoted from the Welsh Football League, and in all fairness it
was going to be one of two teams.
The first and most likely candidate was Cardiff
Metropolitan University, the second most likely option was Haverfordwest
County. What’s the difference you might ask? Well, two hours to be precise, two
bloody hours of navigating the M4, and the single lane carriageways to a place
that is nearer to Wexford in Ireland than it is my home!
Did I have a preference? Of course I did, and
it doesn’t take a genius to work out which! All was looking ok though, Cardiff
Metropolitan University had finished their fixtures and had a three point lead
at the top of the table, Haverfordwest had one game to go, away at Aberdare
Town, and they would need to win by five clear goals to get the promotion spot.
It was a huge ask, and in terms of odds, you
wouldn’t bang on it. But by half time it was 4-0, and my mind had moved into
the devious World of match fixing, and guess what, Steve was loving it! After
all of my attempts to wind him up over Brora, he was now playing the
Haverfordwest card with timing that was truly impeccable.
As you can now probably guess, it did finish
5-0, I smelt a dirty great rat, and Steve was happily preparing the AA Route
Plan for me, the bastards!
Ok, right, so it was a long way, but I had a
plan. Haverfordwest is 45 minutes from Carmarthen, and as I mentioned in my
report from the visit to Carmarthen in September, the plan was to combine the
two in a weekend, but the fixture Gods were complete bastards and failed to set
it up for me. I was going to have to do it in a day, in solitary, and make sure
I got to bed early the night before.
I did think when I planned the game a month
earlier, that as the time got closer I would find a reason not to do it, to go
somewhere else and perhaps shelve it until later in the season, but that didn’t
happen. As the week prior came around, and as the days went by, I was really
looking forward to it.
The weather was a bit of a concern so I emailed the
club, but more on that later, Haverfordwest County v Newtown was on, and as the
alarm went off at 8am on the Saturday morning I was never more ready for the
journey into the unknown. It felt a bit like when I went to Lowestoft, but I
tried not to dwell on that because I remember how I felt coming back from that
place, and it wasn’t great if I’m honest.
So the marathon began, it was plain sailing
until around Ross on Wye when the heavens opened as expected, and that continued
all the way through Monmouth, onto the M4, and pretty much remained a constant
until approaching Swansea, when the blue skies could be seen ahead. Traffic
wise it wasn’t too bad, the M4 in the rain was a bit special, but generally
speaking it was fine, and justified the early-ish departure. The roads were
noticeably quieter once past Swansea and with the sun shining as I came into
Carmarthen (bringing back memories) it was just a mere 45 more minutes before I
was to reach my destination.
Four hours and fifteen minutes after setting
off, I was in the car park at the Bridge Meadow Stadium, eating a Tesco Meal
Deal, watching players and officials arriving at the ground. Once in the ground
nursing my pint, I got a phone call, it was the Secretary ringing in response
to my email to advise that the game today was on! I did politely advise him
that I was in the club house watching the players warming up, but I did thank
him for at least making the call!
The ground was a good one. As I walked out of
the club house I could see a large seated stand on the half way line, and then
opposite a long line of Atcost Stands that filled the entire side. Behind both
goals it was standing room only, but the club house end housed the dressing
rooms, the tea bar, the club shop, and two glass fronted viewing boxes that are
often commonplace at Welsh Premier League grounds. It did of course have the
obligatory TV gantry as well, with a glass fronted press box beneath it.
The pitch was in decent condition,
albeit the grass was a touch long, and in fairness to the club officials they
were a really sound bunch. The ground itself is used quite regularly for minor
International fixtures, and is a testament to the excellent facilities the club has available.
Was the game any good then? It was ok,
Haverfordwest missed a first minute penalty for handball and for the most part
were the better side, however, as usually happens when you are in the lower
reaches of the league, the visitors scored with a close range header after 88
minutes, and it was game over. The defeat saw the hosts slump to the bottom of
the table, but to be honest, they didn’t look a particularly bad side, they
just need someone who can put the ball in the net. Standard wise it was of a
reasonable quality, probably on a par with high end Step 3 and possibly even
lower end Step 2 in England.
Then of course came the journey home, the bit I
had kind of dreaded after feeling like I wanted to slit my wrists on the way
back from Lowestoft, but to be fair it was ok, in fact it was better than ok, I
actually quite enjoyed it. I think that was because firstly I knew what to
expect, secondly because it was pretty quiet on the roads so I could relax,
listen to the radio and not get stressed, but thirdly, because of the sense of
achievement, I had finally done all of the leagues in Wales I wanted to
complete, namely the WPL and the Cymru Alliance.
Of course, after four hours of driving, and a
with a can of lager nestled in my right mitt, I sat on the sofa only to hear my
phone bleep, it was a text message from Steve.
“Have you got back from Ireland yet mate??” He
who laughs last and all that…………………..
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