And so to The Rock for a Welsh Premier League match between last season's two promoted teams, Cefn Druids AFC and Cardiff Metropolitan University FC.
Cefn
Druids, 'The Ancients', is the oldest football club in Wales. In 1872 Plasmadoc
FC, founded three years earlier, became Druids (ancient mystic men of Celtic
civilisation) when the various colliery and quarry teams around Ruabon and Cefn
Mawr were brought together under one banner.
In 1876 the
Druids entered the FA Cup - the first Welsh club to do so - and in 1877
contested the very first Welsh Cup game. The club won the Welsh Cup in three
consecutive seasons between 1880 and 1882, and have won the competition 8 times
in all.
The Ancients
joined the first Welsh league in 1890, and in 1920 merged, first with
Rhosymedre to be called Rhosymedre Druids, and then with Acrefair United in
1923 to become Druids United. Enthusiasm had waned by the 1980s as the Druids
were being outstripped by local rivals Cefn Albion (established in 1967).
Another merger in 1992 between these two clubs saw Cefn Druids AFC born,
playing at Plaskynaston and adopting the white and black colours of the
original Plasmadoc.
The club
was rebranded as Flexsys Cefn Druids in 1998 and that season saw them crowned
as champions of the Cymru Alliance earning promotion to the League of Wales.
Subsequent sponsorship deals saw the club renamed NEWI Cefn Druids, after the
North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, and then Elements Cefn Druids
before reverting back to Cefn Druids in 2010.
The
Ancients dropped down to the Cymru Alliance as the new 12 team Welsh Premier
League was born in 2010 and moved from Plaskynaston, showing its age and now a
supermarket, to The Rock. In 2012 the club were Welsh Cup runners up, reaching
the final for the first time in 108 years, which brought a brief foray into
Europa League football.
In 2014
Druids were promoted to the Welsh Premier League but lasted only one season
before being relegated. Last season's Cymru Alliance champions Caernarfon Town
were deprived of a Welsh Premier League license, as they officially did not
exist as a legal entity having failed to file accounts in August 2015. In the
ensuing fiasco runners up Cefn were promoted back to the Welsh Premier League.
The
visitors, 'The Archers' of Cardiff Metropolitan University FC, were formed from
a series of mergers and name changes.
It all
started with Lake United renaming themselves AFC Cardiff in 1984. In 1990 the
club was taken over by Sully FC to form Inter Cardiff FC, which became Inter
CableTel AFC in 1996. This club represented Wales in the old UEFA Cup three
times, including playing Celtic in the 1997/98 season.
In 2000 a
merger with UWIC (University of Wales Institute, Cardiff) produced UWIC Inter
Cardiff which became Cardiff Metropolitan University FC in 2012. The Archers,
or unofficially known as The International, The Sheep (!) or The Div's
(Car-DIFF), then won three promotions in four seasons to reach the Welsh
Premier League.
Setting
out, it's past the giant carved wooden eagle at the dental practice on
Manchester Road and then through Altrincham town centre with its £16,000 4
metre monolith aka vanity project that tells us Altrincham has been a market
town since 1290, complete with spelling mistake.....
Then on to
the M56 with Bank Holiday and Creamfields traffic before a becalmed Stanlow
refinery - the wind turbines seem to have multiplied but still aren't working !
! Skirting the Welsh border, I pull off into the village of Rhosymedre and
drive up to The Rock, standing imperiously above the village, and it's
closed.... A quick peek through the locked gates reveals a pitch that looks
like rubble - the Druids' new synthetic pitch has yet to be laid down.
So it's
nine miles down the A5, avoiding the flat bed truck carrying a tractor and
towing a caravan which is causing chaos !! Over the Llangollen Canal, past
Artillery Business Park and down Burma Road to The Venue at Park Hall, home of
The New Saints. Disappointingly the former Grandad's Cafe advertising 'Ugly
Staff, Beautiful Food' is now just Cafe L
The Venue
at Park Hall, just outside Oswestry is a ten pin bowling and gym complex with a
hospitality suite that leads through to a large balcony and seats overlooking
the half way line. Next to it is a poor neighbour stand that covers the rest of
the touchline, but the Black Hawk Laser Games behind it looks enticing....
At the far
end is another stand that begins at the corner flag, continues behind the goal
and then stops rather abruptly at the 18 yard line. Bizarrely, opposite the
main stand, there is a further narrow mini grandstand that houses the press box
on the second tier, the subs' benches on the first tier and the technical area
on the ground and, er, that's it. The rest of the ground is flanked by trees -
we are in the countryside after all !
The
Ancients are in black and white stripes, their keeper in electric orange. The
visitors, managed by Professor Robyn Jones, are in all maroon with a seagull on
their badge, a throwback to the Sully connection - their nickname was 'The
Seagulls'.
The first
half is frankly a disappointment - and that's an understatement. The Druids'
Aaron Bowen has the best chance, set free but with a slight tug from Met's
captain Bradley Woolridge, shoots wastefully wide. Debutant Ashley Ruane has a
shot deflected wide for the home side, whilst Cardiff, despite the promptings
and pace of Charlie Corsby and Eliot Evans, barely create a half
chance. And so 'After a goalless first half, the half time score is
nil-nil' (courtesy Brian Moore).
The second
half is marginally less frustrating. Ruane draws a good save from Met keeper
Will Fuller and then substitute Adam Roscrow enters the fray for the Archers -
which means the away side's 11 players on the pitch are wearing numbers 1 to
11.
The
visitors show why they have yet to score this season as, having carved out the
best opportunity of the game, a goalmouth scramble sees three powderpuff
efforts cleared off the line with the goal gaping. Ben Bowler's 35 yard effort
is tipped over as Cardiff look the more likely, with Druids only mustering a
wild swipe over the bar in response. Ultimately though the game fizzles out
having never really caught light and the match finishes goalless.
Very much a
case of little ado about nothing nothing...... J
Less than
24 hours later The New Saints hosted Rhyl – the final result a 10-0 home
victory……..
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