August 25th 2007
Shotton Steel v Llandudno Junction Reserves.

A new season is once again upon us with yet another league to find our way around. Most people will be pleased that we are out of the Anglesey league, I for one say farewell with a hint of sadness that we didn’t show our full potential on the island, and will miss our games v Pentraeth and Bro Goronwy and the like.
Before I try and take you through our opening game, I would like to thank everyone who has supported the Football Club and helped raise money to keep the club moving forward. With a special thank you to The Maelgwyn for sponsoring our tracksuits and providing our food on match days, also I would like to say a big thank you to Deganwy Ventilation Services for sponsoring our new kit.
Our first game in the Clwyd league was one to forget very, very quickly. The start of any new season should start with hope and belief that you will be successful. The day started like many in the past some last minute hitches but nothing major, the squad were to meet at 12.45 and leave at 13.00 however we were still waiting for Tom Roberts to arrive at ten past one, the first player to contribute to the new fining system! I am sure Tom will be opening his wallet on more occasions this season.
With James Hobson away on holiday, Ashley Jones and James Lyons not being registered in time the squad was as follows: -

Mike Hughes
Sion Watson, Phil Williams, Aaron Jones, Chris Darbey
Chris Lloyd 1 GOAL, Matt Hughes MOM, Danny Parry, Tom Roberts
Bobby Colville and Nathan Watson captain
Danny Jones on for Matt Hughes
Mike Williams on for Chris Darbey
Karl Davies on for Nathan Watson

With us late leaving we arrived at their dressing rooms around the 14.00 mark, as time was pushing on and no sign of a football pitch we named the team and issued the kit then went to look for the pitch. After half mile of wandering around Shotton’s cricket arena, train station, various bridges and a couple of rugby pitches we found the FIELD! The combine harvester was just leaving through a gate at the end of the field and Farmer Jones was due back in two hours to collect the hay. We have complained in the past about poor facilities and football pitches but this was the first time I have seen a field, which was covered in foot high grass cuttings. We went through some details of what we expect and some tactics before the Ref blew his whistle to start our life in the Clwyd league.
Within 4 minutes we were one nil down, so once again we were doing things the hard way which aint that bad a thing as long as you show character and play to your potential and to be fair we did play some football but we were not clinical in front of goal. We created chances and Dan Parry delivered a fantastic free kick to Nathan who was crowded out very quickly. Then Chris Lloyd upped his game a started playing very well, seeing lots of the ball and running at their defenders and in the 11th minute delivered a cross into the box but no one could get on the end of it. Chris then produced a whipped corner into the box with Phil getting his head to it but put over. We were losing our battle in the middle of the park so we changed from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 and we started to dominate a little more, although we were competing in the middle we had lost our shape up front and didn’t really have a target as some of the lads didn’t understand what was being asked of them. Just before half time Shotton once again broke very quickly and were through on goal but a cracking tackle by Aaron kept the score at one nil down. Half time saw the lads very disappointed with their performance and they knew they hadn’t competed in the first half. I was very disappointed with some player’s attitude, which came across in my chat and told the team that was the worst display I have witnessed since taking over from Peter.

We started the second half much better and played the football that we have come to expect. Sion Watson was in fantastic form and was bombing down the right hand side all day and crossed the ball well, defended like a warrior and showed a very mature attitude throughout, some of the older / experienced players need to take note and learn from Sion. After some dominating football from us, Shotton broke away in the 63rd minute and scored their 2nd goal. With us now facing an uphill task some of the lads rolled up their sleeves and continued to play the way we can and within four minutes this was rewarded with a Chris Lloyd goal 2- 1 we were back in it. We continued to play well but the conditions took their toll and the lads surprisingly got tired and the 80th minute with gifted Shotton their 3rd goal and the 81st minute their 4th. Now the heads had severely dropped and the lads were deflated Shotton carried on with their counter attacking football, which was rewarded with two more goals final, score a very disappointing 6-1 defeat.

Thankfully not many spectators were there to witness this display, Tuesday however will be a different story when we are at home to Penrhyn United, and I hope the lads do not embarrass themselves again and we put this behind us and we get our season going.