Date: 27.10.2018

Ground: 46

Match: 13 (70)

Venue: Tower Field

Teams: Llangollen Town V Mynydd Isa Spartans

Competition: Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Division One

Admission: Free

Final Score: 0-3 (H/T 0-0)

Referee: Not Known

Attendance: 51 (Head Count)

Mileage to venue and return: 102.6 Miles

Programme: * No Match programme, club gave me a souvenir programme from a few seasons ago.

Introduction

This game was the first one I had been too in four weeks, as Jodie and I got married in the first week of October and enjoyed a great honeymoon away in, Montenegro.

As usual for a Saturday match, I dropped Jodie off at work in Shrewsbury first, I then made my way along the A5 from Shrewsbury to the beautiful Welsh town of Llangollen. I arrived in Llangollen just before 10:00 and firstly found where the ground was in preparation for my visit to the club in the afternoon. Having successfully found the brilliant Tower Field I made a short five-mile journey to the Horseshoe Pass and enjoyed a coffee and Bacon Roll at the Pondorosa Cafe whilst finishing my blog report from the last game I attended, back in the last week of September which was a first visit to The Fortis Stadium to watch, Wellington Amateurs V Sikh Hunters.

Before I write about the beautiful town of Llangollen and the brilliant Tower Field, I will share some information with you with regards to the beautiful Horseshoe Pass.

Horseshoe Pass

The Horseshoe Pass (Welsh: Bwlch yr Oernant, “Pass of the Cold Stream) is a mountain pass situated in the County of , North East Wales.

The pass separates Mountain to the West from the 1,854 Feet mountain and Marilyn Cyrn-y-Brain to the East.

Running through the Horseshoe Pass from to Llangollen is the A452 road, the Pass reaches a maximum height of 1367 Feet, providing fantastic views of the surrounding countryside.

The Pass is named as such because the road travels in the shape of a Horseshoe around the sides of the Valley.

The route of the Horseshoe Pass dates back to 1811, when a turnpike road was constructed around the area. The Turnpike Trust were bodies set up by individual acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls, these tolls maintained the principal roads in the United Kingdom from as early as the 17th century.

Due to its vast height and location, the A452 road running through the pass is frequently closed throughout the Winter Season due to heavy snowfall and landslides.

The Pondorosa Café sits at the summit of the Pass and is well known and extremely popular with Cyclists and Motorcyclists alike. Beautiful views can be taken from the Pondorosa, the following Photographs show both the Pondorsa Café and a picture a took from the car park.

As I previously mentioned in my introduction at the top of my report, I spent some time at the Pondorosa Café before I travelled back down the A452 into Llangollen.

The views from the Café are truly breath taking, North, South, East or West will provide you with a beautiful view of the surrounding Welsh Countryside.

The Café was quite busy when I arrived and busier still just before I departed, within the same building as the Café is a small gift shop which is also popular with tourists visiting the area.

I would encourage anybody who has never travelled along the Horseshoe Pass, to do so. It is a delightful drive from Llangollen to the summit and will not take too much time out of your day.

Llangollen

Llangollen is a small town with a population of 3658, situated in Denbighshire, North East Wales. The town is on the River Dee, at the edge of the Berwyn mountains and the and Dee Valley AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty)

The name Llangollen is taken from the Welsh Llan, meaning “a religious settlement” and Saint Collen. Saint Collen was a 7th century monk who is said to have made his way to Llangollen by using a Coracle. The monk founded a church beside the river during his time in the area.

There are no other churches in the whole of Wales that are dedicated to Saint Collen, therefore it is highly possible that this, Saint Collen may also have connections in both Colan, Cornwall and Langolen, Brittany. Indeed, there is a church dedicated to the Saint in Colan, namely Colan Church.

St Collen Church – Llangollen

Situated above Llangollen and to the North of the town is, Castell Dinas Bran, this was a major stronghold of the Princes of Powys. Beyond the castle is the Limestone Escarpment known as the Eglwyseg Rocks. This outcrop carries on Northwards to Worlds End (A narrow Vale, located between Wrexham and Llangollen) in Wrexham.

The immediate area laying nearest to the castle is the Panorama Walk, a monument to a local poet I.D. Hooson (2nd September 1880 – 18th October 1948) can be found on the Panorama Walk. The poet was born in the village of Rhosllannerchrugog and was best known for writing poems for children.

The ancient parish of Llangollen was divided into three traeanau (traean, Welsh for “a third”): Llangollen Traean, Trefor Traean and Glyn Traean.

The bridge in Llangollen was constructed and laid across the River Dee during the 16th Century. This particular bridge replaced an earlier version built in approximately, 1345 by, John Trevor of Trevor Hall. John Trevor was later to become the Bishop of St. Asaph, the bridge built by the Bishop also replaced an earlier bridge, built during the reign of King Henry I.

During the decade of the 1860’s the bridge seen today in Llangollen was extended by the addition of an extra arch in order to cross the new railway in the town. As well as the arch, a two-storey stone tower complete with a castellated parapet was also installed. This was later to become a Café before being destroyed in the 1930’s, this was done to improve traffic flow.

The bridge was widened in 1873 and further widened in 1968, the bridge is a Grade I listed structure and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This latter title means that the bridge is a “nationally important” historic building, thus giving protection against any unauthorised change.

The bridge gives fantastic views of the River Dee on either side, I took the opportunity to take the following photographs whilst I was walking across the bridge in the town. As well as pictures taken from the bridge I paused for a short moment to take a picture of the station of the delightful Dee Valley Railway, as you will see a famous face was just pulling into the station.

As you can imagine a town like Llangollen today relies heavily upon the tourist industry, but still does gain a substantial income from farming.

The majority of farms found in the hills around Llangollen were sheep farms, the domestic wool industry was an important industry in the area for centuries.

The water mill opposite the railway station is now over 600 years old and was used originally to grind flour for local farmers.

The annual Llangollen International Eisteddfod starts on a Tuesday and ends on the following Sunday. Llangollen hosted the National Eisteddfod for the first time over 100 years ago in 1908.

The International version is opened by a parade, led by the Llangollen Silver Band. Locals and visitors alike take part in the parade by dancing, singing and the playing of musical instruments.

With regards to sporting interests, Llangollen is home to many different activities. The town hosts white water slalom canoeing and kayaking, National and International events.

As well as Llangollen Town Football Club, the town is also represented by Cricket and Rugby Union teams. Like the football club, the Cricket and Rugby teams have their base at Tower Field.

Llangollen was the starting point of the first ever massed-start cycle race to have been held on the roads of Great Britain. The race was held on 7th June 1942 and ran for distance of 59 miles from Llangollen to Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

Whilst on the subject of sport, Llangollen was the birthplace of a famous professional football player by the name of Edward Glyn James, born 17th December 1941.

As a youth, James played for Gobowen Juniors and the for the Druids club based in Ruabon before moving to Blackpool Football Club in 1957. James stayed at the Lancashire club for the entirety of his senior playing career, playing his last game for the club in 1974. As well as having a distinguished club career James was also capped on 9 occasions for Wales. James is also an inductee into the Hall of Fame at the home of Blackpool, Bloomfield Road.

I enjoyed a very pleasant couple of hours or so in the beautiful town of Llangollen before heading to Tower Field, the home of Llangollen Town Football Club. The next segment of this report provides information regarding the football club.

Llangollen Town Football Club

The club currently plays at the 4th tier of Welsh domestic league football, competing in The Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Division One.

Llangollen Football Club were founded in 1908, but before 1908 clubs such as Arosfa and Berwyn Rangers were the for-runners of football in the vale of Llangollen at the turn of the century.

The club in their present form first came into light during the 1950’s, enjoying success for many years until the middle part of the 1970’s. During the 1970’s a period of decline set in following the club’s triumph in the 1974 North East Wales Cup, it would be more than twenty years before they tasted success with any major honours.

In 1992 Llangollen Town reached the final of the Horace Wynne Cup, losing to Saltney after extra time. They reached the final of the same cup three years later, this time the club were victorious by beating Brickfield Rangers.

The Club won the National League Premier Division League Cup in the 1999/2000 season, defeating Penley in the final by three goals to one.

The club gained promotion from the Welsh National League Premier Division during the 2008/2009 season and gained a place in the Cymru Alliance for the following season. This was the first time the club had taken their place in the second tier of Welsh domestic league football. The club finished a very respectable 11th position in the 17-team league, however due to restructuring of the league they were unfortunately relegated.

Llangollen Town play at the picturesque Tower Field on Dinbren Road in Llangollen. The next Segment of my report gives my view of the ground along with pictures during my visit.

Tower Field – Home of Llangollen Town Football Club

Access is gained to the Tower Field ground off Dinbren Road and through the brilliantly labelled gate as shown in the above picture. A decent sized car park welcomes visitors to the ground, I certainly had no trouble in getting my car parked.

One cannot fail to be impressed with the amazing views that can be obtained from Tower Field, of course I took pictures which will follow shortly.

The pitch is fully railed off and is complete with hard standing on all four sides of the ground. Next to the car park is a pavilion type building which houses the changing rooms and snack bar at the ground. Within this construction Is a neat 50-seater fully covered stand, toilet facilities at the ground are found to the rear of the same building.

Enjoy the pictures

The Snack Bar pictured above, I enjoyed a most welcome Oxo upon my arrival and an excellent cheeseburger at half time.

Match Statistics

Llangollen Town Mynydd Isa Spartans

1. Max Havanti 1. Nathan Bradbrook

2. Josh Roberts 2. Christopher Layne (goal, 73)

3. Gwilym Keddie 3. Harvey Hammersby

4. Dan Weir 4. Mike Fleetwood ( c )

5. Alex Davies 5. Lewys Humphreys

6. Kristian Jones 6. Mark Atkinson

7. Cody Sylvester 7. Samuel Reilly

8. Ben Realey 8. Joseph Jones

9. Ben Wilson 9. Patrick Davey

10. Kevin Day ( c ) 10. Adrian Davies

11. Josh Laingford 11. Michael Wailes (goal, 78)

12. Nial Broe 12. Samuel Genders (goal, 62)

14. George Gooding 14. Coret Bellis

15. Cameron Evans 15. Matty Lompart

Attempts on Goal: 16 Attempts on Goal: 15

On Target: 8 On Target: 10

Corners: 15 Corners: 2

Offside: 3 Offside: 1

Yellow: 2 Yellow: 0

Red: 1 Red: 0

Match Report

Mynydd Isa Spartans went home with all three points with a 3-0 victory, however this game was far from one sided. Llangollen Town dominated the game for long periods, especially during the first half. The Spartans were the better team during the second half and made the game safe with three goals within the space of 16 second half minutes.

The home side almost opened the scoring for the afternoon in the very first minute of the game. Sylvester dribbled his way to the by line and cut the ball back neatly, Captain Kevin Day saw his shot well saved by Spartans Goalkeeper, Bradbrook.

In the 8th minute of the game, it was again that man Sylvester the provider, a good high cross from the Town number 7 was met with a looping header from Ben Wilson, his effort narrowly sailed over the bar. Five minutes later, Day produced a fine shot from distance which was deflected narrowly wide of the Spartans goal. Llangollen were dominating the play with some good attacking football, Mynydd Isa almost scored against the run of play in the 17th minute. Adrian Davies crossed from the right wing, the ball travelled all the way to the far post and found Wailes in the Town penalty. Wailes swivelled neatly and produced a half volley which was well saved by Havanti.

Five minutes later Llangollen again went close to opening the scoring, a corner from the left was met with an header by Ben Wilson, unfortunately for the number 9 his header went narrowly wide of the Spartans goal.

The Spartans had a great chance on 26 minutes, Wailes found himself clean through on goal, he elected to shoot early, his chipped shot was just about clung onto by a fully stretched Havanti.

Llangollen thought that they had opened the scoring in the 34th minute. A frantic goal mouth scramble resulted with them appealing for a goal, I must admit, it did look like the ball had crossed the line from where I was standing. However, the referee did not award the goal, incidentally I though the referee on the afternoon had an excellent game.

Half-Time: 0-0

First Half Match Action:

Second Half

Town had the first opportunity to opening the scoring after the half time interval. Two minutes after the restart, Day, produced a fine run and shot to match, firing just wide of the target. Six minutes later, Spartans went close themselves, Joseph Jones tried his luck with a well taken free- kick which just sailed over the bar.

On 56 minutes Llangollen almost took the lead with what would have been a bizarre goal. Wilson found himself clear through on goal, a Spartans defender sprinted back catching up with the Town forward, the defender tried to hook the ball away from Wilson but in doing so the ball hit Wilson full in the face. It looked as if the ball would trickle over the line but at the last second it took a deviation and went just wide.

After surviving this scare Mynydd Isa took the lead on 62 minutes through their half time substitute, Samuel Genders. The number 12 stooped low and produced a diving header to convert the ball over the line following a fine double save from Havanti.

It was 2-0 to the away side on 73 minutes, a long free kick was fired into the Llangollen Penalty area, the unmarked Spartans number 2, Christopher Layne swept the ball in from close range.

Mynydd Isa made the game completely safe on 78 minutes, a neat passing move, enabled Wailes to but the ball into the net with a good side foot finish.

The third goal from the Spartans ended the scoring for the afternoon, the last ten minutes were quite quiet, but, that all changed one minute into injury time. Llangollen number 15, Lompart mis- timed a tackle, the referee came over to caution him but before he could, Lompart pushed his opponent in the face leaving the referee no option but to send Lompart off.

Final Score 0-3

The players shake ends following the end of the game. Summary

This was fantastic day out, both in Llangollen itself and at the Football Club. I received a very warm welcome upon my arrival to the ground. I must say thank you to the Llangollen Town secretary for allowing me to copy the team sheets. Thanks also must go to the first team manager who kindly gave me a programme from a few seasons ago.

I would highly recommend any groundhopper thinking of visiting Tower Field in the future to do so.