DEC-29

Live Neath match updates

THIS PAGE UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EVERY MINUTE

The starting line up for the game is

Brian Thomas: Chris Latham: Steve Parry: Dan Williams: Carl Evans: Craig Martin: Liam McCreesh: Matt Lavis: Ianto Jones: Craig Jones: Greg Hurley.

Subs: Karl Lewis: John Felton: Carl Edwards.

FIRST HALF:

We took the lead on 19 minutes with a Dan Williams free kick from all of 50 yards.

But within a minute Neath grabbed an equaliser:

Three minutes after Neath's equaliser we regained the lead with a goal from Liam McCreesh: 2-1 to Lido 23 mins gone.

It get's better, on 26 minutes Greg Hurley increased our lead and score now 3-1, the players from both sides are having to contend with strong cross winds (slightly in our favour) and driving rain,

41 minutes gone and 4-1 to Lido, goal scored by "who else" Ianto. our 3 goal advantage lasted just 3 mins, as Neath closed the gap to 4-2 on 44 minutes.

First half bookings for Lido were Chris Latham and Steve Parry.

SECOND HALF:

On 63 mins, Neath are back in it with their 3rd goal of the game, score 4-3 Lido, "time to blow the whistle ref"

5 minutes left and no more updates from Llandarcy Park so score still 4-3 to Lido :)

With the very last kick of the game Neath scored :(and the final score at Llandarcy Park Neath 4-4 Lido.

Some would have settled for a point before the game against the league leaders, but at 4-1 up I was sure we were going to take all three points, but Neath are not top of the league for nothing, and fair play to them for not giving in and making a good comeback. 

Neath extend their unbeaten run to 7 games, while tonight was the start of our new unbeaten run.

The biggest winners of tonight's game must be Pontypridd, they are now just 3 points behind Neath but have 3 games in hand, we also have played the same number of games as Pontypridd (14) but are now 7 points behind them, but there's a long way to go in the season yet.

My thanks to Alan Howells and Rich Taylor for keeping me informed from a damp and windy night in Neath.

View league table

Tony

DEC-29

Local trio confirm bids for WPL status

Tony

DEC-27

Reserves look for winning return

Though improving on the 4th place will not be easy, even a win over Cwmamman could see us remain in 4th as the 3 teams above us all have what should be handy games against teams from the lower reaches of the division. Leaders Garden Village take on bottom but one side Maesteg, 2nd placed Neath travel to Pontardawe in 10th, and 3rd placed Goytre are at home to 12th placed Seven Sisters.

Tony

DEC-26

Neath team news and preview

And we have a fit squad available, Car Evans is back from his 3c game suspension, and Chris Latham should also be fit to face Neath.

Good news is that Ianto should be back and available for the game.

In this fixture last season we travelled to Llandarcy Park when Neath were runaway league leaders and we came away with all 3 points, winning 2-1, with goals from Carl Edwards and Karl Lewis.

This season see's Neath still top of the tree, though there are far more teams in the hunt this season than just Neath and Goytre which was a 2 horse race.

This is going to be a tough task for the team, as Neath have a terrific home record this season, in their 6 home games the only team to claim a point was Ton Pentre last time out when it ended 2-2, and Neath missed a penalty late in the game to take all 3 points.

Though they have not met any top half team other than the Bulldogs is their other 5 games. If we can turn the spurned chances of the first half against Ton Pentre into goals we could pull off another win at Llandarcy and close the gap at the top.

Tony

DEC-25

Gaffer's "how we doing so far"

Gaffa Phil's how's it going so far.

Q- How such a bad start after a good pre-season?
With such a good pre-season the boys heaped a lot of pressure on themselves but now they are much more relaxed.
We didn't deserve to win against Neath but we felt we could've got a draw. Chances we few and far between and our best chance came to sub John Felton when he came
on.
With Pontardawe it was difficult to break them down and they caught us with a sucker punch in the last 15mins.
Those two games are now in the history books and we have to look forward now.
The boys attitude and application both in training and on match days has been 2nd to none.

Q- Are you looking forward to the Christmas period? We obviously had a plan in place at the beginning of the season and at this moment in time things are ticking along nicely. We have a tough Christmas period - Ely Rangers home (16th), Ton Pentre away (19th), & Neath away (30th) but if we are to achieve anything this year then we'll do it the hard way.

Q- What's changed within the club?
The atmosphere within the club is enjoyable at the moment and this was proved at the end of the Croesy game when 20 odd junior players ran onto the pitch to celebrate with us.
That was an exciting game which could've gone either way. It was disappointing to lose such an influential player such as Carl Evans. He has been sensational for us in central defence. He's a player who could make the grade as a Welsh Premier quite easily.
But in his place we have Old Evo (Paul Evans) who certainly won't let us down.

Q- On players???????
We seem to have a good balance of youth and experience in the right areas.
With Ian Jones on fire at the moment we are sure that Welsh Premier sides must be taking notice of him.
Greg Hurley and Steve Parry have been a revelation for us, as both are no spring chickens but have the energy and enthusiasm that certainly rubs off on the youngsters.
It's been good that we can call on our youth products Carl Payne, Corey Thomas and Aaron Keefe.
These are players who have had a taste of 1st team football and we're sure enjoyed it. They will certainly be part of the future of Afan Lido, sooner rather than later.

Q- What about John Felton?
Bringing John Felton back to the club was easier than we thought. He phoned up the club and asked when training was. Phil Robinson took the call and it was like the prodigal son had returned. He provides us so many options as he is good in the air and is frighteningly quick. Liam Mcreesh is actually on the casualty list but he's playing through the pain barrier every week as that's the type of player you get with Liam.
With more experience from Shaun O'Leary and Brian Thomas the spine of the side you couldn't ask for a better bunch of players to work with at this moment in time.

Q- What about a domestic treble?
We're enjoying our football  at the moment and providing everyone stays injury free we'll do very well.
As for all three. We're certainly not going to count our chickens before they have hatched but who knows.

Tony and Phil

DEC-24

Website breaks 350 barrier

This comes as a bit of a surprise as it being Christmas week and every one busy shopping and the like, and we are on course to break the 6,000 visits for a month as of 22nd we stand at 5,630 with 9 days to go, and our daily average is 256, no doubt the visits will drop off dramatically over the Xmas break but we should break 6,000

Visit web stats page

Tony

DEC-24

Under 13's cup final date and time

The game takes place next Thursday 28th December At Ynys Park (Trefelin's ground) kick off time is 2pm.

Tony

DEC-23

Lido games over the festive period

First game on is on Boxing day when we have a past vs. Present

Then on new years day we have the charity game for the blast Furnace, When we take on Aberavon Quins, this year the code is soccer. 

Kick off for both games is @ 11:00 am

Tony and Phil

DEC-23

Under 9's update

Lido Colts 3-0 Bryn Juniors - Matthew James 2, Liam Kilnan 1.

Trefelin BGC (B) 2-1 Lido Rangers - Liam Matthews 1.

Team news Training restarts 5th January. No games over Christmas next game 6/1/06

View under 9's menu

Tony Mark and Geoff

DEC-20

Gaffer's feature for Xmas day

Why have it on Xmas day? well it will give me a chance get away from the living room and having to sit through Willie Wonka for the 50th time. And it will give some of you an excuse for a break as well. What better way to spend 5 minutes than with a can of mad apple juice in one hand and the mouse in the other, browsing through your favourite website.

Tony                 

DEC-19

Ton Pentre match round up

In the second half Ton Pentre were playing much better than their first half performance, and got the equaliser on 71 minutes, which was our first away goal conceded this season in the league.

Disaster struck on 80 minutes when Ton went 2-1 ahead, and we didn't look like getting back into, and the game finished 2-1 to the Bulldogs.

Match report to follow tomoz.

View league table

Tony

DEC-19

Ton Pentre team news and preview

More bad team news ahead of our very tough game against Ton Pentre.

News is in that club top scorer Ianto Jones is out for possibly 5 weeks with a fractured wrist, this comes on top of Shaun O'Leary's 3 match ban for his red card against Ely Rangers on Saturday, also Carl Evans is missing as he has one more match suspension following his red card at home against Croesyceiliog, but he will be available for the Neath game.

Justin Williams is only rated as 50/50.

But in comes John Felton to replace the injured Ianto Jones, and Karl Lewis could also make the squad to face the Bulldogs.

Match Preview

This is possibly our biggest game of the season so far as far as the league is concerned, with Ton in 3rd place and ourselves in 4th, its a game neither team can afford to lose, with the way Pontypridd are blowing away all who come before them. 

Ton have lost just 2 games all season out of their 13 and notably both defeats have come at home. The first was on the opening day of the season when ENTO Aberaman came away with a 2-0 victory, and the second was a month ago losing 1-0 to Croesyceiliog. They have 3 wins to their credit over, Grange Quins 4-1, Taffs Well 6-0 and 3-2 against Ely Rangers.

We can boast a 100% away winning record played 4 won 4 and still to concede a goal away, while scoring 13. Only Pontypridd has a better winning away record winning all 6 of their 6 away games.

While we are without our 23 goal star striker, John Felton comes into the side with 7 goals from 10 league and cup games.

A win would take us 2 points clear of the Bulldogs with a game in hand, a defeat was not even to be considered by Gaffer Phil, when we contacted each other after last Saturdays 2-1 win over Ely.

The lads are up for league game 11 without a loss and 17 overall. 

At the start of the season Mark Robbo made a statement that after our first league win which came against ENTO Aberaman we could go on a 20 match unbeaten league run, while that would be a great achievement a 34 match unbeaten run would be even better ;)

Tony and Phil

DEC-19

Ladies league update

The other game saw a one sided contest with Pontardawe beating Pontypridd 6-0 at Pontardawe.

Pontardawe's win now see's a 7 point gap open up between ourselves and the bottom two below us and the top 6 teams.

View league table

Tony

DEC-19

Under 7's break from training

After Thursday there will be no training for 2 weeks for the under 7's
Their next training session will be on January 11th.

Tony and Peter

DEC-18

Merthyr extend lead in youth league

Merthyr had little trouble in beating Llanelli 3-0, to increase the gap at the top. 

While at the other end of the table ENTO Aberaman moved off the bottom of the table following their 4-0 win over Byrntirion, this was ENTO Aberaman's first win of the season. This now leaves Haverfordwest rock bottom of the table, the only other game saw Carmarthen win 5-1 away at Pontardawe.

View league table

Tony.

DEC-17

Cup quarter final now at the Marston

Newport County have use of the ground for that date, they host Conference South table toppers Histon, so the games venue has been reversed, kick is off is 1:30 pm.  

Tony.

DEC-17

Website breaks 300 barrier

Next milestone 350.

Visit stats page

Tony.

DEC-16

Other Lido results this weekend

The under 12's played Margam today, and had little trouble in seeing off the opposition putting 9 past them for no reply. Our scorers were: Kyle Cockings (3) Jake Price (1) Jack Underwood (1) Rhys Rigdon (1) Sam O'Connor (1) Ryan Jones (1) and Sean Griffiths (1). It's the 2nd time this month we have faced Margam and both games have totalled 17 goals, hard to stop them scoring.

Tony, Peter and Janine

DEC-16

U7's sponsored penalty shoot out

Every player scored 10 goals each so will collect maximum sponsor money, which will hopefully pay for the team tracksuits. Not a fix, honest!! 

Also it is their Christmas Party in the clubhouse on Monday 18th at 7pm-9pm.

Tony, and Rhiannon

DEC-16

Ely Rangers match round up

We went 1-0 up after 11 minutes with a Craig Jones goal. But Ely equalised on 23 minutes, they took a corner that Brian failed to collect and the Rangers number 5 tapped it into the net.

We re-took the lead on 42 minutes with a Liam McCreesh goal to go in at half time leading 2-1.

The game took a twist on 60 minutes when Shaun O'Leary was red carded, but after soaking up some pressure the 11 men of Ely threw at us the team held out for a 2-1 win and extend our league unbeaten run to 10 games.

Match report to follow.

Tony

DEC-15

Ely Rangers team news and preview

Team news ahead of the Ely Rangers clash tomorrow see's the Lido unchanged from last weeks game against Maesteg.

Gaffer Evs is a 50/50 and if fit could slot into defence in place of the suspended Carl Evans?

The only other addition is that of Karl Lewis who is back from the land of Auz, and is on standby.

The club would like to wish Maesteg's Nicky Cole a speedy recovery from the broken jaw he sustained in the cup clash last week.

Nicky meet Alan Howell's today and told him he will be out of action for about 6 weeks. He said he hopes to be alright to be able eat his Xmas dinner.

Ely Rangers preview

Tomorrow's opponents at the Marston are Ely Rangers. Last seasons fixture ended in a 1-0 win for us with Ianto (who else) scoring the winning goal.

We are looking to extend our league's unbeaten run into double figures (10) We have to go back to 19th August for our last league and home defeat. Ely are on a 3 watch losing steak, but they are no strangers to winning on the road, they have 3 away wins to their credit, having victories over Dinas Powys 3-0, Barry Town 4-3 and Croesyceiliog 2-1 and in their last away game came close to causing an upset against Ton Pentre losing 3-2, having been 2-0 up at one stage.

They have suffered 5 away defeats and all have come by just the odd goal. They have mustered 9 of their 13 points on the road So they will be no pushovers tomorrow. But we must be favourites to achieve our 16th unbeaten game on the trot.

Re-arranged fixture

Our recent postponed game away to Pontypridd, has been re-arranged for Tuesday 13th of March.

Tony

DEC-13

Lido Ladies update

The most surprising result saw Swansea City lose their 100% record when they were held to a draw away to Bridgend 2-2.

There were also wins for Ferndale who beat bottom club Pontypridd 5-2, and UWIC saw off Haverfordwest comfortably 4-0.

View updated Ladies table

Tony

DEC-12

Lido supporter passes away

Steve has been a loyal supporter following Karl in all his football and could be seen at both first team and reserve matches.

Our sympathies to Karl and his family on their loss.

Tony & Peter

DEC-12

Lido supporter passes away

Steve has been a loyal supporter following Karl in all his football and could be seen at both first team and reserve matches.

Our sympathies to Karl and his family on their loss.

Tony & Peter

DEC-11

Heading towards 50,000 visits

The current visitor count is 44,071 up to December 10th, and 318,896 page views up to the end of November.

On December 9th we had a record 291 unique visitors access the website. Our best day for page views was October 17th with 2,198.

We are now getting almost 6,000 unique visitors a month, and well over 40,000 page views, these figures are almost double since the website first started.  

Hopefully these figures will prompt people to inquire about website sponsorship, and generate some income for the club, with the growing audience the website is now attracting.

The link to access these stats is at the very bottom of the navigation menu.

To view the website stats click here

Tony

DEC-11

Under 10 Rangers beat Cwmafan 12-1

Tony  & Geoff

DEC-11

Under 9's results and info updated

The updated results show our under 9 Colts had a 4-2 home win of Baglan, our scorers were young Regan Taylor notching a hat-trick and Matthew James with the 4th.

View under 9's menu

Tony & Mark

DEC-09

Lido into the last 8 of the cup

It took us time to get into the game with Maesteg having the better of the first half hour. On 37 minutes Ianto scored our first of the game, to take us 1-0 up at half time.

On 70 minutes we doubled our lead with Ianto getting his 2nd of the game, John Felton in his first game back from injury made it 3-0, and Shaun O'Leary finished off the scoring with the 4th.

The score line seems to have flattered us a bit as Maesteg rested 5 of their first team for the cup game today.

Report and stats update to follow.

Tony

DEC-09

Ianto leads the way

Novembers player of the month vote has now closed.

Ian Jones wins his 2nd monthly award topping the vote with 17 votes, he was closely followed by Carl Evans on 14 votes. Last months winner Shaun O'Leary came 3rd with 10.

I have compiled a table including all 168 votes cast so far for the 3 months of voting, which will lead to our player of the season come March.

View the table votes to date

Tony

DEC-09

Ladies looking for 2nd league win

Our Ladies team take on rock bottom side Pontypridd Town this Sunday at the Marston, and they go looking for their 2nd league win of the season.

Having won our first league game of the season, with a 3-2 win at Haverfordwest, we have suffered 6 defeats on the trot.

Pontypridd rooted to the bottom of the league have lost all 5 of their games so far this season, and have suffered some heavy defeats their worst performance coming at home against Swansea when the lost 11-1.

The Ladies will be up for this game and we should start favourites, weather allowing and that we can field a full team. They would welcome your support at the game to cheer them on.

Tony

DEC-08

Team news for Maesteg cup clash

Team news for the Shamrock cup game at the Marston this Saturday.

We welcome back striker John Felton to the squad after his long lay off with injury, John is the clubs 2nd top scorer with 6 goals in league and cup games. Also back are Carl Edwards and Paul Evans.

Out go Aaron Keefe, Carl Evans and Phil Holmes.

Tomorrow is the last day for voting for your player of the month vote, so cast your vote if you haven't already.

Tony

DEC-07

Under 12's scorers table added today

Today I have added a scorers table for the under 12's. And two players lead the way in the table, young Jack Underwood leads the way with 16 goals, closely followed by Jake Price on 13, these two lads have scored 29 of the 45 goals for the team.

A squad page will also be added if someone can send me in the players names.

View under 12 scorers table

Tony

DEC-07

Youths game against Pontardawe brought forward

Our youth team were due to face Pontardawe next Tuesday night at the Marston, but the game has been brought forward to the Monday night instead (11 Dec)

The youths will be looking to maintain their unbeaten league record and close the gap on division leaders Merthyr.

Check youth fixtures

Tony

DEC-06

Ianto strikes again

Our leading goalscorer Ianto strikes again! and without kicking a ball since last Friday night.

The first goal against Croesyceiliog which was originally credited to Carl Evans has now been awarded to Ian, and that took his tally in the game to a brace. this now takes his league tally up to 12 goals, and 21 including all cup competitions, way ahead of any other player in the welsh league.

Carl was hoping Ianto would let him keep the goal seeing as Ian has so many already , and wouldn't miss just the one, but Ian is after the league's golden boot and every one counts.

View squad stats

Tony

DEC-06

U8 results for Saturday

Our under 8's teams games survived the bad weather on Saturday, with one team winning and one losing.

The Colts took on Porthcawl BGC at home and it was the visitors who came out on top winning by 7-3.

Our Rangers boys took on nearest rivals Port Talbot, and the Lido came out on top, as we tend to do with almost all under age sides. The boys won out 2-1 home winners

View under 8's menu

Tony & Simon

DEC-05

Ladies team in player crisis

The Ladies team are facing a player shortage crisis that threatens to ruin their season.

Only having a squad size of 17 players, 3 of whom only train and do not play, they have suffered 3 players leaving in the last week, leaving just 11 available players.

On a recent trip to face Ferndale, just 7 players turned up. And in their last game away to UWIC they travelled with only 10 player losing 9-1.

So any injuries or absenteeism in future games could see the team suffering a heavy defeat or having to forfeit the game.

Any one visiting the website that would like to get involved in the ladies team can contact me at lidofc@aol.com and I will forward on details of how to get in touch with the Ladies management.

View Ladies updated table

Tony

DEC-05

Wins for both under 11's Saturday

Scorers were Liam Davies and Sam Glover.

U'11 Rangers took on Bryn Rockets at home and won 7-1.

Kane Devonald 2, Jordan Doyle 2, Gavin Thomas 2 and Sam Tucker.

Incidentally our GK Luke Fleming was redundant in goals for us and their coach were asked if Luke could occupy his goals as mini football is all about fun and non-competitiveness. Their coach kindly agreed releasing their GK to play out as they did not have a recognised GK.

This made Luke even more determined not to be beaten by his own team mates and pulled off a string of good saves..

Luke showed a great character in playing in goal for the opposition and the Bryn coach was superb in his attitude towards the request All in all every kid enjoyed a cold wintry morning by doing the thing they enjoy

………….no not homework………playing football

WELL DONE TO THE COACH AND PLAYERS OF BRYN ROCKETS

I WISH MORE COACHES AND TEAMS HAD YOUR ATTITUDE.

                                BRILLIANT

Tony & Gaffer Phil

DEC-04

Comfortable win for under 10's Rangers

The Rangers took on Porthcawl B at home on Saturday and ended up winning 4–1.

The scorers were Jordan Lloyd, Charlie Purchase, Jordan Noakes and Harri Kain-Thomas.

The team was Aaron Davies (GK), Tomos Wheadon, Charlie Purchase, Jake Howe, Dean Curtis, Matthew Morgan, Jared Price, Aaron Gough, Ethan Robinson, Harri Kain-Thomas, Jordan Noakes and Jordan Lloyd.

View under 10 menu.

Tony & Geoff

DEC-02

Under 12 win cup semi-final @ Margam

Our under 12's travelled to Margam in the Challenge cup semi-final and came out very comfortable winners by 8-0.

Young Jake Price scored a hat-trick and Jack Underwood grabbed himself 5, to claim a place in the final.

Tony & Janine

DEC-01

Team news & match preview

Tonight we take on Croesyceiliog in the first meeting of the two clubs & the Marston in a league match.

Croesyceiliog are enjoying their first season in the top division of the welsh league, & currently lie in 13th position in the league. Most of Croesyceiliog's games have been away from home, having played 9 of their 13 games on the road & they have done fairly well winning 4 & losing 5. 

Last time out they narrowly lost to leaders Neath Athletic 2-1, but they have had two notable scalps on the way with a 3-1 win at Taffs Well when Taffs were in the top two, and more recently they had a very good 1-0 win at Ton Pentre this month, other victories have came against Barry Town 3-1 & Caerleon 2-0, their defeats have come against Neath 1-2, Maesteg 0-3, Grange Quins 0-1, Bryntirion 4-5 & Dinas Powys 0-1.

This is our last league game for 2 weeks so it is important we take all 3 points to keep up with leaders before we face Ely Rangers at home on Dec 16th.

I knew Croesyceiliog's manager (Chris Evans) well back in the 70's when we both worked for the same electrical contractor, working in Girlings factories in Cwmbran & New Inn, I was an apprentice and he was a spark. He used to like a flutter on the Gee Gee's so hopefully his money will be on a home win ;) but his taste in teams was not great (Wolves fan)

Ahead of our clash tonight there is only one absentee from the long term injuries to the squad.

Along with John Felton & Dan Williams, Gaffer Paul Evans is out with an eye injury & Carl Edwards is rated at 50/50.

Into the squad comes: Liam McCreesh, Justin Williams and Gaffer Phil.

There will be no match update after tonight's game as I will be out at my shifts Xmas drink, but hopefully Alan will keep me informed as usual by text on the game.

Updates to come Saturday afternoon.

Tony