Pontardawe League Prog's edition

I'd like to welcome today's match officials to the Marston’s Stadium in our game against Pontardawe. They are Richard Hales, Clive Hewitt and Byron Evans from Bridgend, enjoy the game and we’ll see you in the club afterwards. I’d also like to welcome the officials, players and supporters of Pontardawe. Our opponents are currently lying in the bottom half of the table, but their results have improved recently; therefore they will look to continue that recent form.

Last Tuesday night saw us lose 4-1 at home to Aberaman. Our 1st half display was quite encouraging with debutant Dan McGrath scoring and possibly on another night we could easily have gone in at half time with a 3-0 cushion, but were unable to turn our pressure into goals.

The second half was totally unacceptable with us conceding 4 goals in 30mins. Sometimes I can accept defeat against better opponents, but what hurt so much was the manner of our defeat. Having gone 2-1 down we seemed to throw the towel in, which is unheard of in an Afan Lido side. Our defending was disgraceful and our energy levels and enthusiasm were non existent. As a new manager at the club it showed me what certain players are all about.  Today I will be looking to freshen things up with changes after such a disappointing display. Old and new players need to have a good look at themselves in the mirror because they cannot put in another second half performance like that again. I can only hope that the manner in which we lost the match is hurting the players as much as Dai, Mark, myself and the loyal supporters who had to suffer such an embarrassing second half.

It's been a tough start with four games against top six opponents, but after such a great result against Ton Pentre, the players badly under performed against Aberaman and they have been told in no uncertain terms that losing without putting in 100% will not be tolerated. The old saying "Rome wasn't built in a day" springs to mind and with an abundance of youth talent the future will always be good for this club. These youngsters may well be given a chance sooner rather than later because they play the game without any inhibitions and with plenty of enthusiasm