Pontypridd Town League Prog's edition

Good afternoon and welcome to the officials, players and supporters of Pontypridd Football Club to the Marston’s Stadium for this afternoon’s MacWhirter Welsh League Division One match. We’d also like to welcome the three officials and we hope you enjoy the game.

Although our opponents are bottom but one in the league, their recent results have improved therefore we cannot take anything for granted. 

Having accepted the manager’s job 2 weeks ago, the welcome I received was very encouraging after last playing for the club 12 years ago. The club remains as ambitious as ever and there now seems to be a real buzz around the place. Unfortunately the older players who have contributed a huge amount over the last decade have left the club; therefore there is now a chance to build a new team that is going to take the club hopefully to the next level.

My first signing will be the most significant signing of the season and that is Dai Rees coming back to his roots as my assistant. Dai came on board on Thursday and I'm delighted to have the opportunity of working with him again. Together I'm sure we can get the best out of the current crop of players and other players we may sign in January.

The last match ironically against my former club Goytre United turned out to be a close encounter. I thought we just about shaded the first half, but in the second half Goytre got on top and kept the ball better than ourselves and they were rewarded with a 1-0 victory. The second half performance by ourselves showed to me that we clearly need to work on fitness levels and ball retention and that is something we have done over the last two weeks.

Carl Edwards and Chris Latham both sit out a one game suspension and Steve Parry has work commitments for another two weeks. The squad is a little thin on the ground so there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve our goal of Welsh Premier football. It was very refreshing speaking to the Chairman and Secretary about  being really positive in their attitude about Welsh Premier League and together with Dai and Mark Robinson hopefully we can achieve that aim within a couple of seasons. What I will say is that it won’t be for the lack of trying on our behalf.

Enjoy the game,

Craig