MAY-14

Goytre crowned league champions

Goytre United lifted their 2nd league title in 3 seasons last night against Caerleon at Glenhafod Park.

Goyt's had the title in the bag by the half time whistle, scoring all 3 goals in the 1st 45 minutes.

Dinas Powys supporters would not have been pleased by the fact that Caerleon were missing 7 first team players from the game, giving Goytre and easy night's work.

Goytre only needed a point to secure the title, but can boast the outright championship as they win the league by 2 points finishing on 78 points, which is in fact 2 points less than they amassed last season when they finished 2nd to Neath Ath.

Congrats to our neighbours and lets hope their youths do us a favour against West End on Sunday.

There are just 2 remaining fixtures to be played to bring the curtain down on the 2007-08 season, tonight Pontardawe host Caldicot Town at Morriston Town's ground and of course our game against Newport YMCA on Saturday.

Tony

MAY-13

Kick off time change for YMCA game

The kick off for the final game of the season away to Newport YMCA has been brought forward.

Kick is now 11:30, which gives more time for the Lido faithful making the trip to get in time to see the cup final.

Tony

MAY-12

Neath Ath to ground share at the Gnoll

Neath's continued presence in the welsh premier has been guaranteed, following the agreement to ground share with Neath rugby club.

The move from Llandarcy park to the Gnoll will see Neath Athletic have the use of the Gnoll which has 3,000 seats which will see them meet the new ground criteria which is necessary to play in the welsh premier from 2009 onwards.

Talks between the 2 clubs have been on going and have now been agreed, and manager Andrew Dyer says that bringing the club into the heart of the town is a good move for Neath Ath, the move safeguards the future of Neath Athletic Football Club."

The club hopes a move into the town will help also to increase attendances at Welsh Premier games.

The playing surface at The Gnoll will be re-laid to cater for the extra games played on it by catering for two teams while the WRU and Welsh Premier will plan to avoid fixture clashes.

Tony

MAY-12

West End held by Goytre in youth clash

West End's attempt to claim runners up spot in the youth's div west was put on hold last night, as they were held to a scoreless draw at Goytre, they are now 1 point behind Carmarthen in 4th place and 2 points behind Lido, with 2 games left to play.

West End require 1 win from their last 2 games to claim runners up spot, but their next game is at home to champions Llanelli on Thursday night.

View league table.

Tony

MAY-11

Division 1 title goes to the wire

The title still goes undecided after all top 3 clubs won again yesterday, the only certainty is that Ton Pentre will finish in 3rd place.

Dinas Powys still head the table following their 2-1 home win over Pontardawe Town, but Goytre are just 1 point behind with a game still left to play against Caerleon which will be played next Tuesday, a point will be enough for Goytre to be crowned champions on goal difference over Dinas Powys, but Goytre will want to win it outright with a victory over the Romans, not such an easy task as Caerleon have one of the best away records in the division, and victory for them could see them finish as Gwent's top club, should Afan Lido beat Newport YMCA next Saturday, and victory for Caerleon will hand a first league title to Dinas Powys, so still all to play for. Yesterday Goytre had a comfortable 3-0 away win over Taffs Well.

There were a few surprise results with Bridgend beating Afan Lido 4-2 at Maesteg's Tudor Park, and already relegated Maesteg beating Newport YMCA 4-1 away. Bryntirion made certain of 5th spot by beating Cwmbran 2-0. Newport's defeat also means that Afan Lido will finish in 6th place regardless of the result against Newport next Saturday.

In division 2 promotion was already settled with Bettws, Barry Town and Cardiff Corries already up, but the 3rd relegation place has been filled by Troedyrhiw who lost 2-0 at home against Caerau, this saw Tredegar Town escape the drop having lost 1-0 away against West End. Troedyrhiw join Briton Ferry and Pontyclun in division 3 next season.

In division 3 Penrhiwceiber Rangers filled the 3rd promotion place following their 3-1 win over Monmouth, they join Pentwyn Dynamos and Newcastle Emlyn, while the only other team who could gain promotion AFC Llwydcoed were held to a 4-4 home draw against Llantwit Fardre.

Tony

MAY-11

Youth's still waiting on runners up spot

Afan Lido's youth team still wait on results from West End's final 3 games to see if they finish the season as runners up to Llanelli. And we are hoping our good cross town buddies Goytre Utd can do the job twice, as West End have to play Goytre home and away today at Glenhafod Park and tomorrow at Pri Deri, they then have their final game on Thursday at home to unbeaten champions Llanelli.

Runners up spot would be a just finish for the lads who have performed brilliantly for the first team in the latter part of the season and have played for both teams several times a week over the last few weeks due to so many postponed games for both teams.

Tony

MAY-10

Bridgend match live updates

Things starting rosy for the Lido as we take the lea on 5 minutes with a goal from Steve Davies his 5th league goal of the season, 1-0.

Not a good start to the 2nd half by Lido, Bridgend drew level on 47 minutes, to make it 1-1, and even
worse 2 minutes later when Bridgend scored again to make it 2-1.

Things got even worse as Raith Plant scored his hat-trick on 62 minutes to make it 3-1 Bridgend, 
but almost straight away Luke Borrelli scored his 1st league goal of the season, to keep us in at 3-2 after
63 minutes. 

A mountain to climb for Lido now as Bridgend regain a 2 goal lead, 4-2 on 76 minutes.

Game over and ended in a 4-2 win for Bridgend, just one more outing left this season, this day week we travel to Newport for a 12 O'clock kick off.

Tony

MAY-10

Under 12's update from Manchester

News just in from gaffer Holmsey from the 5 a side national tournament in Manchester.

Our under 12's have battled they way brilliantly through to the semi-finals of the tournament, more 
updates if the gaffer has time to send them.

The young Lido Lions finally exited the tournament just one step short of the final, they lost 2-0 in the semi-final.

As gaffer Holmsey put it "1 game too far for the lads who were up at 5 in the morning and then had a 4 
hour drive on a mini-bus, were extremely proud of our boys"

Now he is off to his beloved Old Trafford with the lads, have a great evening from all of us.

Tony

MAY-10

Bridgend match preview

Today's game is Bridgend's final game of the season and with nothing at stake for them, they sit in 11th place in the table on 42 points and even a victory for them won't see them move any higher in the table.

We played Bridgend in our very first league game of the season and the game ended all square at 2-2, a game in which Mark Jones scored his first goals for the club, and it was our first draw from 11 so far this season.

Last season we did the double over Bridgend, Shaun Best scored the only goal of the game at the Marston in a 1-0 win, while John Felton & Ianto scored in our 2-0 away win.

Bridgend are one of the league's top scorers with 80 goals, which is 24 more than we have managed, but they have conceded 66 which is the highest outside of the bottom 4 clubs, while we have the meanest defence in the league only conceding 24 goals in 32 games.

With 4th place out of reach for Lido this season, the best we can now achieve is 5th. Bryntirion currently in 5th place host Cwmbran Town in their final game of the season, while Newport YMCA in 7th are at home to Maesteg, Newport are currently 4 points off us but we face them away in our last game of the season, and if we lose to Bridgend and Newport YMCA beat Cwmbran they will be a point below us, with a win over us in the final game would drop us down to 7th (ain't never gonna happen) Only a point against Bridgend with guarantee us 6th spot at the very least, but 5th sounds better.

Good luck to  the team today, which is managed by Dai, Doogs is away in New York celebrating his brothers 50th birthday.

Tony

MAY-10

Team news for today's game against Bridgend Town

Back into the squad comes Karl Roberts, Steve Davies. Out is Kieron Howells.

Our squad has 11 youth players, which I expect at least 6 to be in the starting line up.

L Cosker - R McCreesh - M Beynon - K Roberts - D McGrath - R Whitelock - M Waters - S Davies
C Payne - L Borrelli - D Thomas - S Cox - S Best - S Hughes - N Hodgson - C Thomas.

Tony

MAY-9

U16's looking for a double against Port Talbot

The final takes place between the league's joint champions and see's the only 2 unbeaten sides in the under 16's division fight it out for a double.

Tony

MAY-8

More news on former Lido players

Liam McCreesh is another player in the news, as he has signed up for another season at Port Talbot. 22 year old McCreesh joins Carl Evans in committing themselves to the 2008-09 season at the ReMax. He made 33 starts for the club and managed a fine goal haul of 10 goals from midfield.

Tony

MAY-8

All square between Goytre and Bulldogs

In the night's other games relegated Maesteg Park had a 1-0 win over Pontardawe at Tudor Park, it was Maesteg's 2nd win in a row but the recent winning streak came to late to save them from the drop. The other game Cwmbran and Bridgend draw 2-2.

Local neighbours Briton Ferry were also in action, and played out a 2-2 draw against Troedyrhiw, but a draw was not good enough for Ferry to avoid relegation they have now been relegated for the 2nd time in 3 seasons. Ferry join Pontyclun who are already relegated, the last relegation place is still undecided and will be filled by Treharris Ath, Tredegar Town, Llangeinor or Troedyrhiw.

View league table

Tony

MAY-8

Grove Park & Real Bay View are Champions

Real Bay View will be joining the likes of Cornelly Utd and Grove Park after they won the first division title finishing 5 points clear of the other promoted club Gwynfi Utd. Most of the season Gwynfi were unbeaten and favourites for the title but recent results saw them pipped by Real Bay View with the 2-1 home defeat against Real Bay View being the catalyst, they were also beaten in their last game by Glyncorrwg Hall, so Real Bay View win the title and promotion at their first attempt.

View league table

Tony

MAY-8

Under 19's leave it late to claim a point at Bryntirion

Our goal came a minute from the end when Umberto Brassiello scored the equaliser, his 8th goal of the season.

View league table

Tony

MAY-6

Lido's young guns draw with Aberaman

And first blood went to the Lido with Damon Thomas putting us 1-0 up after 6 minutes, and we held onto that lead at the half time break deservedly ahead and playing well.

In fact we held onto the lead for 83 minutes until ENTO equalised in the 89th minute to deprive our young side all 3 points which would have been a terrific result, but ENTO have been on such rich run of form and avoided defeat for a 7th game in a row.

Tony

MAY-6

Team news for the Aberaman game

The early kick off  off 6:30 and the distance of tonight's game caught out some of the older lads, meaning their will be at least 7 of our youth side starting off the game tonight against ENTO Aberaman.

And to show their worth we took the lead on 6 minutes with a goal from Damon Thomas.

Tonight's Starting line is:

L. Cosker - M Beynon - Remi Whitlock - D Williams - S Morgan - C Payne - D McGrath - C Thomas
L Borrelli - D Thomas - M Waters.

Subs:
R McCreesh - S Hughes - N Hodgson.

Tony

MAY-6

Craig has enjoyed a good first full season with the league champs, which saw him score 9 goals for the Reds, 6 in the league and 3 in the league cup, he also made 27 first team league starts out of the 34 and 2 as a sub, and made 7 appearances in the league cup.

Well done to Craig on his inclusion to the squad.

Two other local players got call ups. Lee Surman of Port Talbot made the full squad, while Neath's Lee Bevan is included in the standby squad.

The full squad is:

Lee KENDALL (Rhyl), Ashley MORRIS (Merthyr Tydfil); Chris THOMAS (Carmarthen Town), Daniel PARSLOW (York City), Kyle CRITCHELL (Weymouth), Gethin JONES (Bath City), Lee SURMAN (Port Talbot Town), Paul KEDDLE (Carmarthen Town), Craig JONES (Llanelli AFC), Craig JONES (Rhyl), Chris HOLLOWAY (Llanelli AFC), Adrian HARRIS (Bath City), Chris VENABLES (Welshpool Town), Michael BYRNE (Northwich Victoria); Rhys GRIFFITHS (Llanelli AFC), Les DAVIES (Bangor City), Graham EVANS (Caersws), Chad BOND (CF Balaguer)

Stand-By:
Lee IDZI (Haverfordwest County), Lee BEVAN (Neath Athletic), Paul FOWLER (Carmarthen Town), Lee HUDGELL (Haverfordwest County), Sion EDWARDS (Bangor City), Marc PRITCHARD (Llanelli AFC)

Tony

MAY-6

Hopefully their fine form will continue Wednesday night when they host Carmarthen Town, and in doing so they will do our side a big favour in putting a few goals past them, at the moment Carmarthen lead us in 2nd place by a better difference of 4 goals.

Port Talbot youths completed their league campaign when they travelled to the New Bridge Meadow to take on bottom but one side Haverfordwest, and the game ended all square in a 2-2 draw. Ports point moved them up to 8th in the table, but Bryntirion are only a point behind with 4 games to play, while Pontardawe are 2 points adrift with 2 games in hand.

View league table 

Tony

MAY-5

This is ENTO's 2nd season in the top division, and they are a force to be reckoned with their excellent financial backing from ENTO. They gave us a right going over in the game at the Marston earlier in the season and came out 4-1 winners, a 2nd half performance which didn't please the gaffer much at all.

Last season we did the double over ENTO winning both games 2-0, but we will be hard pushed to repeat that away scoreline Tuesday night. ENTO have the highest home points tally in the division, though they have lost at home in the league on 4 occasions to Ton Pentre, Dinas Powys, Newport YMCA and Caerleon.

Team news to follow when I receive it.

So good luck to our young side on Tuesday night and against Bridgend on the 10th.

Tony

MAY-5

We travel to play Bryntirion on Wednesday night in our final game of the season, and a win could see our youths claim runners spot if other results go our way over the next 2 weeks, we will also be looking to complete the double over Bryntirion following our 3-0 win over them at the start of the season with goals from Remi Whitelock, Carl Payne & Luke Borrelli.

Currently we are joint 2nd in the table with Carmarthen, but they play their last game of the season against runaway leaders Llanelli who have a 100% record of 20 games played and 20 wins, so it should be 21 from 21 when they play Carmarthen (fingers crossed), the only other team who can challenge both ourselves and Carmarthen are West End (they are 5 points behind with 3 games in hand), they suffered a set back on Sunday losing at home to Port Talbot 3-1. West End still have play Goytre twice and Cwmaman Inst, plus Llanelli, so it is going to be a tight finish, the biggest thing in our favour is West End have to play 4 games in 8 days.

The other thing that has to be settled is the top scorer for the youths, currently Luke Borrelli heads the table with 9 goals, closely followed by Steve Hughes on 8, Umberto Brassiello on 7 and 3 other players on 6 each.

No doubt a good number of our youths will feature against ENTO Aberaman on Tuesday night, and hopefully they will still be fresh for the Bryntirion game 24 hours later.

View league table

Tony

MAY-2

The former Lido defender made 7 starts and 2 sub appearances for the club since his arrival in January, and made his mark on Port Talbot's manager saying “Carl has really impressed me since signing in January. I feel that in the next couple of seasons he could become one of the best centre backs in the Welsh Premier”.

While Carl has signed up other Lido ex Liam McCreesh would be expected to follow suit, Liam had an impressive first season for the club and finished their 2nd top scorer with 8 league goals from 27 starts and 5 sub appearances.

Tony

MAY-1

Round of of last night's games

Dinas Powys take over at the top of the table following their 8-1 hammering of Bridgend Town at the Murch, Ton Pentre move up to 2nd place after they romped home 6-0 winners at Tudor Park against Maesteg Park, ENTO Aberaman also won 3-1 against Taffs Well to record their 6th win on the trot, but their good run of form has come to late for them with just one game remaining. The other remaining div 1 game saw Cwmbran host Gwent rivals Caerleon, with the Romans winning out 2-1. Goytre can can move back to the top of the division if they beat Bridgend at home Friday night.

Maesteg are all but relegated following their defeat to Ton Pentre, they lie 11 points adrift of safety with 4 games left, Croesyceiliog require just a point from their final 2 games to be safe assuming Maesteg were to win all of their final 4 games, which looks an impossible task as they have won just 4 times all season.

One promotion place was decided last night, in division 2 Cardiff Corinthians secured the last promotion place against West End one of two clubs who could have caught them, they came out 2-1 winners and clinch promotion along with Bettws and Barry Town. Relegation from division 2 is still undecided as any 3 from 7 can make the drop.

Tony