FEBRUARY 2010

Live updates on the Bala Town welsh cup game (Feb 27) 14:20

Almost half an hour gone and no score at Maes Tegid. Afan Lido are playing very well in the game so far, 38' gone still 0-0.
Half time: Bala 0-0. Lido still playing good football.

2nd half:
Lido make a change at half time, with James McEvoy coming on for captain Chris Pridham.
75' gone and defender Shaun Galsworthy comes off injured and is replaced by Luke Borrelli, score still 0-0.
Full time is up at Maes Tegid and the game is now into extra time.
Bala take the lead 1-0 8' into injury time, Bala's scorer was Osian Jones.
Lido make their last substitution with Ellis Harris coming on for Rob Cockings on 114'.
Bala look to have sealed victory with a 2nd goal to make it 2-0 on 120'.
Final whistle blows and a gallant effort by Lido was not enough today and it's Bala Town who go through to the semi finals..

Neighbours Port Talbot made it through to the semi's after beating TNS on penalties, Prestatyn came from 4-2 to down to beat Rhyl also on penalties.

Afan Lido line up for today's welsh cup clash with Bala Town is:
Mike Lewis, Rob Cockings, Scott Hillman, Shaun Galsworthy, Corey Thomas, Carl Payne, Gavin Jones, C Pridham (Capt), Scott McCourbrey, Mark Jones, Nathan White.

Subs:
James McEvoy, Luke Borrelli, Ellis Harris, Vince Lewis.

It was a better result for Lido's Reserves who ran out 4-2 winners in the league against South Gower.

 
Bala Town welsh cup preview (Feb 26) 01:00

Saturday the team face the long journey up north to take on Bala Town in the welsh cup, in our toughest cup game so far which is all you would expect reaching this stage of the competition.

We take on a team that looks good odds to make the welsh premiers new look super 12 for next season. They currently lie in 8th place in the WPL and 10 points clear of possible relegation, they have won 5 out of their 10 home games in the league, but have only beat 1 team at home that are currently in the top 6, most of their wins have been against the basement boys, their losses have come against Rhyl 4-0 and Carmarthen 3-1. But it is their first season in the welsh premier since winning the Alliance league last season and they have made many new signings to consolidate their place for next season, their top goalscorers are Ricky Evans with 7 and John Toner with 6, they are the lowest scorers of any WPL team in the top 10 and currently have a goal difference of minus 3, but they are currently a team on form, with 4 wins and 1 loss in their last 5 games.

Lido can boast better league form with 5 wins in the last 5 games and only conceded 2 goals, and unbeaten in our last 10 games in all competitions, our top scorers are Nathan White on 14 and Mark Jones on 6, it's good to see Nathan back to his goal scoring form of earlier in the season after a bit of a barren spell, and He and Jonah will no doubt be a handful for the Bala defence given half a chance. We go into the game on the back of 2 away wins which has helped us climb up to joint 2nd in the table taking the pressure off relying on our excellent home form, we have no major injury worries ahead of the game but we are missing 3 players, Damon Thomas and Jon Hood both miss the trip through suspensions and Robbie Walters is cup tied.

 
Youth's collect 3 points on visit west (Feb 24) 04:30

The Youth's were in action in west Wales last night, and came away with a good 4-2 win over Haverfordwest, it was their first win in 4 games following 3 straight defeats. The scorers were Callum Fleming with a hat-trick and Nathan Doyle.
View league table

 
Date set for league cup semi-final (Feb 21) 20:10

Afan Lido v Goytre Utd in the league cup semi-final will be played at Maesteg Park on Thursday 18th March, our league game against Goytre that was set for the next day (Friday 19th) will now have to be re-arranged.

 
Reserves win, but 3rd's lose (Feb 21) 09:50

Afan Lido Reserves won on the road at Ammanford yesterday beating the home side by a single goal, our scorer was Simon Witheridge.
Lido's 3rd team were not as lucky and were on the wrong end of a 5-1 defeat, Scott Williams scored Lido's goal from the penalty spot.

 
Afan Lido v Aberaman match summary (Feb 20) 17:30

Afan Lido make it 9 home wins on the trot with a deserved 2-0 home win over champions Aberaman. And their thorn in the side for the visitors was Lido's top scorer Nathan White who scored both Lido's goals, to take his tally to 14 in the league.

Lido had to wait until the 73' to break the deadlock, and 7' later the goal that killed Aberaman came to wrap up the scoring. That's now 7 games unbeaten and 5 wins in a row. Unfortunately we still only share 2nd place as Caldicot saw off Ton Pentre at Ynys Park 3-1.

Lido line up:
M Lewis, S Galsworthy, R Cockings, S Hillman, G Jones, C Pridham, C Thomas, S McCourbrey, M Jones, N White, R Walters.

Subs:
J Hood, L Borrelli, J McEvoy, V Lewis.

Man of the match: Corey Thomas.

Attendance: 75.

 
Afan Lido v Aberaman match preview (Feb 19) 01:30

Lido take on the current welsh league champions tomorrow at the Marston Stadium, and we could reach our highest league position of the season, and claim 2nd spot outright, but first we need to better Caldicot's result and claim at 3 or at least a point against Aberaman.
It is looking highly unlikely that Aberaman will retain their champions crown, as they trail leaders Goytre by 12 points.
Their current form see's them with just 2 wins in their last 10 games, and has seen them drop from a comfortable 2nd spot to 6th.
Their away form is pretty good with 4 wins and a draw from their 7 away games, their 2 losses have come at Bryntirion 3-1 and Goytre 3-0.
Their squad is much changed from their title winning team of last season, and they also have a new manager following last season's manager leaving to join up with Deryn Brace at Carmarthen.
Our home form as I keep mentioning in the previews is the best in the league 1 loss from 9 league games and 8 victories on the trot, we also have the meanest defence in the division with only 5 goals against in those 8 games.
A win will see us move further away from the teams below us as 4 of them face each other this weekend, and we also have games in hand on all of all the teams below us except 1 down as far as Barry Town in 9th.

 
Afan Lido squad to play Aberaman (Feb 19) 01:20

The 14 man Afan Lido squad to to face Aberaman Athletic in the welsh league game on Saturday at the Marston is:
M Lewis, J Hood, S Galsworthy, R Cockings, S Hillman, G Jones, C Pridham, C Thomas, L Borrelli, S McCourbrey, J McEvoy, M Jones, N White, R Walters.
C Payne and Damon Thomas, miss the game through Suspension.

  
Lido's cup opponents for League cup's announced (Feb 15) 19:30

The draw for the semi final of the Nathaniel cup and the Reserve cup have been made, and the first's face a derby while Reserves drawn at home.
Afan Lido will play neighbours Goytre Utd (neutral venue) date yet to be announced. The other semi final is between Barry Town and Croesyceiliog.
The Reserves have been drawn at home to Cardiff Corinthians in the last 8 of the Reserve cup.

  
Lido's cup opponents win again. (Feb 15) 05:35

Bala Town are on a roll following Friday night's 2-1 away win over Cefn Druids which see's them comfortably in the top 10 and sitting pretty in 7th place. It was the Lakesiders 5th win in a row, and they must be in buoyant mood coming into our cup quarter final on the 27th.
Their manager Colin Caton received the welsh premier league's manager of the month for January on the back of their recent good form.

  
Afan Lido Reserves see off Neath in the cup (Feb 13) 17:35

Afan Lido Reserves were in Reserve division cup duty today at home to Neath, and Lido came out 2-0 winners.

Goals from Callum Fleming and an own goal sealed victory and a place in round 3.

  
Afan Lido squad v Ely Rangers match summary (Feb 13) 14:00
 Afan Lido starting line up:

M Lewis, J Hood, C Thomas, S Hillman, S Galsworthy, Damon Thomas, G Jones, S McCourbrey, N White, M Jones, R Walters.
Subs: C Pridham, L Borrelli, J McEvoy, Vince Lewis.

FIRST HALF:
Lido get on the scoresheet after 18' with a goal from Mark Jones, 1-0 Lido. And that's all the goal action of the first half.
SECOND HALF:
On 60' Lido had the chance to double the lead from the penalty spot, but the Ely keeper made the save to keep the score at 1-0.
On 72' Afan Lido went 2-0 up with a goal from Robbie Walters. Damon Thomas gets his marching orders for picking up 2 yellow cards, in fact the ref seems to be yellow card happy, he has issued 7 to Afan Lido and 4 to Ely. So now Lido have to hold out for the last quarter of the game with 10 men.
Ely get a goal back against 10 man Lido in the 93', but it's not enough and another 3 points for Lido to consolidate 3rd place. Today's win makes it 2 away wins in 5 days and 3 wins in a week, Lido are now unbeaten in the last 6 games with 4 wins from those 6 games.
MOTM: Scott Hillman.

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Afan Lido squad to face Ely Rangers (Feb 13) 06:30
There are just two changes to the squad from the Taffs Well game, in come Robbie Walters & Luke Borrelli, and out are Rob Cockings & Matt Harris.

M Lewis, J Hood, C Thomas, S Hillman, S Galsworthy, Damon Thomas, G Jones, C Pridham, S McCourbrey, N White, M Jones, R Walters, L Borrelli, J McEvoy.

  
Afan Lido v Ely Rangers match preview (Feb 12) 11:30
Saturday afternoon we visit Ely Rangers are their Station Road ground. Following Tuesday night's win over Taffs Well, we now find ourselves in our highest league position of the season (3rd) and a win over 17th placed Ely will see us stay in 3rd. We had a comfortable 4-0 home win over the Cardiff side in October.
Ely Rangers have taken 7 points from their 9 home league games, which has seen them win just twice a 4-1 win over Bridgend in their opening home game, and a 5-2 win over Bryntirion. They have lost their last 4 home games and only managed 1 goal in those 4 defeats. There was no fixture against them last season as they were in division 2 and their promotion back into the top division might be a short one with a minimum of 5 teams being relegated at the end of the season.
Our win over Taffs Tuesday night was hailed as one of our best performances of the season, which al bodes well for an improvement in what was up till then a poor away record.
We are on a run of 5 league games unbeaten since losing to Goytre 2-1, and we have only lost that once in our last 8 league games. We top the current form table over the last 5 games with 13 points from 15, followed by Caldicot on 12 and Goytre on 11, which mirrors the actual league positions of the top 3. We can join Caldicot in joint 2nd place wit a victory over Ely and if Taffs beat Caldicot away, but the chance of Goytre slipping up away against Dinas Powys seems remote, Goytre are unbeaten all season in the league having played 18 games, in fact their unbeaten run stretches back 24 games going back to last April when they lost 2-1 at Pontardawe. Defeat against Ely could see us drop to 5th.
One player who won't be in the squad for the Ely game is loanee Matt Harris, he has been recalled by Neath.

  
Afan Lido v Taffs Well summary (Feb 10) 09:30
The Lido starting line tonight is:

M Lewis, J Hood, C Thomas, S Hillman, S Galsworthy, Damon Thomas, G Jones, C Pridham, N White, M Jones, M Harris,
Subs: R Cockings, J McEvoy, S McCourbrey, V Lewis.

No goal action in the first half hour, but that changed after 31' when Nathan White put the Lido 1-0 up. No further goals for the remainder of the first half.

2nd half: Taffs Well get back on level terms with a goal on 52' 1-1. Taffs equity lasted only 2' as Lido go back in front with a Damon Thomas goal, 2-1 Lido.
Plenty of action just after the hour mark, a Taffs Well player gets shown the red card for a foul in the penalty area and from the resulting spot kick Jonah put's Lido 3-1 up. On 76' there was a 5th goal scored and it went to Lido, with Nathan White scoring his 2nd of the night and his 12th league goal of the season.

Full time and Lido have doubled their away wins total this season, and made it 10 wins from 17 games. Final score Taffs 1-4 Lido. Lido are 3rd at the moment, awaiting the result of the Bryntirion v Aberaman game, if Bryn win or draw we stay in 3rd, but victory for Aber will see them in 3rd. League table will be updated when that result comes in.
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Man of the match: Nathan White.

  
Afan Lido squad for Taffs Well (Feb 10) 09:30
Tonight we travel to Taffs Wells for a league encounter and the Afan Lido squad for the game is:

M Lewis, J Hood, C Thomas, S Hillman, S Galsworthy, Damon Thomas, G Jones, C Pridham, S McCourbrey, N White, M Jones, M Harris, R Cockings, J McEvoy.
Two players missing are new striker Robbie Walters who is suspended for picking up 5 yellow cards & Carl Payne is injured.

  
Taffs Well v Afan Lido match preview (Feb 9) 00:30
Wednesday night we travel to take on Taffs Well who are 1 place above us in the table and level on points with us on 29, they have the same goal difference as us but have scored more goals (45 to our 29). It is our 1st meeting of the season against each other.
It is turning out t be Taffs Well's best season in the league since the days of Nicky Tucker, when they were pushing for the title and Tucker departed to take over the relegation threatened Llanelli, if leaving Taffs wasn't a blow in itself, he took most of the squad with him to Llanelli and kept the Reds in the welsh premier.
Last season they just avoided relegation by 1 place, finishing just 1 place above relegated Newport YMCA, but this season is a different story, they are the divisions 3rd highest scorers but they do have the 2nd worst defensive record of the teams in the top 10.
We do not want a repeat of last seasons game when Taffs gave a right going over beating us 5-0 (we did beat them 3-0 at the Marston) the season before we came away with a point in 1-1 draw, the season before that we also drew 1-1.
They have played 10 games at home and have yet to draw, winning 7 and 3 losses, they did suffer a heavy home defeat last Saturday when Aberaman came away with a 4-1 win, but prior to that they had won their previous 6 home games, notching up 24 goals in the process.
Comparing our away for to their home form doesn't make for good viewing, Taffs come in 3rd on home form, while we are in the relegation places on our away form (15th from 18) it's about time we turned in an away performance to match our home form, and if we do and come away with 3 points we will be in 3rd place and just 6 points off 2nd placed Caldicot and with a game in hand. But will it be a Dr Jekyll or a Mr Hide away performance on Wednesday night?

  
Afan Lido U19 & U18 round up (Feb 8) 01:10
The under 19's were away to Bryntirion in the Youth division west and they were beaten 2-0, but Lido were reduced to 10 men, as Rory Healy was shown red for picking up 2 yellows.
The under 18's also had players sent off in their 0-0 draw with Maesteg, Josh Jones & Dan Carey were both shown red cards for picking up 2 yellows each, but Lido still managed to claim a point.

  
Afan Lido v Caerleon match summary (Feb 6) 14:30
Afan Lido starting line up against Caerleon is:
Mike Lewis, Jon Hood, Scott Hillman, Shaun Galsworthy, Corey Thomas, Damon Thomas, Gavin Jones, Chris Pridham, Robbie Walters, Nathan White, Carl Payne.
Subs:
Matt Harris, Luke Borrelli, James McEvoy.

The game came to life on 32' when Caerleon were awarded a penalty, but Mike Lewis saved the spot kick.
Caerleon could come to rue that miss as Lido took the lead 2' later from a Robbie Walters free kick.
Afan Lido go 2-0 on 61' goal coming from midfielder Chris Pridham.
Game set and match on 92' and a 2nd goal from Robbie Walters. Lido move up 3 places following their win and other results going our way view league table
Final score Lido 3-0 Caerleon.
Attendance: a poor 53.

  
Afan Lido v Caerleon match preview (Feb 5) 01:00
We go into Saturday's home game with Caerleon looking to avenge the 3-0 drubbing we were dished in October at Cold Blow Lane. It was only one of Caerleon's two wins in the league this season. They remain rooted to the bottom of division 1 with only 8 points from their 16 games and have only scored 13 goals (of which 23% were scored against us). Their chances of staying in division 1 next season looks precarious with the minimum of 5 clubs being relegated to div 2.
Their away form has been the most consistent in division 1 this season, played 8 and lost 8, can't get more consistent than that. Their form at the Marston post welsh premier has seen them gain just a point from the 4 meetings, last season we ran out 4-0 winners.
We continued our excellent home form with the recent 2-1 cup win over Connahs Quay making it 13 wins in a row in all competitions, of which we have won our last 7 home league games, and we our unbeaten at home since the 14th of August.
We said farewell to 2 Lido players this week, with Dan Lancey departing to Garden Village and Rhys Williams rejoining Bryntirion, but it was inevitable that some players would end up leaving with the number of players joining the club this season and players wanting first team football.
Our lack of games has seen us slip to 8th in the table, but only 3 points off 3rd place with games in hand over 6 of the 7 teams above us, in fact only 3 points separate Taffs Well in 3rd and Bryntirion in 9th, so it's very tight but their is a nice gap opening between the top 2 and the rest, we could move to within 3 points of 2nd place Caldicot if we win our games in hand but our away form needs to improve on the 1 win from 7 games to have any hope of finishing high up the table come the end of the season.

  
2nd Lido player leaves (Feb 4) 17:00

Rhys Williams becomes the 2nd player to leave in 2 days as he re-joins his former club Bryntirion Athletic.
Rhys signed for us in the January 2009 transfer window from Clevedon Town. He was at Swansea City from 2003-2006 before being released. Played youth football at Port Talbot and Cwmbran. Also played for Bryntirion in the Welsh League before joining Clevedon.
Rhys made 18 first team appearances last season, but has just made 9 first team starts this season.

  
Dan Lancey leaves Afan lido (Feb 3) 00:30

Lido midfielder Dan Lancey has transferred from Afan Lido yesterday. Dan has signed for fellow division 1 side and newly promoted newcomers.
Dan has signed for Swansea side Garden Village.
Dan made 12 league appearances for the club this season and 10 last season, Dan signed for Lido from Neath in 2009's January transfer window and he scored on his debut against Ton Pentre. He scored 3 league goals in total for the club, his other clubs include Swansea City as a junior and Port Talbot. We all wish him luck with his new club

  
The loss of 6 clubs will result in 5 div 1 sides losing top-flight status (Feb 3) 00:30

THE reduction of the MacWhirter Welsh Football League from 54 clubs to 48 at the end of this season was confirmed during an Extraordinary Meeting staged in Maesteg on Sunday.

The shedding of six clubs will result in five sides losing top-flight status; seven being relegated from division two with eight dropping out of the third division and entering the feeder leagues.

This will be the case should two clubs be promoted from the feeder leagues – no club has applied for promotion from the West Wales Association.

That means to remain in the league at the end of the season; division three clubs must obtain a top-10 finish.

The other issue that could change the relegation issue is if some Welsh Premier clubs fail to receive domestic licences.

Should this be the case then any southern clubs would be relegated to the Welsh League, and it would lead to more clubs being relegated.

The deadline date for Welsh Premier clubs to apply for domestic licence is March 31, and until then the situation will remain unclear.

The Welsh League meeting was told that only a few clubs now failed to meet Welsh League criteria, and they are unlikely to be relegated ahead of the bottom-eight finishers in division three.

Calls to have the 54 league grounds once more inspected – in order to establish compliance with the 22-year-old Welsh League ground criteria – is unlikely to happen.

Eleven clubs from the Gwent and South Wales associations have applied for Welsh League membership for next season.

The South Wales Amateur and South Wales Senior League clubs to apply are Caerau, Cwmbach Royal Stars, Cwm Welfare, Penydarren Boys Club, Rhoose, Sully Sports, Tonyrefail and Trefelin Boys Club.

The Gwent County League trio are Albion Rovers, Govilon and Treowen Stars.

 
Conflicting media comments on Lido's cup win (Feb 1) 10:30

There have been several comments in the media about Lido's victory Connahs Quay and a comment by Bala's manager at his delight at drawing Lido in the next round.
The Wales on Sunday article said " AFAN Lido became Welsh Cup giant killers when they beat Welsh Premier visitors Connah’s Quay after extra time.

It was no fluke either – the MacWhirter Welsh League Division One club fully meriting the glory after dominating this clash.

But they did it the hard way after missing a hatful of first-half chances and fell behind to a rare Connah’s Quay attack.

"After Mark Jones had missed good chances for the Lido, the visitors took a surprise lead on 69 minutes through Mike Lewis.

With the clock ticking down, Lido finally struck after 86 minutes when Jones scored direct from a free kick 25 yards out.

The Lido scored the match winner after 100 minutes when Carl Payne took the ball out wide and fed Nathan White from the edge of the area and he beat Terry McCormick in style. In fact, Lido finished the stronger and should have gone further ahead two minutes from the end but McCormick produced a spectacular save to defy White.

The Daily Post from North Wales wrote " A CRIPPLING extra-time goal wrecked the depleted Deesiders’ dream of a quarter-final place after they had deservedly led in this knife-edge battle, writes Mike McEvoy.

Sam NcNutt broke the defensive stranglehold when he fired the Quay ahead on 69 minutes and it looked to be proving enough until Mark Jones rescued the Welsh League hosts and 2007 trophy finalists with a free-kick on 86 minutes, before home hero Nathan White settled it on 100 minutes".

Nomads manager said after the game "It was a real sickener after seeming to be on course for a win but with only four minutes to go we should really have held them off,”

Bala Town's manager said after being drawn against Lido in the last 8 "we’re delighted to be through and we’ve now got the best draw we could have hoped for.”
So who does the neutral believe? take your pick, but the result speaks for itself Lido 2-1 Nomads.
Will Colin Caton's comment come back to haunt him?