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Afan Lido v
Barry Town match preview (Jan 21) 00:30
Friday night we make our league comeback after nearly
6 weeks without a game, and the game will be played at the Marston with
Barry Town the visitors for a later than usual kick off time of 7:45.
Lido & Barry Town are 2 of the trio of welsh league clubs that have applied
for promotion to the welsh premier league, at the moment Barry have the
advantage over us in terms of league positions as they lie in 4th place, 1
place and 1 point above us. In late September we went down 2-0 to Barry Town
at Jenner Park, and we look for revenge tomorrow night and the chance to
leapfrog them into 4th spot. One worrying fact is that if we lose and 5
clubs behind us all win their games we could end up in 10th place come 4:30
pm.
Barry Town have a good away league record winning 3 of their 6 games with
wins at Ely Rangers, Pontardawe and Dinas Powys. Their only defeat on their
travels was a 1-0 loss against Ton Pentre.
We go into the game looking for our 7th home league win on the trot and our
4th clean sheet in a row, we have a terrific defensive record at home this
season having conceded only 2 goals in our last 6 home games while scoring
16, though we have been pushed on 3 occasions of those winning games,
winning by just a single goal. It has the looks of a draw written all over
it, a good record at home against a team with a good away record, but a draw
is of no use to either team looking to close the gap over Goytre at the top.
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Afan Lido sign
striker Robbie Walters (Jan 20) 20:20
Robbie Walters is the latest signing for Lido, Lido's CEO contacted me tonight to inform me of the latest
signing for the club.
Walters who was released by Haverfordwest this week after staring 15 games and 2 from the bench and scoring 9 league goals.
Many Lido fans will remember him from his Welsh
league days playing for Goytre Utd, Maesteg &
Bryntirion. Robbie left the welsh premier as joint
6th top scorer this season.
Port Talbot Town had tried to capture the
marksman from Bryntirion in January 2008, but
their attempt failed. He did leave the
Briyntirion at the end of that season, but
joined Goytre Utd.
Robbie goes into the squad for Friday night's
home game against Barry Town.
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Finally a game in Division 1 get's played (Jan 16) 17:35
Division 1 of the Welsh league
saw it's 1st game played since Dec 12th and it involved 2 teams in the top
7.
The game took place at Jubilee Way Caldicot who hosted Cambrian & Clydach,
and it was the home side with the best home record in the league who came
out easy 3-0 winners, it was also Cambrian's 1st away defeat of the season
going down to a 3-0 defeat.
It was Caldicot's 5th win in 6 games and that fine form see's them leapfrog
Aberaman into 2nd place in the table by 2 points and they now trail leaders
Goytre by 7 points but the Gwent side have a game in hand.
Next up for Lido is a home game against Barry Town on the 22nd with a 7:45
kick off.
View league table
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Lido website reaches it's 4th birthday today (Jan 15) 13:35
The official Afan Lido website reaches it's 4th
birthday today, since it officially went online on January 15th 2006. And
with almost 3 million hits (2,884,666) since day one we are still going
strong, despite being once being called " a bit of a dog" in our early days,
but hopefully that person was barking up the wrong tree :)
Our biggest daily visit was in fact last month, and unfortunately it was the
disaster of the Afan Lido fire that boosted those figures which was 2,796
which beat the previous record of 2,102 reached on 2nd January 2008.
There are too many people to thank for all their contributions over the 4
years, so I won't name names in case I forget someone and they feel snubbed,
but they know who they are. But I will just single out one person for
special mention, (hope nobody minds) a person who is in almost daily contact
with me informing me of squads, news, re-arranged games, and sends me up to
the minute news on all our games by text as they happen, and much more, and
I don't think he has an equal in any other welsh football club in the whole
of the welsh game. Take a bow Mr Alan Howells, who without him this website
would not be anywhere near as popular as it is today with an average of over
25,000 visits a month.
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Lido squad to face Bettws on Saturday (Jan 15) 13:30
Again the weather will have the last say if the game
goes ahead, but managers Mark Robbo & Vince Lewis have picked their squad
should the game goes ahead.
M Lewis, S Hillman, S McCourbrey, C Pridham, D Thomas, C Baker, S
Galsworthy, R Cockings, Matthew Harris (new loan signing from Neath), D
Lancey, J Hood, G Jones, D Thomas, N White, M Jones, C Thomas, R Williams, C Payne.
News just in from the club is the game will be off as more snow is falling
:(
More news just in game is now off and has been re-arranged for 27th April
with a 6:30 kick off.
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Lido sign Neath midfielder on loan (Jan 14) 21:00
Manager Mark Robbo has signed Neath midfielder Matthew
Harris on loan. He joins another ex Eagle midfielder signed this season
Gavin Jones at the Lido.
21 year old Pontypridd born Matthew Harris is a skilful midfielder who
signed for Neath in July 2009 from Merthyr Tydfil.
He was a product of the Academy structure at Penydarren Park and he broke
into the first team in March of 2007. He's a former Welsh Schoolboy
International and a stand-by player for the Wales Semi-Pro Under 23 side and
he received the Player of the Year award at Merthyr in his first full season
at the club. Matthew has played 6 welsh premier games for the Eagles this
season and 1 sub appearance scoring 1 goal.
He goes into the squad to play Bettws on Saturday if it goes ahead.
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Bettws v Afan Lido match preview (Jan 14) 01:00
This Saturday we attempt to play a game since December
11th, but the signs are not good. If the game goes ahead we will hope to
clinch our 1st league double of the season having beaten Bettws at the
Marston 2-1 in September in front of our lowest league gate of the season.
Bettws are having a nightmare of a season so far and languish in 17th place
with 12 points from their 14 league games. They have recorded 2 of their 3
league victories at home with wins over Garden Village 3-1 on their home
league game in August and their 2nd win was a 2-0 win over under achieving
Bridgend Town. They have had 3 draws and 3 defeats in their other 6 home
games, a far cry from the high finish of 4th place last season. We ended all
square in both encounters against Bettws last season with a 1-1 at Bettws
and a 3-3 draw at the Marston. We had a gap of 2 seasons to the last meeting
at North Site due to their 2 seasons spent in division 2, we managed a 2-1
win in their relegation season, and also beat them 2-0 at home.
We have not done well on our only other game against a basement team losing
3-0 against Caerleon when they were bottom, we haven't won away in the
league since our opening away game beating Ton Pentre 3-1 and have gone on a
6 game streak without a win, so it's about time to cancel out that stat, but
will it come Saturday against Bettws if the game goes ahead, or will it be
another fixture to be re-arranged?
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Welsh league
season extended again (Jan 12) 00:40
Following the league's decision to extend the season
for a further week on December 11th, they have been forced to extend the
season for a 2nd time.
At yesterday's meeting of the League management committee they decided to
extend the season from the last date of Saturday 15th of May, the season
will now end on Saturday May 22nd.
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Afan Lido v
Dinas Powys match preview (Jan 12) 00:30
Wednesday night Dinas Powys are the visitors for our first
game at the Afan Lido Astro field.If the
game goes ahead it will be our first game in over a month due to the
weather. It is a fixture we have had the better of against Dinas in the 4
previous meetings post WPL exit. Last season we had a comfortable 4-1 win,
we also had a good 5-1 away win against them.In 2007/08 Dinas had their
only win in the 4 meetings winning 2-0 at the Marston in a season that
turned out to be the best in their history finishing 2nd in the table
just 2 points behind champions Goytre Utd.
This season they lie in 10th place just 2 points behind Lido but with 3
games more played, they have the 3rd worst goals conceded record in the
division with 34 goals against from their 17 games, only West End and
Cardiff Corries have conceded more. But they have found the back of the net
30 times 6 more than Lido. They have won 2 of their 10 away games so far
this season, the most notable victory of the two was a good 2-1 away win
against Champions Aberaman. Their other victory was a 3-2 win against West
End. They have also managed 3 draws and have been beaten 5 times. We are
still on a 6 game unbeaten home run since our opening home defeat against
Bridgend, and we have kept 4 clean sheets in our last 6 games and only
conceded 2 goals in those last 6 home games.
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Afan Lido get's by with a little help from it's friends (Jan 5) 16:40
Due to the fire at the Afan Lido complex, Afan Lido have received offers of help from it's near neighbours.
At 4:15 today the club received an email from Goytre United's Secretary
Lyndon Suhanski, in which he offered the use of their Glenhafod Stadium as a
temporary home. Lyndon wrote "Due to the events at the Afan Lido Leisure
Centre and the lack of utilities arising as a consequence, our club would
like to help. If you are stuck for a home venue/match and the weather is ok
you are welcome to use Glenhafod Park as a temp home whenever it suits
yourselves. Please feel free to contact and if we can help we will"
A very friendly and generous offer from our near neighbours, which our CEO
was happy to accept should the need arise.
This offer comes along with another generous offer we received last week
from our other neighbours Port Talbot Town who have offered the use of their
Stadium if available, we would like to thank John Dawkins and Andrew Edwards
for their offer of help and support. we were going to take them up on that
tonight to play our quarter final against AFC Llwydcoed but the pitch is
frozen.
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Afan
Lido v AFC Llwydcoed match preview (Jan 4) 01:10
Tuesday night we could face AFC Llwydcoed at the Marston in the league cup, could be if the weather
permits, it's almost a month since Afan Lido first's have taken to the field in a game.
Our opponents currently lie in 5th place in division 2, having been promoted from division 3 last season,
and it's only a few season's before that, that they were in division 1, but they went through successive
relegations from division 1 to division 3, and it took them a season or two to get back on the promotion chase again.
In round 3 while we struggled to get past Abertillery Bluebirds from division 3, Llwydcoed were beating Cardiff Corinthians 4-3. In round 2
they were also away winners, this time against 3rd division Monmouth Town, winning in extra time having
been pushed all the way by the Gwent side finishing 2-2 at full time.
In the first round they won again against a division 1 side also on the road. this time beating Ely
Rangers 2-1 in extra time with the game finishing 1-1 after 90'.
So they face a fourth tie away from home, while we have our fourth home tie in the cup, and a win will put us in the semi-finals and just 2 games away from
retaining the trophy we won last March beating Penrhiwceiber 6-5 on penalties.
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