Ronaldinho, the Lion and Leo Sayer!

Saturday was a good day to be a Caernarfon Town supporter. Llandudno were the visitors to the Oval and the Canaries gave us a performance to remember.

Before going further, I think it’s fair to say that the Seasiders have been the Cymru Alliance League’s stand-out team this season and have been front runners since August. They started the season strongly and have kept going, amassing fifty seven out of a possible sixty nine points leading up to Saturday.

Town have had a difficult few weeks since defeating Porthmadog at the Traeth in late December and so I’m sure the visitors would have been very slight favourites for the match amongst neutrals.

As a Caernarfon Town enthusiast I know how good our team is and, having seen the majority of these players in action in most of their matches throughout the past two seasons, I felt quietly confident that we could get back to winning ways after three successive draws.

Lee Dixon usually tweaks the team from week to week, but only slightly, and rarely with more than one or two changes in personnel. I mentioned in my last blog that I felt Darren Thomas, Steve Lewis and Jamie McDaid have the potential to work well together but that both Jamie and Darren had seemed isolated in the match with Guilsfield, when the team had played a tad more directly than usual, in my opinion.

Therefore, I was intrigued to see the line-up on Saturday, and especially to that Lee had recalled Carl Owen (photo, right) to the starting eleven, with Dave Morley getting a place on the bench. Having seen Llandudno when they beat us on their own ground earlier this season, I know they have plenty of pace in their team and had expected Lee to stick with the recent formation of Steve Lewis up front, being supported by Darren and Jamie in deeper roles. I thought it was a brave decision by Lee to change the shape, and potentially leave space in midfield, but he has never shied away from setting his teams to attack, especially in big matches, and so I was not too surprised.

It was good to see a busload of Llandudno supporters arrive at the Oval as there are not many teams who enjoy large travelling support and, of course, the fact that there were a few of them in attendance helped create a great atmosphere at the match. Special mention must be made to Tommy Tudno (photo, left), who was obviously enjoying himself behind the Caernarfon goal in the first half, and leading the away supporters in a sing-a-long. I had to laugh, however, when I read an email from Caernarfon secretary Geraint Jones, who said the Lion was great fun but lost his head in the second half!! I have been assured that Geraint had merely meant that Tommy had taken off his Lion head!  

The first half was entertaining and tight, with both sides showing why they’re occupying their heady league positions, and the goal-less scoreline was a fair reflection of the action up to half time. The second half was a totally different affair and in my opinion the performance was on a par with the first forty five minutes against The New Saints in November. Although the opposition on that day was stronger, I was still very impressed by Llandudno. They have lots of pace and possess one of the league’s top strikers in Marc Evans. They also have a strong work ethic and Alan Morgan and Craig Hogg are doing a great job there. They have an excellent ground and set up and, if they are the team that wins promotion this season, they will be a credit to the top tier.

Someone told me after the match that Ywain’s bicycle kick goal to open the scoring was similar to a Ronaldinho effort for Barcelona against Villareal a few years ago and, having looked it up on youtube, I can see the similarity. Seriously! Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZimqUQK8nos

It was an exquisite goal by Yws and he was still smiling on the way out of the ground after the match! Of course, being Ywain Gwynedd, he was not content with simply scoring a quite obscene goal, so he headed for Aberystwyth to pick up no less than three Welsh Music Awards, being for Best Individual Artist, Best Song (Neb ar ol) and Best New Album (Codi/Cysgu). So, not only is Ywain Gwynedd known as the Cofi Keegan, we can now also call him the Cofi Leo Sayer! On a serious note, congratulations Yws and, because he’s a brilliant guy, here’s the link to his award winning album:  
http://www.sadwrn.com/eng/Yws-Gwynedd/CodiCysgu

Nathan Craig 'celebrating' his goal. I think....

Nathan Craig’s goal to double the lead was also a beauty and just goes to prove that he can strike the ball sweetly with both feet. And is there a better left-back in the league that Nathan? Some of us may like to see him play in a more advanced role from time to time, but his quality is always there for everyone to see and I was made up for him when the ball went in. As usual, his Cofi heart shone through with his celebrations, although I’m not too sure how much he enjoyed the following six man pile-up, instigated by the Beast, Steve Lewis!

Nathan finds the net.

And talking of the goal, I managed to catch it with my camera (left) and, although it’s not the best of photos, I had to smile when local photographer Richard Birch sent me a really nice message to say that it was better than his own shot of the momentl! Coming from Richard, that was pretty cool and ironic too, as he provided me with all the best photos for my ‘Oval Ways’ book! I’ve known Richard for near enough thirty years and he’s one of the nicest people I know. He’s also a top, top photographer, so it will be the first, and probably only, time I manage to get a better photo than him!   

Gareth Edwards was again superb at the heart of defence and he deserved his goal in the closing minutes, when he headed in from a corner. His celebrations (below, right) were great and I have a feeling he enjoyed it as much as the supporters!

The joy I felt at Saturday’s performance, and result, continues and was enhanced today when I saw the excellent write up by Dave Jones in today’s Daily Post. It was also good to see a match in the Cymru Alliance league enjoy a two pager in the sports supplement.

Dave does a brilliant job for grass roots football, and deserves our support. He also seems to understand that Welsh football is not confined to just the Welsh Premier League, a fact that sometimes seems to get lost on some influential figures in the game.

A classy new flag at the Oval on saturday. Very impressive.

The crowd at the Oval on Saturday was 525, and this was the biggest in Welsh non-league football, which just goes to prove this very fact. And just imagine what could happen if Caernarfon get back into the top tier and start fighting for the title! It may seem a distant dream now, but we have already come so far from where the club was just five years ago, and who knows what the Cofis can achieve in the near future?

Before finishing, another highlight from Saturday was seeing a new flag at the Oval (photo, right), under the banner Cofi Youths. It looked brilliant, and congratulations to whoever produced it. Very impressive and very classy!

All in all, Saturday afternoon was perfect. 
It was a good day to be a Caernarfon Town supporter….

Paul.