Not Quite Our Zico Moment But.....

There had been a decent amount of hype and lots of looking forward to our match at Rhyl last week and the encounter certainly lived up to everyone’s expectations. Six goals, two red cards, touchline handbags and a confused referee who forgot his bearings and in so doing seemed to channel former professional referee Clive Thomas with a poor decision that cost the Cofis a late winner. 

Huw Jones’ decision to blow his whistle for a Caernarfon free-kick as the ball headed into the Rhyl net with their keeper beaten was wrong and cost us two points but, in all fairness, I would also say that the draw was probably a fair result, though Rhyl were obviously far happier with the point than the Cofis. 

I’ll get back to the referee later but what of the match itself, was it a good advert for the Huws Gray Alliance League and did we see two sides capable of challenging for promotion to the top tier? Well, the encounter itself was exciting and had all of the ingredients required to entertain and whilst it’s probably too early in the season to make assumptions, I believe the answer to both of those questions is yes. Firstly, the standard of football was high and at the very least was on a par with anything I’ve seen in the Welsh Premier League recently so to that end it certainly reflected well on the second tier. Also, I am confident that Iwan has put together a squad that can challenge for the title this year and I although haven’t seen enough of Rhyl to be sure of their credentials, the way they fought back last Saturday having twice been two goals behind was impressive and suggests to me that they will be there or thereabouts. 

Danny Brookwell puts us ahead against Rhyl. 

I felt Caernarfon started really well and deserved our early two goal lead, courtesy of Danny Brookwell and Darren Thomas. In fact, at the point Darren made it two nil, I thought we looked comfortable and well in control of the match. An uncharacteristic mistake by Alex Ramsay gave Rhyl a lifeline before half-time and, despite Jay Gibbs restoring our two goal lead with a cracking half-volley, the hosts fought back well to grab a point. 

Darren Thomas celebrates his goal at Rhyl.

Rambo.

I’m sure some of you may have had to read that last paragraph again, particularly the part about Alex Ramsay making a mistake. It’s always a given that mistakes are made in every football match and it’s also well-documented that a higher percentage of slips by goalkeepers are more likely to result in goals for the opposition, thus always being highlighted more by supporters and the media. This is unfair but that’s how football is and, when it happens to someone like Alex, it just re-affirms to me how good he is. ‘Rambo’ has been with us for a year and in that time I cannot think of a match where he has been anything less than excellent. In addition to his technical abilities, Alex is very strong mentally, as he proved last week, when he more than made up for his slip with an outrageous acrobatic save to claw the ball off his line in the second half, and also saved a Mark Connolly penalty, although the ball rebounded kindly for the latter to clinch a point for the hosts. Iwan said in his post-match interview at Rhyl that we have the best goalkeeper in Welsh domestic football and I concur wholeheartedly, there’s no-one I’d rather have as our number one than Alex. 

Brooky.

So, after an entertaining affair that saw the sides share six goals and settle for a point each, the biggest talking point was the referee’s late intervention as Danny Brookwell seemed to have struck a late winner for us. The official thought otherwise and, with the ball on its way into an empty net, he brought play back for a Caernarfon free-kick. To add salt into the wound, he determined that the foul on Danny had occurred outside the penalty area when everyone in the stadium could see it had happened inside it so it was a case of two incorrect decisions by Mr Jones that frustrated those of a Caernarfon Town persuasion but delighted Rhyl followers. Whilst I gather he later conceded to his mistake, stating he had lost track of the match at the time of the ‘goal’, the truth is if he was in any doubt he should have given himself a few seconds to think things over or, better still, have asked his assistant for his thoughts. As I’ve already said, I believe Rhyl probably deserved a share of the spoils due to their fightback, and I’m not saying the referee was solely responsible for us dropping two points but he certainly cost us victory as a result of his poor decision. 

To make matters worse, the man in the middle gave Jay Gibbs a red card for dissent in the dying seconds of the match and whilst I am no apologist for such offences it should be noted that this would not have been an issue if Jones had not made such a poor decision in the first place. It was a sad way for Jay to leave the action as he had been brilliant and fully deserved to be named our man of the match.

Jay Gibbs.

Whilst driving home after the match and trying to make sense of what I’d seen I couldn’t help but be reminded of iconic referee Clive Thomas, who was prone to the odd controversial decision in high-profile matches. The incident I had in mind was when Thomas had famously disallowed a goal by Brazilian legend Zico in the 1974 World Cup by blowing the final whistle as the ball was heading towards the Sweden net. Here’s the link to what I was thinking of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JFuWqwFg4

Now, I’m obviously not comparing the importance or magnitude of the incidents (I’m making this clear now before the usual suspects pipe up on social media!) but it was the same type of peculiar decision by a match official and, having looked up the incident on youtube, it’s not the only similarity. The way Mr Thomas dealt with the Brazilian players is identical to how Mr Jones dealt with our players, whilst Sweden’s celebrations in ’74 are not unlike Rhyl’s last week! I also wonder if the colour of the kits have something to do with it?

Incidentally, I happened across this quote from another former referee, Graham Poll, who offered his thoughts on the Clive Thomas and Zico incident: “Perhaps Thomas’ decision to end play as Zico was about to score was a horrendous error of judgement. Or it is even possible he blew up when he did as a theatrical demonstration of his own importance.” I’m sure that neither scenario is true of last weekend’s pantomime villain! 

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a referee misinterpret a situation and affect the course of a league match this season, and we’re still only five matches into the fixture list! The FAW should take note and look at ways of either improving the standard of their officials or invest to attract additional officials for each match. The present situation is not good enough. 

An animated touchline.

Taking a step away from the action, it was great to be back at the Corbett Sports Stadium, which must be one of the best non-league grounds in the country. The pitch looked superb, sheltered seating surrounds three quarters of the ground, there’s a bar with a balcony for those who want a beer whilst watching the match and I’ve been told that the burgers and chips are worth a go! The admission charges were a little high at £7 for adults and £2 for children but prices are decided by each club and so there’s not much one can do about these things, although the charges may have been a reason for the relatively low turnout of home supporters on the day?

Before moving on, I had the pleasure of finally meeting sports journalist Dave Jones at the match, something that was long overdue! In addition to being the best sports journalist in Wales, Dave has been a massive help to me in my role as Caernarfon Town’s media officer and I’ll forever be in his debt for the assistance he’s given me, and for what he has done for the club, by way of his excellent work and coverage of what we’ve been doing at the Oval, both on and off the pitch in recent years. Unfortunately, we only had the briefest of chats last week but it was still great to catch up with him and hopefully he’ll be able to visit our ground soon to watch a match and see the special brick he has on our wall of fame. The words on it are Dave Jones: Friend of Caernarfon Town FC and that says it all!

I mentioned in the last blog that the club now has a new website but what I failed to disclose is that we decided to introduce a new site because it has lots of additional features that we can use, with the benefit that this will enable us to share news about the ladies team and academy. Therefore, you will find dedicated pages on our new site for each team that will be updated by the academy and ladies teams, so you can be sure that the information provided is correct whilst I will continue to work on the first team and general news duties. Another useful feature is the video page, which will allow us to add to it all the videos from our official youtube channel. The new website can be found by following this link: https://caernarfontownfc.co.uk/

Jay Gibbs fires in our third goal against Rhyl. 

Having mentioned the Academy, someone told me that Welsh Premier League clubs are given £28,000 annually to help towards running their academies, whilst clubs outside the top tier receive nothing, although I believe we have been offered £400 or thereabout towards the cost of match officials for the whole of this season for our Development side, who have been invited to play in the Welsh Premier Development League. The last time I mentioned the FAW are unfairly helping out Welsh Premier League clubs at the expense of the lower leagues, their Head of competitions, Andrew Howard, sent me a tweet in response and whilst I would hate for Mr Howard et al to think I’m having another pop at them, I have to point out the unfairness of the grant policy for Academies. I’m obviously looking at things from a Caernarfon Town perspective and feel frustrated that our Academy receives no financial assistance whilst top tier club’s academies receive £28,000 and yet we have the exact same full Academy status as the clubs in the WPL. Surely, all clubs with Academy status should be given identical financial support, whilst those without the full status should receive assistance to help them develop? If the FAW is serious in its oft stated aims to help grow the game in Wales, then I’m sure there’s a fairer way to help clubs who are trying to achieve good things but are not part of the ‘Golden Dozen’ in the WPL? 

Breesey....

We have two home matches to look forward to in the next few days, the first being against Flint Town United this Saturday. The Silkmen always provide tough opposition and, having recruited well during the summer months, they are one of the sides being tipped for promotion this year. They have certainly started well enough, being unbeaten in their opening four matches and so we will have to be at our best this weekend. Having held the FAW Domestic Licence for the past few years, Flint have everything in place to go up and will be desperate to get one over us, whilst the Cofis will be determined to get back to winning ways after last week’s frustrating draw and so it should be a cracking match between two good sides.

Jamie Breese #No9

Then, on Wednesday, we will be welcoming Llandudno Junction to the Oval and whilst the newly-promoted outfit have not had the best of starts to the campaign, they will be looking forward to playing under the floodlights at our ground. As we saw against Llanfair last year, every team is capable of beating each other in this league and so it will not be easy for Iwan and the players.

Iwan mentioned in last week’s post-match interview that he is looking for maximum points from the next four matches, all of which are at home. It’s going to be a really tough task and if we're going to achieve this goal, Iwan will need his squad to be 'on it' from the off, and will want his goalscorers on fire. With this in mind, by his usual very high standards, it's been a quiet start to the campaign for Jamie Breese but he'll be chomping at the bit to play his part and I have a feeling our number nine is going to be in the thick of things during the next few weeks! 

Finally, I’ve recently been in touch with two real Caernarfon Town legends who have given me great interviews for the blog and, if all goes according to plan, you’ll get to read them very soon….

The Long and Winding Road.

What a start it’s been to the Cymru Alliance League season! The Summer months are always a drag for football supporters (apart from last year when Gareth Bale and his mates gave us plenty of excitement!) and whilst the pre-season fixtures help us with our fix, it’s not quite the same as the real thing.

The build up to the new campaign saw all and sundry predict that the second tier of Welsh football would eclipse the Welsh Premier League for thrills and spills this season and, whilst it’s too early to say if this will be the case, even at this fledgling stage, the Cymru Alliance is certainly not falling short  in the entertainment stakes.

Just two weeks in and we’ve had plenty of goals, upsets and controversies and I’m talking only of Caernarfon Town here! Let me explain….

The first Saturday of the season saw us heading to Penrhyncoch in mid Wales and, despite the unabating traffic and the rather arduous journey which always reminds me of The Beatles classic ‘The Long and Winding Road’ I do enjoy my visits to Cae Baker, where there’s a good welcome to be had and plenty of vocal support from the locals to get the heart pumping! The Canaries’ latest visit to the ground proved no exception and, after a tough, and very entertaining ninety minutes, goals by Darren Thomas and Jamie Breese gave Town the victory they deserved.

With five matches to catch up on in this blog I’ve decided against rehashing what I’ve already written in the match reports, which you can find on the club’s new official website (here’s a link to the reports:  https://www.caernarfontownfc.co.uk/Matchreport.aspx?id=134967 ) but the 2-1 scoreline did not in my opinion accurately reflect Town’s dominance on the day, although the hosts gave it a real go at salvaging a point in the closing stages. To summarise the encounter, the Cofis enjoyed the lions’ share of possession but could not take advantage of a number of decent goalscoring opportunities and, once Stefan Davis halved Town’s lead, Caernarfon had to show plenty of grit and composure to secure the points, which they did.

I can’t see many teams defeating the Roosters on their own ground and so it was a good, solid start to the season by the team but unfortunately they could not make it a winning return to action at the Oval seven days later when Holyhead Hotspur took the spoils, courtesy of a 2-1 victory.   

These days the Cymru Alliance League is top heavy with teams from up the coast and therefore local derbies are sparse for Caernarfon Town. Holyhead and Porthmadog are seen by many as our nearest local rivals in the league and have become our regular derbies in recent years so the defeat to Campbell Harrison’s side was a hard pill to swallow. What made it worse is that the key point in the match was Danny Brookwell’s sixteenth minute dismissal for a foul that also resulted in a successful penalty for the visitors. I have been informed that the referee told one of Caernarfon’s players that whilst he agreed Danny’s challenge was outside the area, he awarded the penalty because the fouled player fell inside the box. This is the first I’ve heard about this new rule and, having asked a local referee to verify it, I am still unsure if it exists. Caernarfon had started the match well but one thing we all know with Hotspur is that they’re always up for a battle and once they doubled their lead through McGuinness it was always going to be a tough task for the Cofis to salvage a point.

It was interesting to see Town manager Iwan Williams reshuffling his pack in the second half in an attempt to get something from the match and his ploy of pushing Clive Williams up front as a focal point seemed to work well. For the first time since Iwan’s arrival at the club he took a more direct approach and the players will probably feel disappointed they didn’t manage a draw as they certainly created the opportunities to get one after Nathan Craig pulled a goal back. It was a good effort by the players and I wonder how many of them and also the spectators at the match would agree with the writer of Holyhead’s match report, who thought his side had made the Cofis look ordinary?

Job done against Porthmadog, but only just....

There was a quick opportunity to bounce back from the defeat when we visited Porthmadog three days later for another one of those rare local derbies. Someone told me at the match that the Cofis had won the last eight encounters between the sides and this was pretty impressive because Port are a good side, and have been for a number of years. Having won their first two matches, Craig Papyrnik’s side were confident and played like it, proving a match for Caernarfon and twice taking the lead but Town pegged them back through Gareth Edwards and Nathan Craig before Darren Thomas struck a last minute winner.

I can’t recall many times we’ve clinched a victory so late on in a match but it was a great feeling, and a great finish by the Cofi Messi, who has started the season in scintillating form. Everyone knows how good our talisman is so there’s no need for me to wax lyrical about him but if he continues in the vein he’s started this campaign then he’s going to have a big impact on how we get on. The same can be side of Jay Gibbs, who I believe had his best match in a Caernarfon shirt during the victory at the Traeth. Iwan mentioned in his post-match interview that Jay was outstanding, despite enduring a hard time from the locals during the match and I hope he took the banter as a compliment because, from my experience anyway, the more vocal supporters usually target the oppositions’ most influential players, and Jay more than took up the challenge of silencing them with his actions on the pitch. He was named the supporters man of the match, and deservedly so, despite some stiff competition from his team-mates.

Jay Gibbs was outstanding against Port. 

Before moving on, I have to include a few special mentions. First, to the Porthmadog officials and volunteers who were as friendly as ever and were more than ready to discuss the match despite the defeat. To Gareth Evans for conducting our post-match interview in Welsh, thus proving that people do speak Welsh on the wrong side of the Felinheli bypass. And finally, to Iwan, who refused to settle for the draw and urged his team forward in search of victory!

So, not for the first time in recent years I left Port’s ground with a smile on my face until, that is, I realised there was still a match report to write and a few videos to share before the end of the day, although Messi’s winner made it a much more attractive prospect!

A home fixture with Denbigh Town was next and it promised to be another tough test of our aspirations. The Central Park outfit have been touted all summer as title challengers but had lost two of their opening three matches and so I’m sure they would have seen the trip to the Oval as the perfect opportunity to kick start their campaign and make a statement of their intent. It was good to see Danny Sullivan before the match, the former Town player having joined Denbigh after a frustrating season with us last time out. Danny’s a really good player and joined us a few weeks into the 2016/17 campaign but could not quite manage a run of successive matches in the starting line-up. Having captained Buckley and Flint before coming to us I’m sure it would have been difficult for him not to start every match but he still managed to make a good impression during his short stint with us, and who could ever forget that cracker he scored in the Welsh Cup against Rhyl? Left peg, top corner just about covers it!

Danny Brookwell scored a brace against Denbigh.

With recent signings such as Sully, Jake Eyre and Josh Davies in their team, Eddie Maurice-Jones’ squad looks strong but, on the day, they were swept away by the Cofis and, had it not been for the heroics of Goalkeeper Jonathan Hill-Dunt, the scoreline could have had an even more lop-sided look than the seven nil it eventually ended as.

Iwan’s men sprinted out of the blocks and Nathan Craig set the tone for the afternoon when he forced Hill-Dunt into a desperate fingertip save to keep the ball out of his net directly from the kick-off. His attempts to keep us at bay, through a combination of scrambling saves and his usual game management lasted just thirteen minutes, when Gareth Evans smashed the ball into the roof of the net after being set up by Darren Thomas. Another strike by Gareth and further netfinders by Chris Williams, Nathan Craig, Darren Thomas and a Danny Brookwell brace gave the Cofis an impressive victory that put them joint second in the league behind Guilsfield. Gaz Evans was voted man of the match and deservedly so. I was surprised when he told me after the Porthmadog match that he didn’t feel he had been playing well because I think he’s been pretty impressive in all our league matches thus far. He obviously has lots of quality and seems to me to have settled really well into the side, so if he thinks there’s more to come from him then he’s going to be an incredible addition to the squad.

Gareth Evans.

Incidentally, it was good to catch up with former Town player Derek Highdale during the match and even more pleasing to hear him say how impressed he was with the present Cofi team. Derek, of course, was part of John Aspinall’s side of twenty years ago who went toe to toe for a time with full-time professionals Barry Town in the League of Wales. My mate Bob reminded Derek of the time he and team-mate Chris Waring started brawling with Aberystwyth Town supporters at the Oval, and he was hit with an umbrella by an old lady near the turnstile as he walked off the pitch! Not surprisingly, he still remembers the incident!

The impressive victory over Denbigh set the side up nicely for a crack at Welsh Premier League outfit  Llandudno, who hosted us in the first round of the Word Cup four days later. We had played the Seasiders in a testimonial for Lee Thomas during the summer and on that day both sides had put out strong line-ups in an entertaining first half before giving some former players a run-out after the break. This time, of course, the managers named their strongest line-ups and there was certainly nothing friendly about the match! That’s not to say it was an overly physical encounter but there was no quarter given and, despite the post-match comments of Llandudno manager Alan Morgan, I thought it was an entertaining, and exciting encounter.  

Llandudno is a classy club, and they have an excellent set up at The Giant Hospitality Stadium. I always enjoy my visits there, despite having seen the Cofis on the receiving end of a few defeats, and last week was no exception. I’ve mentioned in past blogs how impressed I am with their ground, from the main entrance and turnstile to the players tunnel, the social club to the hospitality room, the ground staff to the impressive 4G pitch. During last week’s visit, however, I was most impressed by the Caernarfon Town side! In short, the players in yellow and green were outstanding and if I’m being absolutely honest, we were by far the best side on the pitch, and fully deserved the 1-0 victory, courtesy of a Danny Brookwell goal. This is a second point that I disagree on with Seasiders manager Morgan, who announced that no one deserved to win or lose. Having struck the woodwork, had two decent penalty shouts, seen a Jamie Breese effort hacked off the line and a handful of other near-misses, I think the Cofis were the only team that deserved the victory.  

Messi was in top form against Llandudno. 

After any particularly impressive victory it can sometimes be very hard not to go overboard when writing an official match report for the club and I always do my best to be as respectful as possible to the opposition sides. I’m not sure that I always achieve this, but if not, it’s certainly not intentional. With this in mind, I was disappointed with Llandudno’s twitter feed on the night, which I feel was less than fair to the Caernarfon’s professional performance.

As this is a personal blog, I have no qualms in saying that the tweet attributed to Llandudno’s official twitter feed concerning a foul on Gareth Evans during the match was unfair, uncalled for and unprofessional. I won’t repeat the tweet here but I’m sure you’ll find it on their feed if you look and when you do, you may understand why I find it so disappointing. 

Getting back to the football itself, it’s hard to point out a stand-out performer in such a good team performance and whilst Darren Thomas was voted the supporters man of the match, which I would agree with, I also think Gareth Edwards was exceptional at the back, Jay Gibbs strong in midfield and Jamie Breese outstanding when he joined the action in the second half.

Gareth Edwards.

So, after an eventful start to the season, we’ve now had a few days to recover due to the international break and the team travels to Rhyl this Saturday for one of the most anticipated encounters of the season. We all know the score: Rhyl were relegated from the top tier last season and are highly fancied to return at the first attempt this year whilst Caernarfon are desperate to get a spot at the top table for the first time in many years. We’re just four matches into the league season so it’s early days yet but lots of people will be looking at this as a clash of title encounters. There’s certainly a feeling of this being a ‘Big Match’ in the lead up to the fixture and as is always the case when two good sides clash, it’s going to be an exciting, nervy battle, and impossible to call. One thing’s for sure, though, Iwan will have the Cofis well prepared and the players will be ready to burst  out of the blocks!
But it's early days and the Beatles got it right, it's a  Long and Winding Road....