Rumours, Managers and Bitters....

If you thought, or hoped, that the Oval Ways blog was dead and buried I’m here to prove you wrong. As unlikely as it has seemed since I wrote the last entry ten months ago I have finally got round to writing a few thoughts down and, whilst I have no definite plans for the blog’s future, my guess is that I’ll continue to pop up from time to time to share my perspective on all things Caernarfon Town.
Certainly, during this challenging period when we all have to make adjustments due to the Covid 19 virus, I will try and offer some kind of semi-regular Caernarfon Town related reading to pass a few minutes of your time.     

My previous blogs have always been a continuation from the last entry but, as I have ten moths to catch up on, it makes more sense (and take less effort) to offer a one paragraph summary of the key points during this period….

We experienced more defeats than victories in our post-season friendlies and Eards added Mike

Gruff John

Pearson, Gruff John, Sam Jones and Shaun Cavanagh to the squad. The team began the season well and did enough in the first half of the campaign to qualify for the Conference for the second successive year. This was important because our small squad was depleted through injuries later on and we just about managed to cross the line. Ben Clark arrived in November (and left in March) and Cai Jones and Shaun Cavanagh left in January. Huw Griffiths joined as first team manager on transfer deadline day and we have reached the semi-finals of the Welsh Cup.

Of course, there have been many other important developments and challenges on and off the pitch that have kept everyone at the club on our toes but, from a personal perspective, I’ll go over a few things that have stood out for me over the past ten months.

The first, and probably most important, is the team reaching the top six for the second year in succession. In many ways, most notably off the pitch, we are still on a steep learning curve when it comes to the Cymru Premier League, and so achieving our status in the top tier for a third year has taken a lot of pressure off everyone at the club.

Staying out of the bottom two is probably the one realistic target of every club trying to establish itself in the league and whilst it became obvious early on in the campaign that we were looking good to achieve this goal, getting into the Conference for the second half of the season is a huge boost on many levels.

In footballing terms, it ensures the competitive element of all our remaining fixtures with teams trying to win the league, qualify automatically for European football or, at the very least, clinch a home tie in the play offs for Europe.

Financially, in the short term, it ensures a decent financial reward from the FAW for finishing at least sixth whilst potentially it could be a game changer for us as the reward for taking part in a Europa League qualifier is £202,000. I understand that a chunk of this initial prize money would need to be used to cover the costs of playing overseas but there should still be a surplus significant enough to make a difference to the club.

I once spoke with a director of a club that had played in Europe and he told me that the £200,000 prize money had been more than welcome and would have pushed them on had they not needed most of it to clear their debts! When looking at things from that perspective I think we are in an excellent position!  

New season, new third kit.

As a supporter, of course, I’m desperate for Caernarfon to play in Europe. For many years we have all had to look on as Welsh clubs qualify and take a handful of supporters overseas. The clubs themselves cannot be faulted for this but it’s been disappointing to see and, even worse, we’ve seen these same clubs play their home ties with just a sprinkling of people in attendance. With the impressive support Caernarfon enjoys, imagine the boost it would provide not only to the league but to the Welsh domestic game to see the Cofi Army in Europe?

The great thing is the team has already secured a play-off and we are in the semi-finals of the Welsh Cup, so we’ve still got two opportunities to get our passports out this year! We’re just two matches away from a first competitive overseas appearance, which is already a fine achievement, but one I know Eards and the boys won’t yet be content with! And if we do make it this time around, how exciting would it be to see the impact it would have on the club and Welsh football?

Eards has been without classy defender Mike Pearson since September

Before continuing to other things, I think it’s important to point out the excellent job Eards and his management team have done to get us into this great position. Everyone knows that we don’t have a big budget at the club and therefore the managers’ hands are tied in many ways. He has decided to go with a smaller squad that most, if not all, clubs and, as always, his decision has been proved correct. However, what it does mean is that we do have to rely on the continued fitness of the players and, unfortunately, we have had a number of absentees for long periods in recent months. Despite this,  everyone has pulled together and proved that quality really is preferable to quantity. For some matches, Sean has been unable to call on up to seven first team regulars and yet the team has managed to get the results we required for a top sixth berth.

We’ve had long period of absences to key players such as Leo Smith, Gaz Edwards, Nathan Craig, Jamie Crowther and Noah Edwards and have been without Mike Pearson since September, which just goes to prove that whilst the squad is light, the quality in it certainly isn’t it!    

Being part of the Cymru Premier League is what every ambitious club thrives for but with the added  exposure and expectancy of being amongst the top twelve comes the expectancy for professionalism and responsibility.

An aspect that has disappointed me greatly on an almost weekly basis over the past two years has been the behaviour of defeated managers in post-match interviews. I realise that talking in front of the cameras just minutes after a defeat must be very hard but every club has signed up for it and so managers should expect, and be prepared, for it.

I’m been told that managers are given pointers by the FAW on how to conduct themselves but, if that’s true, their failing miserably to get their message across. Some of the interviews I’ve seen on Sgorio have been incredibly embarrassing and I often wonder how ridiculous those managers feel after watching them back?  

More often than not, it’s the usual suspects who disappoint, making no effort to praise or congratulate their opponents and just making themselves look like bitter old losers. I think it’s becoming a bigger problem as time goes on and the FAW should really clamp down on it. It’s not a good look, and neither is the constant shouting and blinding from the dugout at certain grounds. There’s nothing wrong with industrial language but if you’re at a ground, or watching on the tv, and all you hear is one booming voice shouting one expletive after another, for ninety minutes, it does get tedious. Everyone is aware of it and yet it continues.

On a positive note, I believe the standard of officiating has improved this season and, in my opinion,  the stand-out referee has been Bryn Markham-Jones. Cheryl Foster has always been head and shoulders above everyone else but, from what I’ve seen, Markham-Jones is certainly on a par with her these days.

I can’t let the subject of match officials pass without mentioning the cost of those we had for the recent Welsh Cup tie against Cefn Druids, which was an unbelievable £665! I mentioned this on Twitter recently and most people agreed that the amount was ridiculous. I won’t repeat what I’ve already said on there but is it really any wonder that clubs are finding life difficult financially when we are given such invoices to pay out of our gate receipts?

One major talking point in recent weeks, outside of the club anyway, has been the arrival of Huw

Griffiths into the management team. However, not one Caernarfon Town supporter has asked me why Huw has joined us, and everyone I have spoken to is just delighted that we have secured the services of such a respected figure in the Welsh game.

The reason we went after Huw is obvious. He’s a highly rated and experienced manager with a proven track record and we felt that Sean, Fish and Rhys would appreciate someone sharing the burden of managing the team, and the club’s expectations. It really is as simple as that.

The usual keyboard warriors were having a go at the club for getting Huw in, sprouting the same old tired rubbish, sprung from petty agendas, but the Board made the decision on the basis that we were adding a different element to an already very strong management team. And, just as importantly, Eards was in full approval of what we were trying to do. It’s important to make this point as Sean is absolutely pivotal to what we want to achieve as a club, and it is imperative that he is happy with any ideas and decisions that impact the coaching staff. 

As for Huw, he has settled seamlessly into his role and seems to have been at the Oval for years rather than just six weeks. I had spoken to him a number of times in recent seasons and always found him friendly and approachable, and that’s exactly the way he’s been since joining us. The club is lucky to have two high quality manages working side by side and, if everything goes to plan, they’ll manage to get us into Europe this Summer and to even greater heights in the future.

Now, if anyone knows Sgorio presenter Dylan Ebenezer, can you please point him towards this blog and to the last four paragraphs, so that he can hopefully revise his theory that Huw’s appointment was due solely to UEFA licence implications?

I’ll finish this time around by mentioning the amazing way the Caernarfon Town supporters, and people of the town itself, rallied around to help the club after the recent vandalism at the Oval. Everyone with an interest in the club will have seen the news, and photographs, on various media outlets and must have felt as sickened as I was. It was mindless vandalism and it’s hard to imagine why anyone would carry out such acts, but someone did, and we had to deal with it.

As always, the supporters sprung immediately into action, helping us clear the mess and re-renovate where required. They also set up a Go-Fund Me page to raise funds for the implementation of CCTV at the ground. Over £1500 was raised in a short time and Tyrone, Jamie and the guys are arranging for the cameras to be put up in the next week or two.

People from outside the Oval mention the close bond they see between the club, players and supporters but, unless you’re a part of that holy trinity, it’s hard to understand exactly how close everyone is, and how much the Cofi Army is part of what the club is all about.

‘One Club’ is not just our ethos, it’s our reality.     
Stay Safe and Keep The Faith!