Two out of three, dialysis and white boots

 

It’s now been near enough three weeks since my lost blog and, in all honesty, not a lot has happened at Caernarfon Town Football Club. The first team has played three matches in that time, with a two thirds success rate.

The victory at Cardiff Met was much needed and, from what I have gathered from my trusted sources, John Watkins and Huw Griffiths, hard fought for! Met have been a very decent outfit for a number of years although I think my initial understanding of who could play for them (just current students at the university itself) must have been way off the mark because Eliot Evans has been there so long he must be nearing his fifties! A slight exaggeration maybe, as he’s only twenty nine, but I know there is some kind of criteria that needs to be met in order to play for them. Anyway, whatever it is, Christian Edwards has worked wonders there for the last four years and a victory down at Cyncoed Campus is always a good result. And much needed given our previous run of defeats.

Next up was a home fixture against Connahs Quay Nomads and I thought the 0-1 defeat was harsh on the Cofis. We played well in patches and it was quite obvious that Huw and Fish had set the team out to stay compact and look to hit the visitors on the break. The ploy very nearly worked on three occasions in the first half, with Nomads keeper Oliver Byrne pulling off fine saves to deny Rob Hughes twice and Mikes Hayes. Unfortunately, a superb strike from Neil Eardley was enough to see the reigning champions pick up three points.

I have to be honest here and say that I quite enjoyed the way Nomads played, and that’s a sentence I’m very surprised to be using. Their style is very different to what we have seen from them in past years and the reason for this must be the change in management, with Craig Harrison obviously more of a convert to the beautiful game than his predecessor, Andy Morrison. From the off, they looked to move the ball around the pitch, and it was a far cry from the long ball unit who used to create problems, and bore the pants off, opposing teams, and supporters, for so many years. Having said this, one trait that they’ve definitely kept is their screaming for free kicks whenever someone gets within two feet! They are, without doubt, the worst at doing this, and it grates when you have to play them four times a year. Something I didn’t miss was the constant shouting and hollering on the touchline from the previous manager, although it was quite odd not to see, and hear, him there as the usual pantomime villain. In all seriousness, Morrison did a brilliant job at the Deeside Stadium but, judging by some of the Welsh media’s behaviour, you’d think the bottom had fallen out of football and they’ll be mourning his departure from the Welsh game until the end of time!

One final comment on the Nomads match is about the referee, who I thought had a good game, until his final meaningful act of the evening. We were deep in injury time when he showed Rob Hughes a second yellow card, and red card, for what I can only call a ‘ghost foul’. I was directly to the side of Rob’s attempted tackle for the ball when it happened and know that he did not get near enough the opposing player to even touch him, never mind bring him down. Of course the Nomads player made a meal of it and you’d like to think the man in the middle knew he’d made a mistake but when have we ever been privy to that information even when it happens? Unfortunately, we seem to have three players who draw the attention of match officials more than most. Rob, Noah Edwards and Darren Thomas, all frequently receive yellow cards, and I’d say that in some cases, they’re unjustified. The best example I can give is the absurd red shown to Darren in the Welsh Cup tie at Penybont that I mentioned in the last blog, and I know there are plenty of examples of these three players being on the end of baffling decisions. Obviously I have my blinkers on when Caernarfon play but generally speaking I can see why most cards are shown, and I’m also convinced that some players are subjected to harsher standards than others.

Our latest match was another away victory, this time against Haverfordwest County at the Bridge Meadow Stadium. Again, due to my present health issues, I was unable to travel so far in one day and so I relied on details from Mr Watkins to work on my match report. John told me that the team played well and deserved the victory and that’s good enough for me. I saw a few comments on twitter about the small squad that travelled to Pembrokeshire and whilst it was not ideal, these things do happen sometimes. We have a smaller squad than most clubs and so when six of the players are unavailable due to a multitude of reasons, it has a big impact on match day. It was unfortunate that we had just two substitutes available, but, on the other hand, I think the victory was even more impressive when considering that we had so many players out. It was also good to hear that Steve Evans had an excellent match. Due to his age, some raised an eyebrow when we signed him but Steve has showed that, when fully fit, he can still do the business at this level, and Ii'm pleased that his recent injury niggles seem to have passed. 

Some people have asked if it’s wise for me to continue as chairman when I’ve just gone back on dialysis during the summer. My answer is always the same, in that my health issues do not really affect my duties with the club. Apart from being unable to make the longest journeys to South Wales (unless we’re hiring a bus of course), nothing has changed. I attend three four hour dialysis sessions weekly, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and I’m usually at the hospital in Alltwen, Porthmadog, from seven until about quarter to twelve.

People can still reach me during this time and, in fact, with little to do for the four hours I’m ‘wired up’ to the machine, I have plenty of time to think about the club and plan things out. Being on dialysis is a challenge, and it’s not what I wanted to go through again, but making the most of the time I’m on it means that the club gets a lot more attention from me than before. It sounds odd but that’s the genuine truth and if I ever think that my health is getting an adverse affect on the club, I'd like to think I'm big and ugly enough to make the right decision. As things stand, however, with the support of my family and an excellent board of directors, I think things are going well. 

Like every other supporter, one subject that I often think about is getting the club into Europe. It’s something we all want and we’re all working towards but, of course, we’re competing with clubs who are spending silly money in the hope of qualifying for an overseas trip. I’d even go as far as saying that, from what I’ve heard, there are a few clubs who are paying silly money just to stay in the Cymru Premier League. You get that sense every summer when we try and sign new players and the figures we’re being quoted for wages are sometimes quite unbelievable. We were less than twenty minutes away from qualifying for Europe last season and I’m convinced we’ll get there eventually but we’ll never be a club that gambles everything on reaching the Holy Grail – what would be the point of a £200k windfall for qualifying when most, if not all of it, would go towards clearing debts worked up in trying to get there in the first place? Makes no sense at all does it? Just imagine what a boost it will be for us when we do make it, and have done so with no debt!!

Before finishing, I just have to mention two former Caernarfon Town favourites, who have been doing well at their new clubs this season. The first is our former captain, Gaz Edwards, who is experiencing a fine time at Airbus, at the top of the Cymru North League and looking favourites for promotion back to the top tier. Frankly, I’m a bit worried about him, as I’ve recently seen a photo of the big man in action and wearing white boots! The last thing I expected from Gaz was seeing him wear a pair of boots that match his teeth and I’m not sure if he did it for a bet or he’s reached a middle age crisis. Anyway, I think he's down for the Penybont match so if anyone sees him there, could you possibly tell Gaz that big centre halves don’t wear white boots!     

The second former Cofi who has been in my thoughts was Joe Williams, who was part of the Colwyn Bay side that beat our rivals up the road on Saturday and gave the home supporters an excellent comeback after receiving some stick from them. I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to what he allegedly said to them, but suffice to say, Joe hasn’t forgotten his impressive history with Caernarfon Town Football Club! 

So, there we have it, a second blog in three weeks and whilst hardly prolific, I suppose it’s better than nothing! Thank you to those who provided positive feedback last time out, it was appreciated. I’ll try and get another one done before Christmas if this one goes down well.

See you at the Oval on December 4^th!

#UnClwb