Transfers, Contract Talks and Rumours of Ineligible Players

Friday evening fixtures have a lot going for them.

Bigger crowds, better atmosphere and, if your teams wins, a great weekend ahead of you. Anyone who has been to the Oval will know that a match on a Friday night beats one on a Saturday afternoon hands down. There’s just no comparison.

And, if you occasionally dip yourself into the murky world of blog writing, and you can manage to deflect your wife from going shopping, it gives you the opportunity on a Saturday afternoon to write down your latest musings for anyone who cares to read them. Happy Days!

And so, deflection successfully completed, I’m able to work on this year’s first blog entry, in which I’ll try to share some Caernarfon Town related thoughts and make a few points, hopefully without stirring the interest and wrath of the football police down in Cardiff.

I firmly believe the enforced break in Welsh football was a necessary precaution due to the latest covid situation and, as I explained in the last blog, Caernarfon Town voted, with five other clubs, to suspend the league for a few weeks in order to await the relaxing of restrictions. I was pleased we voted this way and the reasons are clear, to try and get the supporters back for the return of football whilst minimising a loss of income.

Some clubs did not agree with us, and this was a shame, but not too surprising. I don’t think it was a coincidence that four of the five clubs who wanted to return to action behind closed doors also happen to be those who have qualified for Europe recently. Finances may not, or certainly should not, be a worry for them as they’ve had a decent windfall into their bank accounts in the last few months, but for everyone else, the loss of gate receipts would have been serious.

I found it disappointing that the clubs did not stick together as it would have been a good message to the FAW, who themselves are never slow at pushing forward their #TogetherStronger mantra, but if they prefer to play with no supporters and no income, then they’re obviously looking at things from a very different perspective to Caernarfon Town. Having said this, I’m assuming they’ll be glad we waited for the fans to return before restarting the season when they get people through the turnstiles to swell their coffers a little this weekend. I accept that the clubs in question don’t have much of a record for attracting much support at their grounds but, to steal Tesco’s slogan, every little helps!

January has become known, quite correctly, as the silly season in football, as rumours circulate about all sorts of things. Possible transfers, contract talks, management changes and ineligible players have all been doing the rounds recently and, of course, the Cofis have not been spared, although I’m glad to say that we seem to be bit part players in this years’ circus.  

I’m not going to name anyone but an old acquaintance of ours predictably made a move for one of our players as soon as the transfer window opened and it was with great pleasure that, on this occasion, he was unsuccessful. I’m hoping that the message has finally got through to him that we’re not interested in letting go of our players and that simply flashing the cash won’t always get you the results you’re looking for.  

The situation pushed us to look at our plans for the future and it’s been interesting, and enjoyable, to offer players longer term contracts over the past few weeks which will ensure that we won’t need a part-rebuilding job for a third successive summer. Rob, Ryan, Gruff and Iwan have already signed on, with hopefully more to follow.

One more point to make here is that, whilst a few of us have been on the Board for a number of years, we’re still learning about the game behind the scenes, and it’s been a good lesson to have learned this past month. It was also refreshing that a highly rated player thinks more of playing in front of large crowds than the size of his wages!

One player who has left us is Steve Evans. The former Welsh international may be forty two years old but he’s been excellent this season and certainly proved that he can still play at CPL level. He had made it clear during the summer that he wanted to get into management and I have no doubt that Steve will be a huge success as manager of Colwyn Bay. With his experience and contacts I won’t be surprised if we see them up in the top tier in a year or two. When he was at TNS I always used to think Evo was rather serious and not a little formidable but he’s a really nice guy and had made no secret of the fact he was looking at moving to management, so everyone at the Oval is delighted for him.

A rumour that I first heard about in early December concerned a CPL club allegedly having fielded an ineligible player this season. There has been a constant whispering of the story ever since and, at last night’s match at The Rock, there was widespread talk of it. It’s not the first time I’ve heard such talks doing the rounds, and they usually peter out but this one has hung around for the best part of two months so it does make me wonder if there’s any substance to it. If there is, I hope the FAW can look at it before the end of the first phase, as to do so after the start of the second phase would be unfair on the other clubs, who will obviously be affected by the matter. After all, if an ineligible player has taken part in matches and if it’s decided that the matter results in a points deduction then this could have a bearing on who ends up in the first and second conference leagues for the second phase. Hopefully, it’s just another in the long line of unfounded rumours that appear from time to time but, if not, it should get sorted out as a matter of urgency.

The Christmas period was an odd one without the traditional matches on Boxing Day and New Years Day and hopefully it will be the last time that it happens. After our excellent victory at Flint the break probably came at the wrong time for us but at least it will have given the players a break and an opportunity for them to get rid of any niggles they may have had.

We managed to squeeze in a friendly before getting back to it this weekend as Evo brought his Colwyn Bay side to the Oval last Saturday. It was a decent game, despite the obvious rustiness of both sides and Huw took the opportunity to take a look at some of our promising youngsters. It was good to see recent signing Alex Boss getting a run out although it was disappointing that clearance for our new loan player, Joe Faux, had not come through.

All things considered there was a decent crowd there, and whilst not close to the attendance at league matches, it proved to be an enjoyable afternoon and I found it telling that there were more Bay supporters in attendance for a friendly than every other teams brings to the Oval for league matches. Imagine what it would be like for a competitive match between the sides!

And so, last night finally saw the Cofis return to action, as we took on Cefn Druids at The Rock. I had not been to the ground for a few years and in fact I think the last time I was there had been our 7-0 victory in the season we were denied promotion to the top tier after failing the Domestic Licence application.

Although Druids are bottom of the league, there was never really a possibility that a repeat of that score was on the cards and I thought they played better than their results over the past few months suggested. It took a while for Caernarfon to settle and we missed a few opportunities to go ahead but once Dion Donohue scored the opener with a wonderful free-kick, I didn’t think there was any danger we wouldn’t win.

It wasn’t the best of matches and we deserved the three points but, once again, we had a pretty obvious penalty claim turned down. I doubt that anyone could accuse me of having any sour grapes when I say this as Caernarfon won, but Mike Hayes being fouled from behind in the box late on was as clear a penalty as you’re likely to see. On this occasion it made no difference to where the points ended up but it was further proof, not that we need it unfortunately, that there is a lack of consistency across the board when it comes to match officials.             

Hardly a week goes by without seeing some pretty poor refereeing decisions in the Cymru Premier League and I wonder if it’s time for the FAW to increase the numbers of officials who can take charge of top tier fixtures? From what I have seen, the pool they pick from is pretty small and it seems that we’re getting the same old faces in the middle every two or three weeks, and they keep making the same poor decisions. I know it’s difficult for officials but if they could at least keep some consistency then it would go some way to appeasing most of us.

Our next match is another tough one, against The New Saints at the Oval. Our home form has not been good this season and so Friday gives the team an ideal opportunity to start turning this around and put a marker down for the remainder of the season. There’s enough quality in the side to win and, with a big, and loud crowd backing the boys, we can definitely upset the odds!

Friday nights are made for it………