Non-League | Pearcey's Blog

Football is back!!…Although I’m not sure it ever really went away. My 2013/14 season finished in Amsterdam for the Wales game on the 4th June, a week later the World Cup started, and that hadn’t even finished, yet there I was going to my first game of the 2014/15 season.

I chose this game for two reasons. Firstly, my aim for this season is to concentrate more on Welsh groundhopping, where this whole idea started. Partly due to money, but also to explore some of the brilliant Welsh grounds that can be found. Secondly, I chose this game due to the little bit of history it creates. This was only the second ever game Abergavenny Town had played, the first coming a few days before against Welsh League opposition in Caerleon.

Football does have an impressive history in Abergavenny via Abergavenny Thursdays. Four-time Welsh League winners, they reached the height of their fame after winning their last title in 1991-92 and subsequently becoming League of Wales founder members. But a disastrous first season saw them finish bottom with financial problems caused by floodlight construction at their PenyPound Stadium home, and soon Thursdays were slipping through the leagues. During one five season period they suffered four relegations, conceding 675 league goals, before folding in August 2013 while in the Third Division of the Gwent County League, the seventh tier of Welsh football.

Pen-y-Pound Stadium, Abergavenny Town FC

After a year of emptiness, PenyPound is the host of football once again however, as the Abergavenny name returns. On the conclusion of 2013/14 season, talks took place between the remnants of Abergavenny Thursdays and near neighbours Govilon AFC, resulting in the creation of Abergavenny Town, who will take the place of Govilon in the First Division of the Gwent County.

Penypound will also see Welsh League football this season as Champions Monmouth Town relocate from their Sportsground home to Abergavenny, in the hope of one day progressing to the Welsh Premier League, a prospect extremely unlikely if they had stayed in Monmouth. This brings me nicely onto Abergavenny’s opponents on the night, Merthyr Town, who, after losing in the Southern League Division One play-off final last season, have turned to, now-ex, Monmouth manager Steve Jenkins to take them into the Southern Premier. Merthyr have as action-packed past, if not more so, than Aber, but I will save that for a blog from a visit to the Cigg-E at some point this season.

Remnants of a bygone era

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the PenyPound Stadium, but I was a bit surprised at what I did find. After going through a turnstile area that was either falling down, or being built, I was into the stadium. It was a lot more open space than I anticipated, but also a lot more of a club setup. There was a clubhouse, food kiosk and changing room building alongside a large covered standing area behind the goal on the left, and a big, rundown stand on the right on the halfway line, that was closed due to safety issues. All of these were at least 15 yards away from one of the biggest pitches I’ve seen, justifying Penypound’s nickname of the ‘Welsh Wembley’.

The Grandstand, sponsored by Rust

After having a walk around the pitch and having a chat with Andrew, @therovingsheep on Twitter, a fellow groundhopper and Wales fan, as well as being a Martyrs fan, the game kicked off and in pretty typical early pre-season fashion, it was quite boring. As expected, Merthyr dominated possession, but struggled to break down the Abergavenny defence, who tried to hit the visitors on the counter. One of those in the 18th minute resulted in a good ball from the centre forward (sorry, don’t know any Abergavenny player names) behind the defence to the right-winger running into the area, before being felled by the onrushing keeper. The striker put the ball on the spot, but his penalty was saved by Tom Bradley. The only other event of note in the first half came in a slightly bizarre moment where Merthyr’s Kayne McLaggon was forcibly substituted by the referee for verbally abusing him. I suppose you can’t knock the referee trying not to ruin a pre-season game, but more on that later.

Bad error by the keeper…

…Good save by the keeper

Half-time came and went but the styles of play were no different as Merthyr knocked on a door that was repeatedly slammed in their faces by Abergavenny. As ever with friendlies the game was effectively ruined by substitutions around the hour mark, but Merthyr did manage to capitalise on some new faces in the Abergavenny defence who failed to clear a cross from the right and previously sent-off Kayne McLaggon poked the ball home from 6 yards. There was time left in the game for Merthyr to hit the woodwork a few times, but also be saved by Bradley in goal as the game opened up late on. The final word was left to the referee courtesy of McLaggon who made one foul too many and was yet again sent to the pre-season sin bin. A goal and two red cards, just a quiet evening for the Martyrs striker.

McLaggon celebrates his goal with a fight, he might be a nutter

All in all a fairly typical pre-season game, despite Mr McLaggon’s efforts to spice things up. But it was about more than the game to Abergavenny as they welcome football back to Penypound in what could be seen as a ‘glamour fixture’ against the Southern Leaguers. A decent early run out for the Martyrs but they will go on to face tougher opposition before launching another, hopefully final, attack on Division One. Look out on here for a blog on a trip to Merthyr, and on Twitter for any updates on Abergavenny Town’s first season in the Gwent County. Next up for me, a trip to Europe!