Saturday 23rd September 2023 ko 16:45

West Wales Premier League

DAFEN WELFARE 0

Morgan sent off (DOGSO) 28

YNYSTAWE ATHLETIC 8 (Loughlin 5 55 Owens 14p B James 24 34 Morgan 45 Gibbons 90+4)

Att 252

Entry £3

Programme £2

We stayed in Llanelli’s suburbs for the final hop game of the Saturday. The village, as the club’s name suggests is a link to the area’s past as a centre for coal mining, the St David’s and Porthdafen Collieries were close to here. And that fact did have an impact on what we experienced at Dafen Park.

Before that though was issue of getting a 55-seater coach through narrow streets, and the disadvantage of a bumper crowd was that cars were parked everywhere, including the spot allocated for the coach. We managed to disgorge the passengers and thankfully driver Joey wasn’t a football fan, he parked up elsewhere.

The ground is a typical welfare ground with a large bar area separating the football and cricket pitches. It gave the club space to cope with a large crowd, and certainly a warm evening helped them.

I liked what the club had done. There was a stall selling craft and real ales, and a van selling curry and chilli. Part of me would have liked to have seen the club do it all for themselves, but the important thing was that it did happen. People ate and drank and from an organisers perspective the local economy had a real boost.

Sadly, what we didn’t get was a competitive game, and while Ynystawe put our hosts to the sword I’d make two observations. The first was that Dafen weren’t a bad side, as I type this, they’re ninth in the league and in no danger of relegation. The second is that cause wasn’t helped either by the dismissal of Josh Morgan for a challenge that was deemed denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity but could have easily been dangerous play too.

But here’s the thing. Sat here a couple of weeks after the event I remember Dafen Welfare not for being on the receiving end of a drubbing at home, but just for being a competent, friendly club. And let’s face it that Saturday was a lousy day to be a player at any of the three host clubs!