Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 17:30

West Wales Premier League

MUMBLES RANGERS 7 (Jenkins 22 Evans 24 Spring 42 Amphlett 50 69 James 57 Williams 88)

Amphlett missed penalty 45

BRYN ROVERS 0

Att 160

Entry £3

Programme £2

You may recall that Chris Garner and I paid Mumbles Rangers a visit back in 2021 when Covid restrictions were starting to ease. We picked Underhill Park purely as it was a public park so the Welsh Senedd’s dictat that crowds of over 100 for an event were still banned couldn’t possibly be breached (!)

The issue for Mumbles was that there were plans to redevelop the place and install a floodlit 3G facility, and while that took place, they’d need somewhere to play. They moved to the 3G cage at Swansea University, adjacent to the main grass pitch used by Ardal South West club Swansea University.

It suffices for Mumbles but no more, and hopefully the new facility back at Underhill will open soon after more than a little wrangling; hopefully it means we can take the hop there next time. Because you saw the issues they have here. Like at Seaside no food could be served from within the cage, and so filled rolls were sold from the scorers booth by the main pitch, even the merchandise table was outside. The club hosted as best as they could given the constraints placed on them. It seemed such a long way from what I saw 3 years ago though, and I could imagine how they could have hosted back home.

Thankfully our visit coincided with the best weather for the weekend allowing us to relax on the grass banking and watch a game that sadly for Bryn Rovers, was every inch as one-sided as the score suggests. In fact it could, no should have been 8-0 as Cole Amphlett’s penalty was adjudged to have hit the post when groundhopper VAR (mobile phone footage) showed that in fact the ball had hit the mobile goal’s supporting wheel, and as such was well over the line.

It added up to little more than the unfortunate Amphlett missing out on a hat trick, and it did give us all a talking point as the coach headed back to Carmarthen.