Saturday 27th June 2026 ko 14:00

Pre-season Friendly

SEVEN SISTERS ONLLYWN 1 (71)

PENLAN AFC 1 (66)

Att 27 at the Welfare Ground

Free Entry

Back in the day the Swedish Hop at the start of June used to bookend my season, and in England that would be the case now, but you are now seeing the occasional friendly pop up at the end of June, even though technically it is still forbidden by the FA. In Wales, you do see a few more driven by the FAW’s clubs early entry in to European competitions but in both cases check and check again that the game is still on.

I did have an ulterior motive for heading out. With the UK sweltering in a heatwave, the opportunity to sit in an air conditioned car for a total of 5 hours was highly attractive! I made for Neath’s environs, choosing the scenic route over the Heads Of the Valleys road, these days it is as good an option as the M4.

Seven Sisters is a town begat of coal mining, the name comes from David Evans of the Evans-Bevan coal mining partnership, having wanted to call the colliery after his daughter, Isabella Bevan who cut the first sod on the land at Bryn Dulais farm with a silver spade on Monday 11 March 1872. However, in light of superstition, and the fact that his own six sisters attended the ceremony, Evans agreed to call the mine Seven Sisters instead.

The mine shut in 1963 but just about everything you’ll see here is borne out of the mine. The football and adjacent rugby grounds formed part of “The Palace” that also contained a swimming pool, bowling green and a bandstand. Do get to the Welfare Ground early enough to have a walk around, and to soak up the history of the place. I’m minded though to point out that what you’ll remember the place for is that the players’ tunnel is the back of a lorry, used to bridge the stream between the pitch and changing rooms.

Seven Sisters merged with Onwllyn in 2020 and I’m not sure how we missed the club on the West Wales Premier League Hop, perhaps they reached the Ardal South West too soon for us! Of course there was never a dull moment when we watched Penlan, from just the odd red card, to just the odd drop of rain. It wasn’t dull here either with just 4 members of the Jenkins family turning our for the Swansea-based club. And with the usual caveat of reading absolutely nothing into pre-season friendlies, we got an entertaining game too. And best of all there was that air conditioned drive home to look forward to!