Undy AFC vs Goytre AFC - Saturday 11th May

Saturday11thMayAprilat2.30pm

Mark Crook - First Team Coach A Word from the Dugout

Firstly a warm welcome to The Causeway for our final home league game of the 2023/24 Season.

I'm not going to hide from the fact that I wanted more out of the last eleven months than mid table mediocrity We've got four games left & we can realistically finish anywhere between 6th & 9th As I wrote in these notes in September it was always going to be a huge ask to finish in the Top Five who are very much "Semi Professional" in the amount of resource they put into their respective playing budgets To compete against the big boys in this league is now an expensive hobby That's why if we could finish sixth & be best of the rest then a community club totally amateur in structure such as ourselves has to consider that as success

I alluded earlier to this season being eleven months long We started back to training last June, trained this Tuesday in May & have to go Saturday to Tuesday for the next two weeks with four game ro play . That takes a huge amount of dedication & time from players & management alike Especially as so many sides now see fit to schedule home games under lights on a Friday

Which for us inevitable means travel Most of those games involve players & management needing to give up their

time from circa 4pm on a Friday & not usually getting home until at least 11pm

.

A huge thank you to all involved I for one appreciate & applaud your commitment to the badge

Extending the long time theme I this season broke through the five hundred game barrier as either Player Manager, Manager, Director of Football or Head Coach of the First Team

In fact for the 15 seasons we have now been at this level I have fulfilled one of those roles in fourteen of them So as they say its not my First Rodeo I feel I am well placed to offer the opinion that this league has never had so much resource floating around it This is making being competitive at the top end more & more difficult The top five sides this season are the best five sides but its no coincidence that they are also the best resourced and fully semi professional in approach

Continuing the long time theme my approach will always be to give Undy youngsters the best possible opportunity of playing at the highest level We have handed four first team league debuts to u19s in the last two games and used two more who had all ready made their debut this season

The Future is bright, the Future is Undy! We need to stick to our principles progress the best local talent and be as good as we can be at the level by producing and coaching our own players.

We have worked very hard at this over the last 15 seasons and that is what has been the basis of what has been the most successful period in the club’s history

I'm very proud of our achievement of becoming an established Welsh League side over this period Here's to more to come

Thanks for the support and enjoy this afternoon

All the best

Undy AFC - Our Club History

Undy A.F.C. was formed in 1947 by Joe Champion, Lambert Bird, Harry Hodges and others. The changing facilities were in Undy Church Hall, using a tin bath for washing. During the period between 1947 and 1962 the Argus Shield was won three times. Unfortunately in 1962 the club was disbanded, due to lack of support.

1970 saw a reformation, the driving force behind this, amongst others, were John King, Percy Pope,Malcolm Pope, our president Mr J Smith, and the tote organiser Bob Scrivens, the tote keeping the club on a firm financial setting for more than 10 years

From 1970 to 1981 Undy Football Club operated without any team managers, a selection committee picked the teams every week. The first manager taken on by the club, in 1981 was Dave Segal During the mideighties Undy United F C took over the management of the Playing Fields from Undy Playing Fields Association, changing our name from Undy United to Undy A F C

In 1992, the football club poured its first pint of beer in its new clubhouse, by obtaining its licence to sell alcohol. 1996 saw the project to extend the clubhouse, providing us with new changing facilities, and more recently in 2005 the development of our new pitch Our colours changed during this period to the Red that the whole club wears today

Having gained entry to the Gwent County League, the Gwent County Motors Cup was won in 2004, and with a continual improvement of our first team, we became an established Gwent County Division one side, before beginning to set our sights on a place in the Welsh League

In 2010/2011, under the management team of Mark Crook and Jason Davies, we fulfilled our ambition by being crowned Division one Champions and gaining promotion into the Welsh Football League Our time in The Welsh League has been a successful one, with us winning the Third Division in our first season, and gaining promotion to Division two

In 2015/16, now under the management of Laurence Owen, with Crook as Director of football, we achieved our objective, and gained promotion to the top tier of Welsh League football

Our stay in the Cymru South division came to an end after relegation in the 2021/22 season. We finished the 2022/23 season in the Ardal South East league in third position, just five points behind Abertillery Bluebirds AFC

First Team Honours:

Gwent County League Division One: 2010–11, Welsh Football League Division Three: 2011–12

Gareth Cullimore, James Barnes and Dan Jarman, all in action during the 2022/23 season.

O

u r V i s i t o r s - G o y t r e A F C

The club can trace its history back as far as 1902 when Goytre played their football at Goytre Hall. The club then played on a series of fields loaned by local farmers, changing in private garages, and then having to drive to the pitch. In 1988 the club acquired its present ground, Plough Road, which opened ready for use for season 1991-92. The ground became possible through the actions of the trustees in taking out bank loans to purchase the ground, which was then developed with the aid of grants from the Football Trust and Monmouth County Council.

The club originally played in the Gwent Central League and eventually gained promotion to the Gwent County League in 1998, winning promotion to Division 2 at the first attempt. Goytre then spent three seasons in Division 2 before winning the division in 2001-02 and progressing through Division 1, finishing as runners-up to Aberbargoed Buds in 2002-03 Goytre gained promotion though to the Welsh League, as the Buds were unable to find a suitable ground to meet ground criteria.

Goytre in its first season in Welsh League, consolidated their place in the division, finishing in a creditable 7th position with 12 wins and 7 draws out of 30 league games The club then looked to establish themselves in the league, developing the facilities at Plough Road to incorporate a new clubhouse and bar. After six seasons of mid table finishes, Goytre came close to promotion in 2010-2011 with the arrival of Sean Wharton and Steve Gray, assisted by Nathan Blake as the new management team offered a different level of coaching and professionalism.

Goytre narrowly missed out on promotion after some farcical results elsewhere on the final day of the season which saw Goytre denied promotion by goal difference to Caerau by just 3 goals having won more games than their rivals. However, the club made up for the disappointment by lifting the Welsh League Cup, beating Aberbargoed Buds 1-0 in the final at Bryntirion

2011-12 saw veteran midfielder Carl Evans step up as player-manager, when Wharton and Gray left, initially assisted by Paul Brown and then Mike Colcombe when Paul stepped down due to work commitments The team went on an incredible run in the New Year, winning 15 out of 16 games which clinched promotion to Division 2 as runners up to Undy Athletic. Even better was to follow in 2012-13 as Goytre won Division 2, winning 23 of the 30 league games and scoring 78 goals.

The following season saw the bandwagon of success keep rolling, with a creditable 5th place finish in Division 1, while the club twice went better and finished in third place in 2015-16 and 2016-17. However, in 2018-19 the club struggled with injuries and managed just 6 wins all season, relegated on the last day of the season.

With the pyramid restructuring, Goytre played out the last season of Welsh League football in the newly named Division 1, finishing in 5th place on the points per game average due to the pandemic. They now take their place in the Ardal Southern League, South East Division for 202122, under the management of Nathan Cadette and assisted by Eston Chiverton and goalkeeper coach Jamie Griffin, with several former STM players now at the club and a few new faces off the field to help restructure and spread the load of running the club.

Picture Gallery - Severnside Derby

Caldicot Town 1 v 1 Undy AFC

Ardal South East - Tuesday 16th April

Pictures by Stuart Townsend - Barcud-Coch Photography

Match Report

Undy AFC 2 vs Blaenavon Blues 0

Ardal South East - Saturday 13th April

Goals from Ollie Smith and James Gidney, one in each half, gave Undy a comfortable win over Blaenavon Blues.

It was their third win in four and built on from their ten nil thrashing of Hay St Marys previously

Lewis Thomas made two changes to the starting line up with Chris Parry and Dan Tozer returning to the team The former came into a back three alongside Jack Morgan and James Barnes, who would have to deal with the threat of prolific striker Chris Ham

Undy controlled the game from the first whistle and took an early lead after just six minutes through Smith. With no one wanting to put a tackle in, the versatile midfielder breezed into the opposition box and slotted past Luca Bullock in the Blaenavon goal

The home side were the better team throughout and did have further chances in the first forty five - Gareth Cullimore and Dan Jarman both with good opportunities, but they were unable carry on from where they finished the previous match with a hat-trick each against Hay St Marys.

Blaenavon did very little to test Jack Harris in the Undy goal The only real time he had to be on his toes was when Robin Davies headed towards goal, but it was straight at him

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first The men in red controlled the majority of the play, looking a threat going forward, but also solid at the back

They doubled their lead on sixty five minutes, when again Smith ran at the Blaenavon defence and his hard but low cross was met by Gidney, on the opposite wing who bagged his second goal in consecutive games

It was a mature performance by Undy with Dan Tozer and Tom Wright winning their battles in the middle of the park Substitute Sam Broadribb also did well in the last half hour of the game, showing good link up play between the midfield and attack.

With much of the pre-match talk about Blaenavon’s number nine (Ham), he didn’t register his first attempt on goal till the final moments of the game, which was a testament to the work of Morgan, Parry and Barnes

Undy AFC: Harris, Gidney, Morgan, Barnes, Parry ©, Smith, Wright, Tozer, Jarman, Cullimore (Wall), Hanbury (Broadribb)

Sam Burden

Jack Harris

Tom Wright

Brad Hanbury

Tyrone Tucker-Dixon

James Barnes

Harris Thomas

Paul Clayton

Sam Broadribb

Dan Tozer

Ollie Smith

Dan Jarman

Chris Parry

James Gidney

Elliot George

Alex Jarman

Jack Roberts

Giancalo Gabbiadini

Scott Rodway

Henry Wall

Gareth Cullimore

Jack Morgan

Will Higgs

Red Shirts, Black Shorts and Red Socks

White Shirts, Silver Shorts, White Socks