Undy AFC vs Newport County AFC - Saturday 13th July

UNDY AFC Matchday Programme - £2 (also available online)

Pictures by Barcud-Coch Photography

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Welcome to the Causeway

Undy AFC vs Newport County AFC Pre Season Friendly Saturday 13th July at 1pm

First Team Sponsor Ground: The Causeway, Undy, Monmouthshire, NP26 3EW Telephone: 01633 881352 Website: www.undyafc.co.uk/ Facebook: Undy AFC Twitter: @UndyAFC Club Shop: https://www.totalteamwearuk.com/clientshops/undyafc/ Club Chairman: Jim Roberts First Team Manager: Lewis Thomas

Secretary: Ian Stafford - seniorsfixturessecretary@undyafc.co.uk

Main Club Sponsor

Junior Football Contact: Mark Shaw

View from the Boardroom Jim Roberts - Club Chairman

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to The Causeway – the home of Undy Athletic.

Following my re-election as Chairman at our AGM in June, on behalf of the committee, trustees and members of Undy AFC, I am pleased to extend a huge welcome to Newport County. We thank you for your continued support of our club with this preseason match, and of course we also welcome all the Newport County and Undy AFC fans for what we hope will be another memorable day.

The match is of course important to NCFC with a developing squad post the departure of Graham Coughlin last month, and we at Undy eagerly await the appointment of the new manager/head coach at Rodeny Parade.

However, the match is also of huge importance to our 1st team management, coaching staff and players here at Undy AFC. We finished mid-table last year and will obviously looking to better that this season. This kind of pre-season match provides a great opportunity for the team to measure themselves against a full time professional squad, and take important lessons forward into the 2024/25 season.

You can read more from the coaching staff later in the programme in the ‘A Word from the Dugout’ section.

I’d like to use this opportunity to also tell you a little more about what else we’ve been doing at Undy AFC in the last year. We had 5 senior teams complete last season, all of which will be competing next season.

Our 1st Team finished 8th (from 16) in the Electrical and Lighting Ardal South East League.

Our Reserve team finished 3rd (from 13), and our 3rd team also finished 3rd (from 7) in their respective leagues. In addition our under 19s team finished 7th . (from 12) and our Ladies team finished 4th (from 12). A huge congratulations to all teams, but I wish to specifically pick out the performance of the Ladies team in their first competitive season.

We also had another successful junior season this year with over 300 registered players competing in a range of age groups from soccer tots to u16, with a mix of boys and girls teams. We completed the season with perhaps our biggest and best junior tournament (pictured) yet, with over 3,200 junior players attending the 4 day event here at The Causeway.

The future remains bright for all our teams, and hence our club as a whole. We run all our events through the huge generosity of our group of volunteers who give up their time week after week, month after month and year after year. If you’d like to come and join us and continue to build and develop our club, then feel free to reach out to any of our marshals or staff today, or through our social media channels.

Thank you again to the team at Newport County, it really does mean a lot to us and our local community, and we hope to be able to continue this relationships for years to come.

I hope you enjoy the day!

Jim

Your Matchday Sponsors

Thank you for your Support!

A Word from the Dugout Mark Crook - Director of Football

Firstly, a warm welcome to The Causeway to kick of their EFL season to Newport County.

It’s all change for our opponents with a new owner, management and a vastly overhauled playing staff. I’ve got to know Huw (Jenkins) well over the last twelve months in my capacity as a director and feel he’s a man in a hurry to stamp his mark on the club. He is vastly experienced in professional football, has a clear ideology of how he wants to go forward and has the mentality if you want to achieve a different outcome (promotion) then you must do different things. As a lifelong Newport County Fan , with two stints on The board and close to ten years of service to the club this excites me.

All I can do is wish him and all at Newport County every success for the 2024/25 season.

Moving very firmly on to us the above reminds me of walking in the door as player manager of Undy FC in October 2009. I knew I needed to break some eggs to make the omelet. We had spent twenty years talking about winning the Gwent County and looking up to our established Welsh league rivals at Caldicot Town but in all honesty we were nowhere near good enough. In the first two weeks I signed seven players (including myself) Kel Stevens, Ben Roberts, Jason Cave, Peter Little, Rich Lund and Phil Tranter. We went on to win the Gwent County League for the first and only time in our history and enter the Welsh league.

I realized again in that summer of 2010 that we needed to break more eggs to now create a different omelet and brought in another four players that became stalwarts of the last decade James Smallcombe, Gareth Haywood, Steve Edwards and Gareth Cullimore. We went on to win the Welsh league Third Division at the first time of asking and spend

the next three seasons finishing in the top five of the second division. As you can see within 18 months that’s eleven . different signings and involved saying goodbye to some lads who had won the Gwent County League for the first time in our history.

However, these changes aligned with keeping a very good core of players that were at the club (Chris Parry, Gyles Thompson, James Barnes, Adie Evans and a very young James Gidney) paved the way for what has now been fifteen years at a level we had never experienced in the previous sixty since our origins in 1947.

Our History is very important and provides lessons for us moving forward as with Newport County we need to keep moving forward as I am a great believer in the adage if you are standing still, you are going backwards .

That’s why for one minute I do not take for granted Newport County, a League 2 side coming to the Causeway as before a lot of the major surgery above and a lot of hard work and toil by all around the club, I can remember the days when our pre-season was more like Coed Eva and Cwmffdoer (with the greatest of respect to those clubs).

We need to keep working hard on and off the field to make sure we are not standing still. I can assure all our supporters I am not a Man to Stand Still.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and I hope you enjoy the game today.

Mark

Our Club - Our History

Undy in action at the Causeway during the 2023/24 season 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Our Visitors - Newport County Newport County is a professional association football club in the city of Newport, South Wales. The team compete in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. The club's usual home colours are amber shirts and black shorts.

Formed in 1912, the club began life in the Southern League before being invited to become founder members of the Football League Third Division in 1920. They failed re-election in 1931, but were elected back into the Football League the next year.

They struggled for the next few seasons, but went on to be crowned Third Division South champions in 1938–39. World War II meant they had to wait until the 1946–47 season to take their place in the Second Division, though they were relegated at the end of the campaign. They were relegated out of the Third Division in 1962.

In the 1979–80 season, under manager Len Ashurst, they secured promotion out of the Fourth Division and won the Welsh Cup for the first time. They reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup the next year. In the 1980s they suffered financial difficulties with a double relegation costing them their Football League place in 1988 and the club went out of business in February 1989.

The club reformed but were initially unable to play at their home ground at Somerton Park, so picked up the nickname of the "Exiles".

They immediately won the Hellenic League in 1989–90 and were promoted out of the Southern League Midland Division in 1994– 95. While playing at Newport Stadium, they were relegated from the Premier Division in 1997, before winning promotion out of the Midland Division again in 1998–99.

Placed in the Conference South in 2004, they went on to be crowned champions in 2009–10 and after moving to Rodney Parade in 2012, they returned to the Football League following a 25-year absence after winning the Conference National play-off final in 2013 under manager Justin Edinburgh.

In more recent seasons, they have enjoyed FA Cup ties against the likes of Tottenham Hotspurs, Man City and in January this year, Man United.

Rodney Parade - Home of Newport County

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St.Pierre Country Club

John Griffiths Member of the Senedd for Newport East

UNDY BUILDING & TIMBER SUPPLIES

WEST END FARM, UNDY, CALDICOT, NP26 3EN

TELEPHONE 01633 880504

Dan Jarman First Team Player Interview Picture by Jason Anderson

For a number of seasons, Dan Jarman has been one of Undy’s most exciting players to watch - his pace and direct running at players has caused plenty of problems for defences in the Ardal South East division and the Cymru South before that. He has also been one of Undy’s regular goalscorers, despite having last season disrupted by time on the sidelines with a couple of injury.

The injury problems is something he is hoping to put behind him this season - and explained: “The previous seasons have been my hardest to date. I tore my meniscus, did my recovery, but still needed an operation, and meant missing the start of last season.

“Only my third game back, I then tore my ankle ligaments. It was very frustrating.

This season I just want to stay fit, and play as much as I can.”

After finishing midtable last season and having a campaign dogged by inconsistency, the Undy forward is hoping they can change it this year.

Dan has played well over 200 times for the club, making his first team debut at only 16, before becoming a regular two years later.

Whilst not a competitive fixture, the friendly against Newport County, is always a game, which Dan and the rest of the club look forward to.

Dan added: “This season, we have to improve - I think this year we have to be gunning for everything.

He commented: “It’s always a great occasion for us, testing ourselves against the professionals and seeing how we fair.

We always look forward to playing in front of a sizable crowd with this game and long may it continue.”

But before the league campaign begins, there is the gruels of pre-season, something which Dan said, players have a “love-hate” relationship with. “It’s hard work but you get what you put in, and you feel great after a hard session.”

“It’s no secret that we have as a team under performed the last few seasons, so this time we have to make that right.”

Junior Tournament 2024 A selection of pictures by Vicki Bloomfield (VBSports)

We had a fantastic two weekends with our junior tournament. Over 3200 players in 4 days.

Thank you to all the teams, coaches and supporters that came from far and wide to take part. A huge shout out to our fantastic local volunteers who give up so much of their time to make these tournaments so successful.

Making Local Headlines We are delighted to announce that we have won an FA Wales McDonald's Grassroots Football Award, with Mark Shaw and Mike Turner representing the Club to receive the certificate.

Well done to the Junior Committee, and all the coaches, parent helpers and the players for your efforts in helping us to be nominated in the first place, and to then bring the award home!

Club stalwart Clyde Cartwright and his wife Jackie would like to say thank you to everyone who has sponsored them for their charity trek in aid of Alzheimer’s Society.

They raised over £1,000. The money will help provide better support and services for people with the illness.

This is the latest in a long line of successes for the Club in the FA Wales McDonald's awards, and we look forward to trying to replicate these in future years.

Undy AFC wouldn’t be where it is without the hardwork and the dedication of the volunteers, who keep the club ticking over. Thank you to everyone over who has given up their time over the last few Saturdays to keep the pitch in pristine condition for firstly the junior tournament and the football season.

Alex and Stuart in action last month

Picture Gallery - From the Archives Undy AFC 0 vs 4 Newport County AFC Saturday 8th July 2023 Pictures by Jason Anderson

Undy AFC vs Newport County AFC Red Shirts, Black Shorts and Red Socks

Amber Shirts, Black Shorts and Amber Socks

Sam Burden

Nick Townsend Jacob Carney James Clarke Shane Mcloughlin Will Evans Nathan Wood Kyle Jameson Bryn Morris Luke Jephcott Aaron Wildig Oliver Greaves Kai Whitmore Anthony Glennon Ciaran Brennan Kiban Rai Joshua Seberry Jac Norris

Jack Harris Tom Wright Brad Hanbury James Barnes Harris Thomas Sam Broadribb Ollie Smith Dan Jarman Chris Parry

A big welcome to our Mascots today, Jacob Biddington and Alfie Howells!

James Gidney Alex Jarman Jack Roberts Scott Rodway Henry Wall

We hope you enjoy your day and leading the players out.

Gareth Cullimore Jack Morgan

Joe Thomas Nelson Sanca

Will Higgs Hari Jarman Iwan Hall Tom Barraclough

Referee: Phil Bates Linesman: Mark Gardiner and Steve Richards

Riley Edwards Jacob Croft

First Team Manager: Lewis Thomas Assistant Manager: Steve Lowndes Director of Football: Mark Crook

Next at the Causeway

Michael Spellman Daniel Barton Matthew Baker

Lead Coach: Nelson Jardim First Team Coach: Dafydd Williams Head Physio: Triston Jenkins Goalkeeping Coach: Jim Hollman

Tuesday 23rd July Chepstow Town FC

Tuesday 30th July Tredegar Town AFC