Message from the Chairman
It is my great pleasure to welcome you here to Baglan this afternoon for our league encounter against Penrhiwceiber Rangers in the Ardal South West league in a return of our first game in the Ardal league back at the end of the summer. That fixture ended in a 0-0 draw after a missed penalty from Ceiber’s Warren Jones.
In midweek, we overcame Port Talbot Town 4-0 with goals from Jordan Evans (2), Tom Randall and Kieran Parsons. Over the last 11 league fixtures, we’ve won 7, drew 2 with injury time comebacks, scored 41 and conceded 3, keeping 8 clean sheets in the process.
I am extremely proud of how far our club has progressed over recent seasons. The off-field effort from our committee and volunteers to achieve the tier 3 status has been exceeded by the work of our management team of Carl, Chillo and Sean, supported by our reserves management team of Aaron, Luke and Ross, with the exceptional efforts by the entire playing squad. The dream of many who are unfortunately no longer with us, has been realised and it’s now our job to continue to progress forward as a club.
The on-field achievements would not have been possible without the support of our incredible sponsors. We are grateful that through difficult financial times, you still continue to support our football club.
Finally, I would like to welcome the Ceibers management team of Dean Brown, Warren Jones, Daniel Trampelli, Alex Ross and Ryan Roberts.
Our referee team will consist of Wayne Tregonning and Wayne’s assistants Clive Layne and Mark Thomas.
We hope you all enjoy the match.
Chris Akers
League Table
Ourhistory:
Our journey in the South Wales Alliance league began in the 1999-2000 season in division 2. At the time we were known as Red Dragon & Baglan as a merged club of Baglan Boys & Girls club and The Red Dragon. We stayed at this level before gaining promotion to division one as champions at the end of the 2002-03 season.
We changed our name to Baglan Red Dragons in 2004 and in our second season in division 1, we narrowly missed out on the runners-up spot, and promotion to the premier division on goal difference.
In 2009, we changed our name to Baglan Dragons AFC. We were placed in the 1st division of the newly formed South Wales Alliance league in the 2015-16 season after the merger of the South Wales Amateur and South Wales Senior leagues. At the end of the 2015-16 season, we were promoted to the South Wales Alliance Premier division under the stewardship of the late, great Paul Evans and Aaron McCalmon after finishing runners up to Canton Liberal.
Several seasons in the alliance league followed where we finished fairly comfortably in mid-table.
The 2018-19 season saw the arrival of a new management team of Carl Clement, Paul Evans, Stephen Lewis, Les Cayford and Sean Cayford. Since his arrival, Clemo has brought in some top quality players who have played to a high level in Welsh domestic football and has merged this with a blend of promising young players to create a close-knit group of players.
We have carried out several improvements to our home ground over the last few years to enable our aim of achieving Welsh League status. This included the installation of the 100 seater stadium that you can see today, that’s named after our late and dearly missed former Chairman, Mark Tayler. The tier 3 certificate was obtained firstly in the 2019-20 season and has been subsequently achieved since.
The 2019-20 season looked set to be the year that we realised our goal of Welsh League football. We were well placed in the league with many games in hand on the teams above us due to our run in the FAW Trophy. Our cup run took us as far as Cardiff Met university in the FAW Trophy semi-final, where we bowed out 3-1 at the hands of a very good Penydarren BGC side. The season was curtailed shortly after the semi-final and Pencoed deservedly took the league title on a points per game basis.
The disappointment of losing the semi-final in 2020 showed our boys that they were more than good enough to pit themselves against the best sides in tier 3 and proved to be a good learning experience for the season that lay ahead.
The 2021-22 season will be undoubtedly regarded as the most successful season in our club’s history. The management team of Carl Clement, Stephen Lewis and Sean Cayford was added to with the experienced Phil Holmes. The premier league title was won based on a solid defence that conceded a total of 21 goals throughout the entire league campaign and was complemented with the prolific goal scoring of Jordan Evans, who finished the league campaign with 26 goals. In addition to an excellent league campaign, our exploits in the FAW trophy took us all the way to the final in Caersws, where, in a memorable day for the club, we fell just short, losing 1-0 to Mold Alexandra. A side who went on to lift the JD North West title to seal their place in the JD North league for this season.
Baglan Dragons – Squad Profile
MATTHEW STANTON (GK) ; Stants joined us with a long and successful history in the Welsh League with spells at Tata Steel, Port Talbot Town and Trefelin BGC. Matthew has been a pivotal member of our squad for the last few years.
HARVEY DONOVAN (D) : Harvey joined us from Trefelin youth. He’s a boys club of Wales international and has an extremely bright future at centre back.
LEWIS HOLMES (D) : Captain and leader. An exceptional and much coveted central defender and footballer who popped up with many important goals for us last season. Delighted that Lewis has stayed to lead us through our first season in the Welsh league. A Rolls Royce at the back for us.
RYAN MORGAN (D) : Ryan rejoined us this summer after a season away with Goytre. An excellent full-back with a great attitude and winning mentality. Ryan represented Wales at the regions cup in 2018.
ROSS PARFITT (D) : Ross is an excellent centre half who joined us in 2015 from Onllwyn. Despite his talent and potential, this will be Ross’s first season in the Welsh league.
KIERAN PARSONS (D) : Parsons has been a constant in our side for the last couple of seasons. A top defender and consistent performer at full back or centre half.
KIERAN MILLER (D) : Miller joined us from Port Talbot town in 2019. After a few seasons in central midfield, Kieran has now moved back to his preferred position of full back. Remarkably good with his head for such a small man.
DANIEL WILLIAMS (D) : Joined us in 2015 from Briton Ferry, Dan is a top quality centre defender who played a pivotal role in the side over the last few seasons and scored the goal that kick started our season last year. An excellent communicator and commanding defender.
KIAN COCKINGS (M) : Kian joined us from Trefelin mid way through last season. He’s a combative and gifted midfielder with a great attitude and bags of potential.
LEWIS DANDO (M) : Lew is a central midfielder who always appears to have time on the ball. He played a lot of his junior and youth team football at Cardiff City before losing interest in the game. He rejoined our reserves side last year and makes the transition to the first team this season.
JONATHAN DAVIES (M) : Jonny has been with the club for the last 3 seasons. He’s a strong, young central midfielder who is mature beyond his years. One of the mainstays in the side over the last couple of seasons.
JOSH EVANS (M) : Josh came to us from Port Talbot Town after spending the majority of his junior, youth and early senior career at Afan Lido. Josh is a strong wide player with great ability, engine and attitude.
LUKE EVANS (M) : Luke joined us from Afan Lido in 2019 after playing his junior, youth and early senior games with the Lido. Luke has suffered two major knee injuries that resulted in surgeries but will hopefully recover to play a huge part in the season ahead.
MATTHEW ROGERS (M) : Matthew joins us this month from Goytre United of the JD South. Matthew has fantastic energy and great ability on the ball. We’re looking forward to seeing him in a Baglan shirt.
JACK FLEMING (M) : Jack is an excellent winger who’s more than capable of playing at a higher level. He joined us from Afan Lido in the 2019-20 season and has become a central part of our team. Constantly providing assists or getting goals himself.
MATTHEW LEWIS (M) : Chinky has been at the club since the 2019/20 season having played the vast majority of his career at Tata Steel. Chinky has also suffered with more than his fair share of injuries and is currently recovering from a knee operation. A strong, gutsy and able central midfielder and a voice that every side needs.
DANIEL MASON (M) : Dan played most of his junior football at Baglan before moving to St Josephs old boys in the Port Talbot league. He stepped up to the first team early in the season and has popped up with some valuable goals from central midfield.
SEAN CAYFORD (M) : Sean joined our coaching setup in the 2019-20 season and occasionally plays on the wing. Susceptible to hamstring injuries as they’re tighter than our chairman.
CAIUS MILLS (M) : Joined from Bridgend league side Welfare Park in 2020. Caius has been ravaged with injury and has spent the early part of his Baglan days in our reserves side. A very strong midfielder with unending energy, Caius will be an asset to our first team this season.
TOM RANDALL (M) : An excellent central midfielder, Tom always gives 100% on the pitch and regularly popped up last season with important goals. Proud current holder of “Clubman of the year”.
DYLAN THOMAS (M) : Wonderful playmaking central midfielder with an excellent footballing CV that includes Wales u17, Wales u19s, Swansea City and Aberdeen. An exceptional player with an attitude to match.
JOSH WILLIAMS (F) : Josh joined from Neath league side Rhos and spent the majority of last season with our reserves where he was a prolific goal scorer. Bags of ability and potential. One we’re excited to develop.
JORDAN EVANS (F) : Jordan has been at Baglan since he was a boy. He’s more than capable of playing a few tiers above. A prolific goal scorer and a ridiculous talent. Represented Wales in the Regions Cup in 2018
MICHAEL MCCALMON (F) : Mike joined us this month from Afan Lido. A skilful and pacey forward player who has played the last few seasons in the JD South. We’re looking forward to seeing Mike in the red of Baglan.
NATHAN LEWIS (F) : Nathan rejoins us after a short spell away at Penlan AFC. Nathan is a talented forward with a great attitude. He fitted in well in his last spell at the club before suffering with an injury. We’re looking forward to seeing him back in a Baglan shirt.
Ourvisitors:
Penrhiwceiber Rangers : A brief history
PenrhiwceiberRangers,formerlyPenrhiwceiberWelfarewereformedin1961and haveplayedalltheirfootballontheirGlasbrookField.Foundermemberswere BillyCooksley,TonyJonesandChrisKerr.Theclubsawgreatadvancesthrough theninetieswinningtheSouthWalesAmateurLeagueandCorinthianCupinthe 1991-92season,withpromotiontotheWelshFootballLeague.
IntheirfirstseasonintheWelshLeague,Penrhiwceiberjustmissedoutonpromotionin4thplaceongoaldifference toMilfordUnited,whilealsosufferingheartbreakintheLeagueCupFinallosingtoPembrokeBoroughatCoychurch RoadinBridgend.
Thefollowingseason,1993-94,PenrhiwceiberwontheThirdDivisiontitle,winning19oftheir26leaguegamestopip runnersupGrangeHarlequinsbyapointtowinpromotiontoDivision2.Thiswasfollowedbyasecondconsecutive title,withtheDivision2Championshipbroughthome,holdingoffrivalsRiscaUnited,with17winsin26league games.
Theclub’sfirstseasoninDivision1,ledtoaverycreditable7thplacefinish,howeverthefollowingseasonCeiber wererelegatedbacktoDivision2,butthestaywastobeshortlived.Theclubbouncedbackin1998-99,winningthe titlewith21winsin30leaguegames.
TheclubthenhadthreeseasonsofconsolidationintheDivision1,with10th,11thand12thplacefinishes,before relegationagainin2002-03.Thefollowingthreeseasonssawmid-tablefinishes,althoughtheLeagueCupwaswon in2006withvictoryoverPontardaweTown,2-1atAfanLido.However,Ceibersufferedfurtherrelegationin2006-07 backtoDivision3.However,theclubinstantlybouncedbackwitha3rdplacefinishin2007-08behindPentwyn Dynamoes&NewcastleEmlyn.
In2008-09theclubreachedtheLeagueCupforthethirdtimebutsufferedheartbreakinlosingtoAfanLidoon penalties6-5aftera1-1drawatMaesteg.Theclubmadenomistakein2009-10thoughintheleague,with21winsin 34leaguegamestowintheDivision2.Theclubsufferedinstantrelegationthoughandafter5seasonsbackin Division2sufferedafurtherrelegationin2015-16.TheclubthenmissedouttoTrefelinforoneofjusttwopromotion spotsin2018-19.However,withtheleaguere-structuringCeiberwontheverylastWelshLeagueDivision2titlein 2019-20onthepointspergameaverageafterDivision3becameDivision2,withtheformationoftheCymruSouth.
MostofthesuccesstheclubhasachievedwasunderSteveHaggett,managerforover25years,whobrought togetheradedicatedgroupoflocaltalentedfootballerswhoformedthebasisofmanysuccessfulseasons.Sadly, Stevehaspassedaway,buthislegacylivesonwithdaughterDaniellenowClubSecretary.
Theclubisnowrunbyanotherdedicatedgroupwhohavegiventheclubnumeroussupportovertheyears,including JeffDudley,TonyKitto,MikeBarnard,GwynJones,DilwynPritchard,RobMorgan,GarethWilliamsandstillledby BillyCooksley.TheclubislookingforwardtotakingpartintheArdalSouthernLeague,withDeanBrown’steaminthe SouthWestDivision
Theteams
