Haverfordwest County FC

 Fresh from returning from North Wales, I was ready for the epic drive down to South West Wales and the thorn in my side for many a season, Haverfordwest. I've tried and tried to visit but weather, poor public transport, weather worries and ground being unavailable last season as they shared at Camarthan have all stopped me. I was delighted to share the trip with my dad who was making his Cymru Premier ground debut. This would have been my last one but due to the reconfiguration of the league, I now have another four to do in Ammanford, Trefelin, Cambrian and Holywell.

We had a great drive down, following my directions along the coastal road through Oswestry, Newtown and Aberystwyth, several stops made it very comfortable and setting off early was a good idea as we were in Haverfordwest for 11am. After a wander around town and an excellent bowl of Tomato and Basil soup, we went back to the Hotel and had a pint whilst we waited for check in, due to the weather conditions being wet, the first rain I've seen for a good few months!

The ground is only half a mile from town, through the subways and over morrisons car park and it's around the back of halfords. The volunteers at the club were really helpful, I found the pin badges behind the bar for £3 and was first in line for food, sausages and chips for me and mince and onion pie and gravy for my dad. Bottle of water each and after a lap of the ground we took our seats for the game. The rain had stopped and it was a pleasant evening. There was probably about 150 people in attendance and the newly installed plastic pitch really was an excellent surface.

Haverfordwest were 3-0 to the good at half time, the first goal, the attacker had acres of space, switched to his right foot and slotted home, the second was slammed in off the  post and the third was saved, it came out to the forward though who made no mistake. Trethomas were dangerous on the break 2 or 3 times but suffered from woeful finishing. 

Second half Haverfordwest changed almost their entire team and really turned the screw, there were no Trethomas breaks anymore and they were chasing shadows. The fourth goal was expertly taken, rolled into the bottom corner, then the fifth came soon after from an excellent passing move, culminating in a top class cross from the right and number 28 Al Mun made no mistake, no way back for Trethomas. 

6-0 came from excellent possession and a passing move crossed from left back to the edge of the area, took the shot on and in off post it went, before a rare shot on goal for Trethomas followed by Haverfordwest drawing an excellent save then from the rebound hitting the bar from 3 yards. Then another top save from Trethomas, both keepers were excellent in keeping score the down. Trethomas then hit post from a 40 yard rasper

7-0 came when an Al Mun cut back and number 4 arrived late and hit home from the penalty spot.  That was the end to the scoring and an emphatic home win but Trethomas could go well in Cymru South in my opinion whilst I expect Haverfordwest to improve on last season as they aim for European football once more. An interesting fact about last nights game is that both teams share a nickname of the bluebirds. Haverfordwest also share an owner, with Scottish club Hamilton Academicals, who they face at Ogi Bridge Meadow on Saturday for a game that is sure to draw a big crowd.

As I'd no directions fir the way back we stuck to the motorway, M4, M5, M42, M1. The big plus of this was missing the M62 which I really dislike. Again, we had 2 or 3 stops to make things comfortable and we called in at Tenby before starting the journey. My dad had visited here 40 years ago but we weren't that impressed with it, for one thing it was too hilly, but also it's been over commercialised into a place for tourists, full of over priced restaurants and ice cream parlours. Still, we found breakfast which was the main objective and a pasty for later on.