I am wondering whether some of you have got over Tuesday’s ‘hangover’ when we were indeed very unfortunate to slip to defeat against our opponents in the FAW Premier Cup. This setback now increases pressure on us having to achieve a good result at Bangor next Tuesday in order to qualify for the best two third place spots, although Tomi Morgan may well have more to say about the game in his notes.

You may agree with me that quite often accusations are banded about that many players are with their teams just for the money and might not have the interests of their particular club at heart. In my five years involvement as a Secretary of a LoW club I have not seen any evidence of this whatsoever and to reinforce this view may I just say something further about last Tuesday’s game, with apologies to the players. I have never seen Carmarthen players in such a devastated mood at the end of a game. This reflects the feelings they have for the club. If they didn’t care they would not have been so downhearted and I can assure you, they were. In fact one player who had played his heart out sat disconsolately in the dressing room for some time after the other players had left, such was his feeling of disappointment.

Still, we have come a long way since our first season in this League and I would like to cast your minds back just a few weeks to our Welsh Cup match at Caerleon where, with great respect to our opponents, I thought we won quite comfortably even though they were holding second place in the CC Sports Welsh League table. In fact, throughout the third round of the Welsh Cip, other than on one occasion there were no upsets inflicted on LoW clubs playing against teams from lower divisions. This reflects the gap between level 1 and level 2 in the Welsh Pyramid, but I don’t think for one moment that standards in the Welsh League have dropped in any way but what is very evident is that standards in the LoW, including our club, have improved immensely over the last few seasons. In days gone by, I don’t think we would have gained such a result away to high flying clubs such as Caerleon.

FINALLY, to end on a congratulatory note. You will note from today’s programme that two in our ranks have at least had something to cheer about this week. Firstly, our Chairman was elected to the FAW Premier Cup Board of Directors whilst our Manager was selected as Team Manager of the Welsh Semi-Professional team for the third successive year. May I in all humility offer my congratulations to both. Enjoy today’s game!