A good afternoon to you all, especially to our friends who have made the very long journey from the NW coast. We had a long journey ourselves last Saturday with a successful visit to the NE coast. No doubt, Tomi Morgan will have more to say about this.

The Club Chairman and I also had a long journey a couple of weeks ago to attend a LoW clubs special meeting at Caersws where some perhaps contentious issues were discussed. Top of the agenda was that old chestnut of ground improvements and we all know where our Club stands on that issue. Indeed, our Chairman explains the latest situation in today’s programme. There was also considerable discussion on the policy within Wales relating to Centres of Excellence and the subsequent Youth Development. The situation in Wales is that a body, independent of the FAW , called the FAW Community Trust, a charitable organisation, has established Centres of Excellence in some seven or eight centres in various unitary authorities. We in Carmarthen, of course, come within the West School under the auspices of Roy Thomas, a coach at the FAW. The three Football League Clubs in Wales have also established Centres of Excellence although the source of funding for these comes from the Nationwide League in England. And of course our Youth Team Manager Derek Carnegie is very involved with the Swansea City School of Excellence where he organises coaching sessions with the assistance of Dave Rayson , also a team manager with our Youth Team. You may now ask where do the LoW Clubs stand in all this. Well, at present, LoW clubs are not an integral part of the FAW Community Trust, but LoW clubs are anxious to become involved in developing young footballers and I know that Aberystwyth and Newtown have already filed applications to establish Centres of Excellence. If such things get off the ground, who knows, Carmarthen Town may be in the forefront in developing young footballers under the ‘excellence’ umbrella in times to come.

And now a reference to last month’s Goal of the Month Competition on Wales on Saturday an Gôl. It was nice to see the inclusion of Dean Rossiter as a candidate following his ‘crackerjack’ goal against Barry Town. Congratulations to Dean, even though he did not come first on this occasion, but also full marks to the Journal reporter who predicted in his match report on the Town v Barry game that Dean would be a candidate for the’ goal of the month’!

A special thank you to one of our Match Sponsors today in the form of our worthy Tote Organisers, Mike Vickers, Peter Davies, Keith Phillips and Malcolm L Williams. Indeed, thanks to them for their financial contribution but also for their dedication from week to week in organising the Tote. Our Chairman often describes this source of income as the ‘Lifeline of the Club’ and Mike Vickers tells me that as a result of recent modifications by increasing the basic prize money to £200 with a roll-over to a maximum of £500 he is confident that interest and revenue will increase from this source.

Finally, I would remind our supporters that our match against Rhayader next month will be on Friday, 19 th of February (KO - 7.45pm). On the previous Saturday, of course, our visitors today will be with us again, this time in the Welsh Cup.

Enjoy today’s game.

We are here today for our second successive home game, this time against Cwmbran, so a warm welcome to you all. The original fixture list showed that we were due to play at the Cwmbran stadium today but, of course, our home fixture against ‘Cwmbran’ scheduled for last August had to be reversed due to the fact that our ground had not recovered from the installation of the drainage scheme. And talking of the drainage scheme, despite the Boxing Day washout, it is no doubt the best thing that has happened to the pitch , for after the recent abnormal amount of rainfall I doubt that we would have played today nor last Saturday against Inter Cable-Tel.

You will, of course, have noticed that I make written contributions in all our match day programmes and I can say that the views expressed or information given are purely of my own volition with the occasional valuable interjection or assistance from our Chairman. But today, I confess, the situation is different, for on this occasion I have received some not inconsiderable assistance from our Programme Editor, Alun Charles, on my references below to some excellent Football Books that were published in time for last Christmas. There seems to have been a resurgence in recent times in the number of publications on Welsh Football, with enough variety to whet the appetite of a broad range of people. Pride of place in my view goes to Professor David Farmer and Peter Stead’s joint venture in producing Ivor Allchurch MBE (Christopher Davies £10.95). Ivor was a great hero of mine in my formative days and I’m sure, likewise, to a number of you present today. A phrase in Trevor Ford’s foreword to the book in which he states ‘ that in my opinion, Ivor Allchurch was one of the greatest British Footballers of all time’ brought a lump to my throat and not a little tear to my eye. It is a mystery why a book has never been written about Ivor Allchurch before. Thankfully, this error has now been remedied in a worthy manner. Incidentally, this book was presented to me as a Christmas present by my dear wife which is concrete evidence enough that she knows my tastes!

Another publication that caught the eye was Come on Cymru (Football in Wales) (Sigma Leisure Publications, Chester £6.95) compiled by Keith Hayes. This book is the first to be written by fans of Welsh football for football fans everywhere. Whilst making interesting reading, it has come under some criticism in the national press, mainly because of its apparent failure to achieve in its coverage a suitable balance between the geographical regions of our country. In a book about ‘Cymru’ one asks also why do Chester City and Hereford United have such prominence (28 pages). Still, LoW Club Supporters were given the opportunity to put their club’s nostalgia on paper, in fact there was a request published in our programme last year and if a proposed ‘Come on Cymru Mark 11’ is published at a later date it would be quite excitingto see a contribution from one of our supporters on how they have seen our Club progressing from the 3rd Division of the Welsh league to the LoW during the 90’s and of the magnificent response the Club has had from sponsors in the last four years. Other books that came our way this Christmas are Wrexham Football Club An A=Z by Dean Hayes (Sigma £6.95), Red Dragons in Europe - A Complete Record by Terry Grandin (Desert Island Books £14.99) and a book which makes compulsive reading When Pele Broke Our Hearts - Wales and the 1958 World Cup by Mario Risoli (Ashley Drake £10.00).

And finally... Keep our fingers crossed that all will go well at next Thursday’s Council meeting regarding the acquisition of the lease of Richmond Park. If the enormous effort put in by certain individuals in the Club is anything to go by, then we will have no fears, I am sure.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all, and what a happy end to the old one it has been for the Club with two wins on the trot and, who knows, a possible third after today’s game. But, has it in fact, been a happy end to the year? In the space of a month we have seen the resignation of our manager, opposition by some of the Richmond Terrace residents to the proposed enclosing of Richmond Park and, now, the concerns of the Club emanating from the burns injury sustained by Barry keeper Andrew Dibble.

But with the advent of the New Year let me start on a positive note by reflecting on Tomi Morgan’s excellent start to his managerial career with our Club. The lads really raised their game against Barry and who can argue that the win was not deserved. I think it is safe to say, however, that we may have had the run of the green against the Bluebirds, notwithstanding keeper Robert Fitzgerald’s brilliant display, last Saturday. This was something which seemed to have deserted our former manager and let’s hope that Tomi continues to have it in abundance, because whoever the manager is, he must have his fair share of lady luck in his drive for success.

But now to the mystery which has enveloped the Club since Andrew Dibble’s unfortunate escapade during the Barry match. I went personally to visit the player in the Burns Unit at Morriston Hospital on the Monday after the game and he had already undergone skin-grafting surgery. He was extremely appreciative of the good wishes of our Club and our supporters, but in view of his employment as a full time professional footballer he was extremely distressed at the prospect of being inactive for a considerable period. He is in fact on a three month loan to Barry from Altrincham and indicates that some Nationwide Football League clubs are expressing an interest in him. He identified the penalty spot as the area where he alleges he sustained the lime burns and following investigation by the Environmental Agency and the Health and Safety Executive it was noted that no pitch markings contained lime, except the penalty spot where traces were found. Further meticulous checks indicated that no lime was shown on the pitch marks, equipment, buckets and other implements at the Richmond Park Dressing and Store Rooms. Lime on the penalty spot and no trace of it anywhere else! Yes, a sinister turn of events now comes into the equation. Could there be outside influences? I leave you to draw your own conclusions. In any event, the Club’s Solicitor has referred the matter to the Local Police for investigation. I feel that the forensic result has completely exonerated both Club and Town Council. Whatever, we most sincerely wish Andrew Dibble a very speedy recovery and hope that he will realise his ambition and return to the Football League.

Our thanks to Jonathan Wilsher for his contribution in today’s programme. Jonathan is Assistant Sports Editor of the South Wales Evening Post and does a great service to the LoW with the considerable publicity in the Post’ and Sporting on Saturdays. He is also a frequent visitor to Richmond Park to report on our LoW matches. As a professional journalist you would not expect an article by him not to be hard hitting and his very interesting piece in today’s programme, I can safely say in this age of political correctness, is no exception. I hasten to refer you to our Editor’s subtle sentiments in our programme when he proclaims that any views expressed are not necessarily those of this Club. Incidentally, at the time of writing I haven’t read GO’s article yet!!

And now a little wish for the New Year and that is to have a rain free day on a Saturday because Boxing Day's postponement against Afan Lido was a bitter blow for the Club and its supporters who were expected to attend in large numbers! Enjoy today’s game!