Last weekend’s Nathaniel MG Cup fixtures brought the end of a nine month wait for the return of competitive football for the Cymru North and South clubs.
One of the clubs in action were Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant who welcomed Llangefni to the Theatre of Trees. Neither could be seperated thanks to a 2-2 draw with the action going all the way to penalties with the visitors going through to the next round after winning 3-4.
Manager Marc Griffiths was mostly happy with his teams display and took plenty of positives away from the result using it as a benchmark to see how his squad are preparing for the upcoming 2020-21 season.
“It felt great to be back in competitive action. The result didn’t really matter too much as we are only our second week into our pre-season preparations, so we looked to treat it as a chance to have a look at what we have and get a good indication of where we need to look to improve.”
Marc continued “I thought we performed really well, we started slowly first 20 minutes and found ourselves two goals down. I think we perhaps had too many players looking to manage themselves through 90 minutes, knowing in their head that their fitness levels aren’t quite at that stage yet. After that we controlled the game, got the two goals back and looked the more likely team to go on and win the game.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a whole new challenge at how football operates, from instigating social distancing into training sessions to playing behind closed doors. Griffiths admitted it has been difficult to keep his players motivated with the temptation of football across the border but that his players and himself as a manager have adapted to the ‘new normal’.
“Keeping the players motivated hasn’t been easy, especially with us being so close to the English border and the sides there being in competitive action since September. One or two did ask the question about possibly leaving to get a game elsewhere but thankfully we only lost one player for that reason. The rest of the boys have trained fantastically whenever we have been able to do so.”
“As a manager I have found the only way to plan for training and friendlies has been on a week to week basis but everyone at the club has been working to make sure we can be as adaptable as possible” he added.
A fantastic 8th placed finish in last season’s Cymru North might have surprised a few considering some of the budgets of Llanrhaeadr’s league rivals. The former Welshpool and Bala Town striker is staying realistic with his targets and says that staying in Tier 2 is the main goal come the end of the season.
“Last season was tremendous for a club of our size. With no playing budget to be able to compete with the likes of Colwyn Bay, Bangor City and the like is a massive achievement. One of which I don’t feel will happen again!”
He elaborated further “Our objective will once again to stay in the League and be competitive week in week. This will be our 3rd season in Tier 2, something everyone thought wouldn’t be possible so we are enjoying the ride and looking forward to pulling off some more upsets.”
As they look to build on the pitch, Marc has been busy bringing in two new coaches to his management staff. He is already seeing the impact of the two new additions and tells us that they have bought into the ideology of the Club.
“Yes, two new faces have come in to work alongside me. Nick brings great tactical knowledge and has a lot of fresh coaching ideas. He already knows some of our players and totally understands the philosophy of a club like Llanrhaeadr. Callum Vaughan is another young coach who is local to the village, he already has vast of experience coaching at local schools and Academy’s. His ability to bring new ideas to training sessions has already had a positive impact on the group.”
“Also with me still TRYING to play a bit, it’s useful to know I have two guys on the side that are capable and brave enough to making decisions. Over all the atmosphere at the club is fantastic and we can’t wait to get going on the 15th of January.”
The Cymru North season will begin on the weekend of the 15th January with Llanrhaeadr making the trip to Gresford Athletic for the first match of the foreshortened season. So how will the Club prepare for a fixture that will be taking place over a month away?
“All we will do to prepare is make sure we apply ourselves properly in training, the fitness will be there by then but finding match sharpness will be difficult, especially if Tier three clubs are unable to play friendly matches. Like I said previous, we will have to be adaptable and take things from week to week” Griffiths stated.
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