Cwmbran Celtic aiming for another historic Adran South season
CWMBRAN, WALES - 01 OCTOBER 2023: Cwmbran Celtic in the Genero Adran Trophy Group 3 fixture between Cwmbran Celtic FC Women and Briton Ferry Llansawel Ladies FC at the Avondale Motor Park Arena, Cwmbran, Wales. (Pic by Ashley Crowden/FAW)
Newly promoted teams always have a wide range of positives and negatives no matter what league they’re in, but for Cwmbran Celtic, they couldn’t have wished for a better season.
Being one of three teams new to the Adran South last season, Celtic proved plenty of doubters wrong as they recorded an impressive third-place finish. Club stalwart Georgia Shwartz knew the quality that her side had and admitted that their lofty finish didn’t come as too much of a surprise.
“I don’t think it shocked us that much. We knew that we had the quality, along with the potential coming through to be able to push on from tier three into tier two, and we wanted to prove a point that we do have a squad and the depth to go on and put good performances in, pick up points, and finish high up the table.
“Maybe not as high as third as such, but we had a really strong end to last season after making some good signings in January, and that pushed us on even more.”
It’s that collective strength that acts as the joker in Celtic’s pack. There’s a unique togetherness at the club, and Shwartz hailed the good atmosphere that’s been created.
“We have a strong core here at Celtic. We pride ourselves on that. It’s a nice close-knit group, and we are all best friends really. We get on well, and it’s not just the senior squad, it’s the development team too.
“We train in the same spaces, and we all do everything together, and in essence, it’s one big squad with two teams in it. We have players who have been with us for between four and eight years now, and building around them is something we always want to do.”
Since January, the group have really kicked on. Adding the likes of former Cardiff City youngster Summer Bowen-Quirk, alongside the likes of Eloise Meaney and Natalia Shwartz, means this is a team with a good mix of youth and experience.
Now, however, Celtic are no longer the surprise packages in the second tier. Teams know what to expect from James Kinsella’s side, but Shwartz believes her team will keep their opponents on their toes throughout the campaign.
“We know we’ve put a bit of a target on our backs, because teams know we are quite strong and that we have talented individuals, and that those sides are going to target us a little bit and look at how we played previously and go from there. We’re looking at different ways to playing in training and changing things up as much as possible.
“While other teams know about us, we also know a lot more about them a year on, so we can play to our own strengths. We’ve also brought in some good players who will strengthen us and add a different dynamic to the group.”
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Yet, there is a feeling that this could be the most open Adran South for a very long time. Celtic, along with Cascade, battled towards the top end of the table last year, Swansea University caused plenty of shocks, Llanelli Town have moved to a semi-pro model, while Pontypridd United will bring some Adran Premier experience to the league.
It is almost impossible to predict how the season will go, but Shwartz is relishing that challenge.
“Briton Ferry did dominate last season, but coming into this season, we’re coming into it from a completely different perspective. We all knew what to expect from last season, but this season, it’s more complex.
“You’ve got ourselves, but there’s about three, four, or five other teams that could all compete for that top spot. It does make it exciting, and it is something we’re looking forward to, because everyone wants to see competition, everyone wants competitive games, and that’s what we will be expecting from this season.”
And it’s against the afore mentioned Llanelli that Celtic will begin their campaign against. While Cwmbran did dominate plenty of teams last year, they failed to come away from Stebonheath Park with all three points, and Shwartz knows it’s going to be another difficult task on the first day of the season.
“When we went down there last season, we found them a really difficult team, and they pretty much dropped everything in front of goal, and we came away with a draw.
“They were strong competitors last year, but they’ve built on that now, bringing in a lot of players, and they’ve obviously upped their model in terms of training and adding a few more things.
“They will be competitive and dangerous, but hopefully we can go and use the pitch to our advantage and get something from it.”
All in all, there’s plenty of optimism around Cwmbran ahead of this new campaign, and Shwartz is hoping her side can battle in the upper echelons of the table once again.
“For me personally I want to keep building, and the rest of the team would say the same thing. Every season we’ve gotten progressively better as a collective, and we’re working on things in order to be better, both from a tactical and technical perspective.
“Hopefully we can get a good cup run going too. The main thing, however, is for us to stay as a team, and keeping this environment that we created really positive, and that will help guide us through the season.”
