STUART WILLIAMS: WE WANT TO PLAY AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL POSSIBLE

Clwb Cymric are in a mid-season battle with Cardiff Draconians, manager Stuart Williams gives his thoughts on the season so far.

Williams is content with how the team have played this season

“I’m very happy with what we’ve achieved so far this season. We have a big squad and will call on most if not all of the squad to play a part this season because of absences due to personal or work commitments and injuries.”

The importance of next month is massive to the club as positions look to be tied down in the table.

“We have a big month ahead of us in January when we need to cement our place in the top three and keep putting pressure on those around us to win their matches.”

Cardiff Draconians are only three points above Clwb Cymric as they chase promotion to the Premier Division.

“It is a tight league this year as not one team is running away with it and that makes for more exciting games. We have 3 games in hand on Cardiff Draconians and we managed to beat them earlier in December which made our position better than it could have been.

We still have to play some teams in the bottom half of the table twice which should set us up well but there are no easy games in this league and any team can beat another on their day so we need to be focused if we are to catch up and overtake the current leaders.”

Williams says that with the way the club is structured, it could be hard to play at Welsh League level but the ambition is to get there.

“The club is very ambitious and we do want to play at the highest level possible, but we have to maintain the ethos of the club and why it was founded at all times which could make it difficult for us to compete at Welsh League level. However, we want to get there and will do all we can to do so.”

Alex Davies, Rhodri Williams, Aled Hughes and Tomos Davies have all won the Player of the Month awards for the club, alongside these players, Williams states the importance of some individuals in his squad.

“The four mentioned are essential to our future success and they have contributed greatly to get us to where we are currently. We’ve had a few very good new signings this season and Tom, Aled and Alex are three of those signings.

Rhodri was voted Players’ Player of the Year last season and has started this season as he finished the last. This is the best squad of players the club has had since I’ve been with them and these four, together with club captain Osian Pritchard, and all other squad members are as important as each other. Win or lose, we’re all in this together.”

Cymric have the best defence in the league, Williams put that down to his preparations before the season had started as well as training sessions.

“I put our defensive record down to 3 things – excellent defending by committed, hard working players, being able to field a more or less consistent side week in week out and hard work during pre-season and during the season when we work on our defensive shape and responsibilities.

We’ll continue to work on our defending during training in the second half of the season and hope that we continue to defend well and stop teams from scoring.”

Clwb Cymric travel to Cornelly United next week after an extended break.