Damage in the Box!: HOLYHEAD HOTSPURS (Holyhead Stadium)

As a consequence of work (boo!) my original plan of travelling down to South Wales to watch the mighty Flint Town United in welsh cup action went for a belly up. Work (double boo!) also put a limit on my options as most of the kick off times in wales change to 2pm in winter, which is another problem to contend with. This left me with only one real option and that was a visit to Holyhead’s “new” ground and their welsh cup tie with Pentwyn Dynamos, which also had the bonus of a 2.30 kick off.

I say “new” ground as where they now play their home games has always been in existence, it just that it was used by the adjacent Leisure centre as an all-weather pitch. The pitch was converted to grass last season and the Hotspurs now call it home. The ground is also around thirty yards from the old ground (which is still used for youth games) and the changing rooms and tea bar (serving you your nice cuppa in a proper mug for a bargain 60p) is still as they were as both are slap bang in the middle of both grounds

The ground is a basic set-up with one large stand along one side of the pitch, which is easily double the capacity of the old stand, and meets welsh premier criteria. Hard standing only, with no cover, is on the other three sides. There has also been a large clubhouse built, which provided some half time refreshment.

Holyhead currently sit second in the Cymru Alliance, which is the second tier of Welsh Football whilst Pentwyn Dynamos play at the level below in the south, the Welsh League Division 2, where they occupy a mid table position. The game was a crackin’ cup tie, especially in the first half, where all the goals were scored. Marc Evans gave Holyhead the lead before David Cachia equalised for Pentwyn. Evans restored the lead with his second, but it was a real end-to-end game and there were loads of chances. It could so easily been about 4-4 at the interval. Fantastic value for my £3 entrance fee.

The second half was not as frenetic, but there were chances, mainly for Holyhead as they should have put the game to bed, the pacy Kenleigh Owen was causing allsorts of problems. Petwyn had a couple of chances to level on the break, but were mainly on the defensive as they started to run out of steam.

Overall, Holyhead just about deserved to be in the next round in January where they will face last seasons surprise package Newport YMCA.