Tims 92

Cefn Druids

Plaskynaston Lane

Ground No. 141

Visited - Sunday 18th November 2007
Result - NEWI Cefn Druids 0-2 Neath Athletic
Competition - Welsh Premier League
Attendance - 141

With the Sunday off work, I was determined not to spend it sitting at home bored, so looking down the fixture lists I settled on a Welsh Premier League game, eventually opting for a match at Plaskynaston Lane, home to NEWI Cefn Druids. Partly due to scarce information being available about the ground, and having read one bad review, it wasn’t exactly my first choice, but engineering work restricted me going westwards into mid Wales, so I set off in a more north-westerly direction, catching the train to Ruabon, just south of Wrexham and set off walking from there with only a set of directions and not really knowing what to expect after that.

Once there, I was pleasantly surprised. Located just off the High Street in the small village of Cefn Mawr, the ground is in a small dip of land, so you can’t see much from outside other than the changing rooms and turnstiles, but once in, it’s a unique little scene that greets you. Coming in at one corner of the ground, the near end is hard standing behind the goal with a stand and the clubhouse set back from this. The Brian Mackie Stand as it’s named features four rows of seats split into two sections with a food bar adjacent to it. In between the two sections is the door to the clubhouse which seems somewhat hidden, but a warm and cosy place nonetheless (or it seemed that way with the weather doing its best to drive people in there!). Also along this side is a portacabin which operates as the club shop. On the far side is hard standing behind the dugouts, and it’s the same at the far end as well, although this end does look fairly enclosed with a small embankment running behind it and around to the near side which contains the Main Stand, which is all seated and sits on the halfway line. One other feature at the ground is just as you go in, a small little bit of uncovered terracing in the corner with a number of crush barriers. It looks a little odd in that it doesn’t run the full length of the pitch, or is even placed in that good a position. Perhaps it was envisaged to at one point?

Having taken a few pictures, I took shelter in the clubhouse from the persistent rain, before the game kicked off at 2:30pm. Druids hadn’t been doing all that well in the league, sitting in 15th place, but with the visitors Neath just three points ahead of them, then they had targeted this game as one to look at for a return to form, so when they kicked off the home side looked to take charge of the game and certainly had much of the opening possession forcing several corners early on. Despite this, no goals were forthcoming and Neath gradually got back into the game, with the rest of the half played out fairly evenly.

The second half was much the same, and with neither side being helped by the rain which by now had become torrential, then a 0-0 draw looked very much on the cards until in the 75th minute Dale Evans opened the scoring for the visitors. After one effort had been turned away the ball had come out to Evans on the edge of the box who smashed it home to make it 1-0, and worse was to come for the home side when two minutes later Richard French made it 2-0 and effectively game over. Druids did nearly pull one back in injury time to make things interesting, but a resolute Neath defence kept them out, and the visitors from South Wales went home with all three points.

After leaving and walking back to Ruabon, with the rain still beating down and the train over an hour away I found a nice little pub called the Round House before making my way back, getting home in good time (despite having to stand up until Shrewsbury due to the train being packed).

Overall, despite the weathers best efforts to make it otherwise, it had been a good little day out, with the ground being a pleasant place to watch football in, and well worth a visit. Apparently the club do have plans to move to a new venue, which will be a shame, especially as with the ultimate restrictions for progression in the Welsh Premier League then Plaskynaston Lane seems to suit their needs well.