After winning the 2023/24 Gwent Premier Division with a game to go, Croesyceiliog AFC found themselves back where they belong in the Floodlighting and Electrical Ardal South East League .
This is part of a new series on Cwmbran Life where Nevan Rea is quizzing local football managers on their plans and ambitions for the 2024/25 season. If you want your club featured, please email [email protected]
Off the back of last season’s success, I discussed the team’s ambitions for the forthcoming season with manager Paul Brown. He’s been in charge of the first team since November 2022 after being approached by the chairman Scott Packer.
Paul took up the top job and also manages the team alongside the club’s under 14s side.
He said his ambition for the forthcoming season is simply “survival” after pointing out the difficulty of the league and “the quality of other teams” as his side experienced in the previous seasons.
But Paul was firm in explaining that his team likes to both play and attack with his front-foot style of football being key in his team’s performances last season.
He added: “We have a lot of young exciting players at the club, who had a lot of success last year with our youth and reserve teams. We have some really good players in our attacking positions so we try and use them as much as we can.”
The manager was full of praise for his captain Owen Llewellyn, a key figure in the team, with the skipper bagging 40 goals last season.
It’s clear the manager hopes for a similar performance from him this season while also pointing at younger lads, “Morgan Devlin and Hari Holtham” as two who could have a breakthrough season and help the team’s attacking style of football.
We then discussed his team’s preparation for the new season and his views on the first few matches. Paul said: “We have done a lot of work with fitness, but unfortunately we had a very short turnaround in terms of end of last season and the start of this season.
“It’s a very fine balance between working the boys too hard in preseason and managing injuries, with a lot of games being played in the first six weeks of the season.”
Paul was quick to discuss the season’s start with a mix of results with a good win on the opening day against Caldicot. Paul said the mixed results (two wins, four losses, one draw) were down to an inconsistent squad due to the summer period and was confident that results would pick up and the team could move up from their current ninth position.
With a key focus on “survival” this season Paul said that the team’s focus is on the league and that the boys would see any cup games as a “welcome distraction from the league”.
Croesyceiliog AFC’s next match is tonight- Friday 13 September– when they travel to Pen-y-Pound Stadium to take on Abergavenny Town who are currently sixth in the league. Kick off 7.45pm.