Welsh Cup glamour tie at mighty Swansea was memorable occasion for Llanystumdwy

BUTE ENERGY WELSH CUP – ROUND OF 16

Swansea City 10 CPD Llanystumdwy 0

The final scoreline was irrelevant, the occasion was everything.

Realistically, Tier 3 Llanystumdwy were never going to upset the Welsh Cup dreams of Adran Premier side and three-time Trophy winners Swansea City.

Nonetheless, it was a sure thing that the North Wales Coast League villagers were going to give absolutely 100 percent to the cause. And they did!

Here are Llan manager Sion Parry’s observations about Sunday’s glamour tie down south….

We knew how hard this game was going to be, facing Wrexham 14 months ago gave us an idea of what to expect, but it’s one thing knowing what’s gonna happen and a different thing actually being able to stop it.

The girls gave absolutely everything, the amount of players cramping up or quite literally falling to the floor was evidence of that.

It was 3-0 after 65 minutes, but then in the next 12-minute period Swansea scored 6 goals, then their final goal came 3 minutes into injury time when we were down to 10.

So I think just looking at the scoreline is harsh on the girls because if not for that 12-minute period it looks much better for us, it was almost a carbon copy of the Wrexham game where we kept them at 2-0 until the 60th minute, but honestly I could not have asked for any more from the girls and we won’t be looking back on the score, we’ll be looking back having enjoyed the experience and being proud of not just the effort they put in on the day, but also exceeding expectations to even be here.

I often use my personal experiences in football when talking to the team, most of these girls hadn’t played senior football before signing for us. Isaid I’ve been playing football since I was 5, and only once have I had a game down south. These girls have now played Wrexham and Swansea in just over a year!!

As a team we went down on Saturday afternoon, had some food together before going bowling in the night. Sunday morning we were in the lounge and you could sense there was a few nerves, but also excitement, after the game some of the girls jumped on the karaoke in the clubhouse before going around Swansea for a few glasses of water…

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but honestly this isn’t something that comes around often, possibly even never again, especially not in those circumstances of being able to play Swansea City away in the last 16 of the Welsh Cup.

It still sounds crazy now, but that’s what these girls have achieved for the club. Being able to say Llanystumdwy vs Wrexham, and Swansea City vs Llanystumdwy were fixtures played in consecutive seasons is unbelievable.

And when it all settles down I’m hoping the girls will look back on this and realise what they’ve actually done for this small village club, and be proud of themselves and their teammates.

I’m so pleased and proud of the team we have and hope we can create something like this again.