Football upgrade

I don't usually do one off match reports, but today's Cardiff Draconians game was a bit special. In the week they had two new stands delivered for the Orange Llama Stadium.

New stand selfie

I made Nick pose for a selfie too

In a quirk of scheduling, the Dracs' previous home game was against the same opponents as today: Cwmbran Celtic. Two weeks ago they played each other in the Welsh Cup. 

A fortnight on from these teams meeting in the cup and it was a case of deja vu, with the Dracs trailing 1-0 at half time and then coming back to win. But there were some changes - the new stands being the main one. And it wasn't pouring down with rain this time despite Storm Amy doing her worst. (We had a squirrel pitch invader at one point and he could well have been blown out of a tree!)

Cwmbran's goal was a bit flukey; a lob from a tight angle that went in. 9/10 times it would have ended up anywhere but in the net. The striker didn't have any other options but to go for it and maybe it was wind-assisted. I don't think the visitors had another attempt on target all game. Dracs had several chances. Low crosses on the six yard line went begging. A certain goal was cleared off the line. And so on.

Just before half time the Cwmbran goalscorer came off worst in a collision with the metal guard rail. He didn't reappear for the second half. Dracs made a change too, bringing on their number 9, Sam "Robbo" Roberts. He changed the game, charging onto two long balls and slotting them home to put the Dracs 2-1 up. 

The Dracs then kept fluffing really good chances to make the game safe, despite having a player advantage after the Cwmbran captain got shown a straight red card for an off the ball elbow. The last couple of minutes saw the Dracs really having to dig in to defend their lead and keep hold of all three points.

This win means the Dracs have taken 16 points from their last 6 league games. With other results going their way and some games being cancelled they are now up to fourth in the table, which is one slot below the promotion places. This is much better than anything I expected at the start of the season when I bought my season ticket.

And we didn't even get rained on.