Bluebirds Fly North...

Colwyn Bay away was one I was thoroughly looking forward to. I did not have the chance to go in the 2023/24 season, so despite it being the opposite end of the country, I made sure I had the time off work and budgeted for the day out.

My alarm goes off at 5.20. As it happens, it's the same alarm I have for work so it’s not a huge shock, but still, getting to sleep at 12 was far from ideal! I walk in to meet one of the other guys by the train station as we anticipate a great day out following our beloved Bluebirds.

Whilst we waited for our driver, we had to take shelter as the rain lashed down, and for the first time that I have ever seen in Haverfordwest, we saw forked lightning that accompanied the dark, moody clouds overhead. The last time I saw fork lightning was in 2010 whilst I was at Disneyland Paris, but I digress… I hope this wasn’t an omen for the day. 

We collected all the passengers and arrived in Aberystwyth for our usual breakfast pit stop. We have stopped in this McDonald’s for so many northern trips over the years, so naturally, I get more excited when I come here, as I know we are closer to watching our favourite Bluebirds play.

As we got closer to our destination, the weather was drastically improving, more cans of our favourite European lagers were consumed, and new chants were being thought up. We couldn’t wait.

The calm before the storm...

We arrived at The Blue Turtle Arena about 12.10 and had already seen that the Supporters Association minibus had arrived. The passengers there had put their flags up behind the goal, and there was plenty of room for ours, too. 

The game kicked off, and we were eager to see what was to unfold…

We struggled coming out of the traps, to be fair. Early long balls were just not working as they are a very tall, powerful team. This continued for all of the game, and I just didn’t understand why we were doing it. We were second best nine times out of ten. 

Not only are they tall and powerful. They were very vocal, too. They seem to have a team full of leaders and the table doesn’t lie. All their new signings have gelled together really quickly.

After Colwyn Bay had already threatened early on, a cracking cross found the head of Aaron Williams, which he put just wide, was an early wake-up call to warn us that Colwyn Bay are up for this today.

Another cross that came in the ninth minute from Sam Hart seemed to find Louis Robles in the air, who headed home to make it 1-0. Too easy for the hosts. 

Colwyn Bay, you could safely say, were in full control, and another goal was going to happen. So why on Earth were we just lumping it long, I’ll never know. We have always been at our best when we are passing the ball around, finding space, and that killer pass, but we were just doing our best to play hoof ball.

The next goal came from a long ball from Jamie Cumming from the right back position that completely bypassed most of the 22 players on the pitch. Whilst travelling to its target, Louis Robles on the left wing, Dylan Rees slipped and Robles had all the time in the world to square in across the goal with Jordan Davies, with not a defender around him in acres of space, takes a touch no less, and slots it home for 2-0.

I make no secret of how Jordan Davies was our ‘football genius’ from January 2022 to his departure back to Connah’s Quay Nomads in May 2023, so we knew that he had a killer instinct for goal. Even if this was a tap-in. But you can’t score unless you’re in the right place, and more often than not, he is.

Fair play to Jordan (for this goal anyway), he held his hands up as a gesture of “sorry” to his former club. 

Our former 'football genius' apologises after scoring his first... Picture by Damon Mead/Colwyn Bay FC

At the 34th minute, the ball was bouncing around in our defensive half. Alaric wins the ball back, but in doing so, the ball becomes loose, and he dives in, stretching to win the ball again, but unfortunately takes Uniss Kargbo down, and Bryn Markham Jones is quick to bring the red card out to give Alaric his marching orders. Originally, I had thought he slipped and thought it was harsh, but now I’ve watched it back multiple times, it’s a bit clumsy and deserving of a red card. Annoying as he won the first tackle brilliantly. 

10 men and 2-nil, down after 35 minutes the game is only going one way, and you would be right in assuming this.

Just four minutes later, a long ball (again) from defence finds Bay’s Louis Robles’ head, who finds Jordan Davies, but in the meantime, he has completely pushed Ricky Watts down deliberately, which has to be a foul. In a VAR world, that would be given one hundred percent.

Jordan then cuts inside only to pass it back wide to Robles, whose initial shot is blocked by Luc Rees, but it finds Jordan Davies again, who again, slots it in to make it 3-0.

He celebrates here and we can’t moan. He didn’t for the first one and this one, he does his signature pose. His new team are doing well, why shouldn’t he enjoy the moment?

Going into the second half we had to make early changes. I appreciate this is only a fan's opinion, but I would have brought Ahmun off, because why try to beat them in the air when they were just better at that part of the game than us? To replace Ahmun, I would have brought Panashe on to fill gaps further back in the lineup. Building on that, you defend deep, soak up pressure and use Fawcey’s pace on counterattacks to try and get something. That was my thinking anyway…

The second half went as you would expect. Bay had no reason to really get into second gear, so in turn, we had more of the ball. Unfortunately, we didn’t really threaten Alex Brown’s goal. 

To sound like a broken record, and at this point it must become boring to read, but Greg Walters was simply great today. He gets everywhere on the pitch. From intercepting dangerous attacks to starting attacks of our own. One of ThatFootballDrawings' flags is a Where’s Wally design of Greg Walters. And this is spot on. When looking you just need to look for the wonderful curly locks of his, but he could be absolutely anywhere on the field. I would go as far as to say now he’s our most important player.

One good chance we did have was a quick counter, which saw Rhys Abbruzzese, who incidentally was playing his 100th game for Haverfordwest today, cross the ball in the box, but Fawcett blasted it high over the bar. 

A defensive highlight for us was a wonderful fingertip save by Luc Rees, which was aching to be put away, but his Schmeichel-esque, cat reflexes stopped it from being a bad result to an embarrassing one.

In the dying embers of the game, Colwyn Bay were on the attack, and Ben Fawcett had to foul him before he could break away, which was a fair yellow card, really. But immediately after, he booted the ball away in frustration. Well, when you do that, you’re asking for trouble. Bryn, again, is quick to his pocket, after already giving Ben his first yellow, gives him a second immediately after and sends him off. Haverfordwest ended the game with nine men.

The Bluebirds were well beaten today by the high-flying Seagulls. Despite this, I was proud of us all for keeping up with the chanting and the support of our lads until the final whistle. The players came over to applaud and wave to us, which is always nice to receive thanks for all of our efforts today.

Before leaving Colwyn Bay to travel a million miles back to Pembrokeshire, we stopped in The Station for fuel to last us the journey. Whilst the pints went down a treat (our driver enjoying a can of Vimto), the food left us disappointed, not only in quality, but 2 of the food orders were wrong, which meant staying in North Wales for longer than we wanted to. When it’s not your day, it really isn’t your day!

An extremely long day, and the Bluebirds losing in that manner, assumes that it was a bad day. However, spending the day with your closest mates, on a road trip to a new place, accompanied by drinks, laughter and following your local team is the best feeling in the world. Onwards and upwards, lads and lasses!

The next game we play we are back home to face Connah’s Quay Nomads on the 20th September. See you there, Bluebirds.

Full-time, Colwyn Bay 3-0 Haverfordwest County. Attendance 659