Friday 24 July 2015

Well what a month!

Come May everyone needs a break in football. Players, staff, volunteers and the backroom team, but that wasn't the case at Newtown Football Club this summer.
Scrap the break because if didn't know, we went on a European tour, well two in fact.
When the European draw was made no one gave Newtown a hope in hell of getting through the first round.
If I remember rightly TNS were favourites to progress, then Bala, then Newtown and finally Airbus.
But Newtown defied the odds at home on a special night against Valletta to win with a last gasp Jason Oswell goal.
To see the amount of fans there supporting the Robins on that night at the start of July was immense and one that will stick long in the memory of the supporters.
 
Going over to Valletta was also a leap into the unknown and a place I wouldn't like to go again to report on a football match.
Malta is such a nice place, for a holiday. But not to report or I imagine to play football.
But they went there, again, against the odds and brought back the goods.
Everyone was expecting us to bow out miserably, but that was far from the case.
Oswell grabbed the early goal, and the 75 travelling fans were in ecstasy, what a journey it was for them.
 Credit to every single one of them. We took more fans to Malta than they did to Wales, and more than FC Copenhagen brought to Latham Park last night.
They were vocal and at times out sung the rowdy Valletta fans.
But again it was an amazing experience in a run down old ground to go there and win and create history. No one at this time could question if this was the best side that Newtown had ever had.
And in the morning when the dust had settled, it sunk in where we were going. FC Copenhagen!

Beat Manchester United six years prior, and drew with FC Barcelona in the Nou Camp.
The Denmark trip, for me, beat anything else I had ever done in my job.
From the moment we landed, to the moment we left the Telia Parken last Thursday, they were top draw, a proper football club.
It was a different level and something you might never experience again but I was glad to experience it once.
But not the amount of stairs I had to climb to get to my seat.
It was up in the heavens but it gave me a taster of what top level European football is like, and I would certainly like more of that in the future.
The result was, for a defeat, an amazing one, couldn't have asked for anything more against Europe's elite.
Last night, again, Newtown far from disgraced themselves and could have grabbed more goals but it wasn't to be.
The European dream was over but what a month it had been.
Couldn't have ever thought I would be in that position at the age of 21, and I have to put that down to the staff at Newtown.
I can't thank them enough for taking me away with them on their European trip and the experiences are something I will never forget.
The Euro buzz is still there, so we need to get into Europe again next season. No pressure lads!