Date: 20.06.2018 Ground: Revisit Match: 1 (58) Venue: The Venue Park Hall Stadium Teams: The New Saints V Cefn Druids Competition: Pre-Season Friendly Admission: 5 Final Score: 1-0 (H/T 0-0) Referee: Rob Jenkins Attendance: 122 ( Head Count ) Mileage to venue and return: 78 Miles Programme: NA (Free Team Sheet) This game was the first game of my travels for the 2018/2019 season. The breaks between seasons seem to be getting shorter and shorter every year, but I m not complaining, it means less time to wait to continue with this fantastic hobby. The Park Hall Stadium is a Football Ground that I have attended on numerous occasions since I started my travels in the summer of 2016, but these previous visits were before I started to blog my visits and experiences, therefore my full report is as follows: My Fiancee, Jodie, attended this game with me, before we got to the ground we visited the nearby village of Whittington and stopped there for 30-45 minutes for some food. The Village of Whittington Whittington is a busy village with a population of 2592 people and is only 1.8 miles away from The Park Hall Stadium, home of The New Saints Football Club. It is documented that the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, an extensive settlement is recorded in the Domesday book. Whittington was granted to William Peverel during the summer of 1114, following the invasion of Powys led by King Henry I of England. It is said that William Peverel more than likely founded Whittington Castle, the castle was taken from his decedents by the Welsh under the leadership of Madog ap Maredudd, Last Prince of the Kingdom of Powys. The castle was later given to Roger Powys by King Henry II of England. Whittington Castle remained in the Powys family for several years until, King John granted it to the Fitzwarin family. During the year of 1221, King Henry III begrudgingly gave his permission for the castle to be re-built using stone after it had fallen to Llywelwyn the Great (Prince of Gwynedd),
Llywelyn recaptured the castle in 1223, but it was quickly handed back during the same year and remained in the possession of the Fitzwarin family until 1420. The Castle ruins still exist today and are open to the public. Whittington Castle View across the pond from Whittington Castle Whittington is also a civil parish, with the village of the same name being the centre of the parish. Three smaller villages, namely, Park Hall to the west, Hindford to the North-East and Babbinswood to the South, are also within the Parish. The Venue, the home of The New Saints Football Club is based in Park Hall.
Park Hall Park Hall was developed around the year of 1571 within the grounds of Whittington Castle Park. Further development continued over the succeeding years, by the early years of the 18 th Century, Park Hall boasted a terrace and Summer House. A small park that surrounded the Hall itself was introduced during the early part of 19 th Century. Today the area is a popular country park, namely, Park Hall Farm (The Countryside Experience) which attracts many visitors every year. The New Saints Football Club The clubs production followed a merger between Llansantffraid FC and Oswestry Town FC. Oswestry Town were founded as far back as 1860 and were amongst the founder members of the Welsh Football Association in 1876. Llansantffraid FC are from the lovely village of Llansantffraid and started their footballing life by competing in the Montgomeryshire Amateur League in 1959. During the 1997/1998 season, Llansantffraid changed their name to Total Network Solutions or TNS for short. This was following a fine sponsorship deal with the Oswestry based Computer company of the same name, owned by Mike Harris. Total Network Solutions won the Welsh Premier League title in the 1999/2000 and qualified for the following seasons European Cup. They merged with Oswestry Town in the summer of 2003, the aim was for the newly merged club was to be playing in a new home from the beginning of the 2005/2006 season. The business side of Total Network Solutions was sold too BT in 2006, the club then changed their name to The New Saints Football Club which it is known as today. Park Hall Stadium As previously mentioned, I have visited The Park Hall Stadium on numerous occasions in the Past, a visit to this stadium is always a pleasant experience. The stadium has a good-sized car park and has the capacity for extra parking on nearby fields for their big nights in European Competitions. Within the stadium, there is The Venue this is a great facility, which hosts different entertainment nights, includes a tenpin bowling alley and soft play area for kids. It is also complete with a restaurant and bar. Spectators can enter the stadium through the turnstiles adjacent the main car park, I believe that entry to the ground can also be accessed through The Venue itself for hospitality guests. There are two covered stands with seats totally over 1,000 between the two of them, standing is available all the way around the rest of the ground. The part of the stadium that I really like is the balcony area directly outside The Venue great views can be taken of the whole pitch from here. The media area can also be found on the balcony. Opposite the balcony there is an impressive looking structure which is used as the television gantry for when games are broadcast by Welsh TV Companies. In front of the TV gantry is where the dugouts can be found. Some pictures of The Park Hall Stadium can be found as follows:
Team Line Ups The New Saints Cefn Druids 30. Connor Roberts (GK) 13. Mike Jones (GK) 3. Chris Marriott ( c ) (J.Parry, 81) 3. Matty Owen 4. Ben Cabango (Finley, 81) 5. Neil Ashton ( C ) (Jackson, 76) 5. Joash Nembhard 7. James Davies 7. Chris Seargant 8. Arek Piskorski ( Taylor, 55) 14. Jamie Mullan (Bower, 78) 10. Ilan ap Gareth (Woodall, 76) 17. Dean Ebbe (L. Parry, 81) 15. Nathan Peate 18. Tom Holland 16. Naim Arsan 21. Adrian Cieslewicz 18. Alex Hall 23. Aeron Edwards (Craven, 78) 19. Fisnik Hajdari (Moutaud, 59) 26. Kane Lewis 26. Ryan Kershaw Substitutes Substitutes 11. Liam Parry 12. Ben Borrows 13. Lewis Dutton 20. Jonny Taylor 32. Harry Bower 24. Kai Jackson 34. Sam Finley 25. Vergil Moutaud 35. Chris Craven 17. Evan Woodall 37. James Parry. Alun Morris
Match Statistics The New Saints Cefn Druids Goal Log: Edwards, 73 Attempts: 10 Attempts: 5 On Target: 5 On Target: 0 Corners: 3 Corners: 1 Offsides: 2 Offsides: 3 Yellows: 0 Yellows: 0 Reds: 0 Reds: 0 Match Report With this game being a pre-season friendly I was quite impressed with how competitive the game was. Both teams played good football throughout the game, sometimes at a fast pace and with some good, strong but fair challenges during the 90 minutes. The only goal of the game came on 73 minutes. A good ball was played through by The New Saints No.14, Jamie Mullan Aeron Edwards found himself clear through and proceeded to finishing neatly past Cefn Druids Goalkeeper, Mike Jones from 12 yards out. Summary Jodie and I enjoyed our evening out at Park Hall, it was nice to see and chat again to a fellow groundhopper from Telford, namely, Dave Tranter before the game started. During the game we stood next to John Quinn, John is on the committee at nearby Llansantffraid FC and I had chatted to John at the recent Montgomeryshire Cup Final at the end of May. It was nice to bump into him again.