Merthyr Tydfil FC

Had nothing better to do on a Tuesday night, and heard Merthyr were home to 2nd Place Chippenham Town who are pushing for Promotion to The National League (South) Division. So, decided to go along and take look.

At the Turnstile, showed my ST and was delighted to get a 50% reduction on entry to their Stadium. A £10 ticket reduced to a Fiver.

An entertaining game Merthyr ran out 2:0 winners pushing them into Mid-Table safety, whilst damaging Chippenham's Promotion hopes.

To add to this, Merthyr are undertaking a £1.8 million Refurb to their Stadium and, tbh it does look quite impressive. Do hope that they, under former Bluebird Steve Jenkins, can get to the National League.

Well done to Merthyr Tydfil FC.

Steve,Always worth while going up to watch Merthyr,Great Value and always want them to do well

No chance of supporting Merthyr, their academy has linked up with the Jerks and all their teams wear jerks colours.

No chance of supporting Merthyr, their academy has linked up with the Jerks and all their teams wear jerks colours.

Merthyr have always worn white.

Yes but not their acadamey teams wearing ones with swans on , they are now

Yes but not their acadamey teams wearing ones with swans on , they are now

Thats because they are now Swanseas academy and who can blame them? Yove got to be 30 before youre even considered ready enough by Slade.

Having seen the standard of the Merthy academy its no surprise the City did not want a link up Cardiff boys playing saturday football have more talent, the Jerks are only interested as this gets them a presence in an area that has always been CCFC

Just like the "swans academy" trying to stir interest at Heath/Roath parks, they are not interested on the young players just sticking two fingers up to CCFC.

Having seen the standard of the Merthy academy its no surprise the City did not want a link up Cardiff boys playing saturday football have more talent, the Jerks are only interested as this gets them a presence in an area that has always been CCFC

Just like the "swans academy" trying to stir interest at Heath/Roath parks, they are not interested on the young players just sticking two fingers up to CCFC.

Youre living in the past. Unfortunatley its no longer a CCFC stronghold and hasnt been since well before they took over the academy. Theyve attracted the younger generation of fans just by being in the Premiership.

Also, Swansea have always had a scouting presence in Merthyr and the Valleys going back 30 years as their former youth team coach, Ronnie Walton, is from the Gurnos. I dont know why youre making such a big deal about it.

Kids in a Swansea academy in Merthyr wear Swansea kits. Whoopeee doo.

Having seen the standard of the Merthy academy its no surprise the City did not want a link up Cardiff boys playing saturday football have more talent, the Jerks are only interested as this gets them a presence in an area that has always been CCFC

Just like the "swans academy" trying to stir interest at Heath/Roath parks, they are not interested on the young players just sticking two fingers up to CCFC.

Youre living in the past. Unfortunatley its no longer a CCFC stronghold and hasnt been since well before they took over the academy. Theyve attracted the younger generation of fans just by being in the Premiership.

Also, Swansea have always had a scouting presence in Merthyr and the Valleys going back 30 years as their former youth team coach, Ronnie Walton, is from the Gurnos. I dont know why youre making such a big deal about it.

Kids in a Swansea academy in Merthyr wear Swansea kits. Whoopeee doo.

Exactly, Ronnie was kicking about for years scouting for the jacks in the valleys. Didn't make that much of a difference because his son Mark ended up playing for Cardiff.

I used to go training with him and all the valley lads he was scouting up Bishop Hedley every Monday and Wednesday. Probably as close to a local academy as you could get back in them days.

He used to put some good sessions on and let me train with them cos I played for Georgetown and went with Kingy who he was scouting at the time.

He end up kicking me out though cos in one drill you had to shout Jacks and I kept shouting Bluebirds

We used to have a presence down in West Wales for years, not sure if we still do but we had a centre of excellence in Carmarthen and may have had one further west. It's Cardiffs failings for not securing Merthyrs youth set up as more of a Cardiff academy, they may be shit now but whose to say how many players we will lose to the Jacks from now on from up there.

As for the comment about them only doing it to stick two fingers up at us, ridiculous. We should be doing the same, it's all about catching the best players before our rivals do.

Lovely to hear all the valley commando war stories

The standard of Merthyr Towns academy has shot up since Swansea have been involved. My son and four other boys have all just arrived there after six years at Cardiff City down in Treforest. We are with the under 14s who are recruiting hard, they smashed Port Talbot Town last week 8-1 in the League of Wales Premier Division, and having taken many more scalpes recently. It has become a really decent set up over the past few months. However it does amaze me now how many adults as well as children I see out and about now all around each of the Valkeys wearing some sort of Jacks shirt/hat/jacket or tracksuit, years ago you wouldn't have seen this. Even park football in Cardiff you now see a lot of Jacks merchandise. In my sons school in Cardiff there are three Swansea fans in his class alone all aged around 14, sign of the times I guess, the glamour is the Premier League

The standard of Merthyr Towns academy has shot up since Swansea have been involved. My son and four other boys have all just arrived there after six years at Cardiff City down in Treforest. We are with the under 14s who are recruiting hard, they smashed Port Talbot Town last week 8-1 in the League of Wales Premier Division, and having taken many more scalpes recently. It has become a really decent set up over the past few months. However it does amaze me now how many adults as well as children I see out and about now all around each of the Valkeys wearing some sort of Jacks shirt/hat/jacket or tracksuit, years ago you wouldn't have seen this. Even park football in Cardiff you now see a lot of Jacks merchandise. In my sons school in Cardiff there are three Swansea fans in his class alone all aged around 14, sign of the times I guess, the glamour is the Premier League

Quote (Blueboys1927): "In my sons school in Cardiff there are three Swansea fans in his class alone all aged around 14"

I assume they were the three sat in the corner with the pointy hats on????

The standard of Merthyr Towns academy has shot up since Swansea have been involved. My son and four other boys have all just arrived there after six years at Cardiff City down in Treforest. We are with the under 14s who are recruiting hard, they smashed Port Talbot Town last week 8-1 in the League of Wales Premier Division, and having taken many more scalpes recently. It has become a really decent set up over the past few months. However it does amaze me now how many adults as well as children I see out and about now all around each of the Valkeys wearing some sort of Jacks shirt/hat/jacket or tracksuit, years ago you wouldn't have seen this. Even park football in Cardiff you now see a lot of Jacks merchandise. In my sons school in Cardiff there are three Swansea fans in his class alone all aged around 14, sign of the times I guess, the glamour is the Premier League

Quote (Blueboys1927): "In my sons school in Cardiff there are three Swansea fans in his class alone all aged around 14"

I assume they were the three sat in the corner with the pointy hats on????

Yep they are Joking apart apparently they do all stick together

My grandson plays for Merthyr academy under 11s and I can assure you they wear a Merthyr kit