Football: Pope puts Colwyn Bay FC on alert

Aug 14 2008 By Tim Channon

COLWYN BAY manager Steve Pope has warned there will be no easy games in the Unibond Division One North as he prepares for the opening match of the new season against Garforth Town at Llanelian Road on Saturday (3pm).

"This is going to be a very tough league – there are no Spaldings or Shepshed Uniteds and there will no easy games," he said this week.

"Every team we have had a chance to look at over the last month have impressed us and we’ve got a tough start with our opening games against teams who are among the bookies favourites to challenge for promotion.

"But after starting from a scratch eight weeks ago we’ve assembled a decent squad who are ambitious and the players can’t wait to get started."

Garforth are managed by Simon Clifford, who started the Brazilian Soccer Schools, and he has recruited a number of players who have graduated from those schools.

"They are technically strong and pass the ball well, but can also look after themselves in a physical contest, so it is going to be a very challenging opening game for us," added Pope.

He is without striker Jamie McIntosh who is starting a two match suspension, but expects everybody else to be available, including Karl Frost who had to came off with cramp in last Saturday’s low key 1-0 win over Llandyrnog United.

"That was an awful game with both sides looking as if they had had enough of pre-season friendlies," reflected the manager.

"But the players are really up for Saturday and can’t wait for the season proper to get under way."

There is free admission for children under-14 if accompanied by an adult for home games this season. Other admission prices have been frozen at £6 for adults, £4 OAPs and 14 to 17 years, and £1 for under-14s.

Rob Hopley headed an 88th minute goal to give an understrength Colwyn Bay side, with Tim Brandreth, Steve Aspinall and McIntosh all unavailable, a 1-0 victory over Llandyrnog last Saturday.

They never reached the standards they showed in winning at Vauxhall Motors in midweek and struggled to break down a hard-working Llandyrnog side, although Karl Frost, Dean Canning and Luke O’Mahoney all went close in the second half.

The game looked to be heading for a goalless draw until Rob Hopley, who was introduced from the bench for the last 10 minutes, headed the only goal of the game from an excellent diagonal cross by Paul Roberts with two minutes left.

First report of Saturday’s game will appear on Saturday evening on Tim Channon’s Sporting scene blog via the Weekly News website.