Last Saturday saw a Swansea City Legends team take on Carmarthenshire Locals in a charity football match in aid of the Swans4Cancer Charity.
The event which was first played last year, took place at Richmond Park, home of Carmarthen Town and the 150 plus crowd were treated to some quality football in the blazing bank holiday sunshine.
The Swans Legends, whom this time were managed by Lee Trundle and Mark Clode, had plenty of experience in their line-up with the likes of Steve Jones, Chris Todd, Jon Ford, Andrew Mumford, John Williams, Adrian Forbes, Jonathan Coates, Owain Tudur-Jones and Kerry Morgan all featuring.
In terms of appearances, father time obviously hadn’t been kind to some of the former Vetch Field favourites, but whilst their athletic physique might have deserted some of them, their skills and trickery most certainly hadn’t.
To his credit, referee Tom Bateman let a sometimes physical but good natured game flow, which helped aid the quality of the game, if not the stamina levels of some of those involved!
Despite the Swans Legends backline of Jones, Tudur-Jones and Ford looking solid, Carmarthenshire took the lead, somewhat against the run of play.
It didn’t take the Swans long to equalise though, thanks to the hard working duo of John Williams and Adrian Forbes, with the latter curling a glorious equaliser beyond a stranded Carmarthenshire Locals keeper.
Jonathan Coates was putting in a workmanlike performance down the left flank, before tiring after giving chase to one too many through balls.
Several chances went begging before another Forbesy goal put the Swans in front – much to the delight of the Swans fans in the crowd.
A rare Carmarthenshire attack led to a shock equaliser, which seemed to spur the legends on and shortly afterwards a typical 30 yard drive from Andrew Mumford nestled into the far corner to give the Swans Legends a 3-2 lead.
As half-time approached Adrian Forbes completed his hat-trick and the Swans went into the break with a healthy 5-2 lead. Amongst the excitement I can’t remember who got the Swans 4th!!
Half-time saw Trundle and Clode ring the changes, with a clearly tired Ford, Williams and Coates being replaced.
The second half continued much in the same vein as the first with the energetic Kerry Morgan pulling all the strings in midfield.
His dominance allowed the marauding full-back Steve Jones and the ever-so-communicative Owain Tudur-Jones to bomb forward at every given opportunity.
Former Swan Bari Morgan, who lined up for the locals, had his work cut-out trying to cope with his namesake and current Merthyr Town player Morgan.
It was also nice to see young Charlie Clode given a run-out in his Dad’s jersey, whom was missing due to a recent knee operation.
Such was the Swans dominance in the 2nd period, it seemed as though the only objective was to get Chris Todd on the score-sheet, something which he sadly failed to do, despite numerous glorious opportunities.
With the Carmarthenshire Locals beginning to flag in the extremely hot conditions, Tudur-Jones completed his hat-trick, the pick of which was a sublime free-kick, the Swans Legends eventually ran out comfortable 9-2 winners in an entertaining game.
After the game, several of the former Swans stopped to chat, have photographs and sign autographs with the Swans fans who were old enough to remember them – as one young lad pertinently pointed out to his Dad!
At the time of writing, I’m not sure how much money was raised for the Swans4Cancer charity, but it was certainly an enjoyable day for the spectators and one which this fan in particular, hopes to see return next year.
You can see some of the Swansea City legends in action, by taking a look at the picture gallery of the Swansea City Legends v Carmarthenshire Locals 2018 match, that has been put together by Duncan Thomas.