{"id":6907,"date":"2023-10-14T15:11:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T14:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/?p=6907"},"modified":"2024-03-14T15:33:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T15:33:56","slug":"aberystwyth-town-captain-amy-jenkins-left-speechless-by-seasiders-unbeaten-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/news\/aberystwyth-town-captain-amy-jenkins-left-speechless-by-seasiders-unbeaten-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Aberystwyth Town captain Amy Jenkins left “speechless” by Seasiders’ unbeaten start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Following a sixth-place finish in the Genero Adran Premier last season and little movement in the transfer market, Aberystwyth Town had plenty of question marks over them coming into the new campaign. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Seasiders silenced any doubters with a 3-0 win over Barry Town United on the opening day of the campaign and they have not looked back since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast season we knew we had the ability, but we couldn\u2019t quite make it work for one reason or another,\u201d captain Amy Jenkins explains. \u201cBut beating Barry on the opening day showed to us that we are doing the right things and that we are heading in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following their opening day win, Aberystwyth earned an impressive 0-0 draw away at reigning champions Cardiff City before a 2-0 win over Pontypridd United and a 1-1 draw with Cardiff Met. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been left a bit speechless by our start!\u201d Jenkins laughs. \u201cWe knew we needed new blood in the team this season, but while lots of clubs around the league made new signings we just looked internally at bringing through young players, which has been the catalyst for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think a lot of people have been surprised at how we have been playing, but everyone is so hard working and loves playing for the club. The team spirit is brilliant and I can\u2019t tell you how proud I am of the girls so far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With clean sheets in their first three matches before conceding once against Cardiff Met, Aberystwyth have the best defence in the Genero Adran Premier so far \u2013 a drastic improvement to last season when they conceded 32 goals in their 14 phase one matches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe made a point to sure ourselves up defensively and we have got massive players in that backline,\u201d Jenkins says. \u201cMargot [Farnes] has come in in goal and been fantastic, she is so confident for such a young player. Becs [Mathias], Ffi [Evans] and Lucy [Gwilt] have been around the league for years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLibby [Isaac] was only meant to be play in defence as cover for Elin Jones\u2019 injury, but she has come into her own. She\u2019s strong, her feet are incredible, she can get herself out of any situation. Put her anywhere on the pitch and I think she would do a job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenkins was named Seasiders captain in the summer, taking over from Kelly Thomas, and it is clear that she is the perfect fit for the role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have played for Aber my whole senior career, so it was a really proud moment to be named captain,\u201d she says. \u201cIt did take a while to get used to, but I have had lots of advice from Kel which has been really important and it is great that she is still around if I do have questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of us senior players have always come together anyway. Even when Kel was captain last season, there was a few of us who had a bit of a say in the dressing room. We have tried to take the pressure off the youngsters as much as possible so they can enjoy their football and play without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aberystwyth have stood out this season for their faith in youth, with several players stepping up from the academy to become key parts of the first team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no bigger example of this than the opening day win over Barry, when all three goals were scored by a pair of 15-year-old debutants. Lily Moralee-Hughes netted a brace and Lleucu Mathias scored the other.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the young ones have settled in fantastically,\u201d Jenkins says. \u201cRight from the first game when Lily scored two and Lleucu also scored, they have been brilliant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s Imi [Scourfield] in midfield, Modlen [Gwynne] has come off the bench. Even players who were in the team last season like Gwen Jones and Elin Jones are still really young. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir hunger really drives us. They want the ball all of the time. If we are under the cosh, their legs carry us through and the mouths of the older players carry us through!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another teenager who has made an impressive impact this season is former Cymru U17 international Niamh Duggan, who returned to the club in the summer following a spell at Reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jenkins is effusive in her praise of Duggan, who opened the scoring in the 2-0 win over Pontypridd United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat girl can play football! Sometimes you get players who just come alive when you give them the ball and that is Niamh all over. If I win the ball back then I am looking for her because I know she can do something with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think she is hungry to prove herself after coming back from Reading and she is an Aber girl so she knows exactly what it means to put on that shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With just three points separating the top five teams in the Genero Adran Premier after the first four matches of the season, it promises to be an open and entertaining campaign \u2013 which could present Aberystwyth with an opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very much taking it game by game but the ultimate goal is to make the top four,\u201d Jenkins says. \u201cWe are so hungry for that as a group and I think that shows in the results we have had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone has been so supportive of us. The backroom staff have been so dedicated, we have great sponsors and the community has been fantastic in coming out to watch. We just want to repay them all and make them proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a sixth-place finish in the Genero Adran Premier last season and little movement in the transfer market, Aberystwyth Town had plenty of question marks over them coming into the new campaign.  However, the Seasiders silenced any doubters with a 3-0 win over Barry Town United on the opening day of the campaign and they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":6910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ftr_img_focal":{"x":0.59,"y":0.35},"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"class_list":["post-6907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adran-premier"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6912,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions\/6912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}