The live Sgorio cameras head to the Recreation Ground on Saturday as JD Cymru South side Ammanford take on top-flight Haverfordwest County in Round Three of the JD Welsh Cup (KO 2.20pm).
Local youngster Callum Thomas was the hero for Ammanford in the last round as his solitary goal was enough to seal a 1-0 win to eliminate JD Cymru Premier side Aberystwyth Town.
The 20-year old opened the scoring inside the opening seven minutes at Park Avenue on what was a special victory for Ammanford manager Wyn Thomas against his former club.
“I loved my time at Aber,” he said to FAW.cymru this week. “They are nice, genuine people and they looked after me when I was a 16-year old coming through the ranks.
“It was good timing for us because Aberystwyth are obviously going through a bad patch. We were playing quite well ahead of the game and I’m always confident that the boys can win every game, but you’ve got to put a performance in and that day we defended really well, scored early and saw the game out.
“If the performance is there, more often than not the result is there too. One or two mistakes might cost you a game sometimes, but if the performance of each individual is high then more often than not you will come out on top.”
The reward for Thomas and his squad is a much tougher test against high-flying Haverfordwest. The two teams met at the same stage of the competition last season as the Bluebirds claimed a 2-0 win, but Ammanford will have home advantage this time and with it the opportunity to showcase the club to the live Sgorio audience.
Despite going well in the JD Cymru Premier, Tony Pennock’s Haverfordwest side needed penalties to see off the challenge of Trethomas Bluebirds in the previous round, and Thomas is looking forward to the challenge of taking on another of his former clubs.
“It’s going to be a tough challenge because they are full of confidence,” he explained. “They’ve obviously found a way of winning. When the draw was made we were all together watching it at the club.
“All I wanted was a home draw because we’re a club that needs local support from the community. We’re trying to build a family environment and trying to get more people involved that can help us on weekends.
“There’s going to be a lot of youngsters there taking part and being involved in what is a big occasion for the football club, and we want them to keep coming back.”
Thomas stepped up from his coaching role to take charge of Ammanford back in August following the resignation of Gruff Harrison after more than a decade as manager. Currently 11th in the JD Cymru South with five victories from their opening 14 games, Thomas was keen to emphasise the importance of Harrison’s contribution.
“If it wasn’t for Gruff, myself and majority of the changing room wouldn’t be here, but it’s because we are here that we’re playing Haverfordwest on Saturday live on television. Gruff did a fantastic job and he brought us all together.”
As a player, Thomas experienced JD Welsh Cup glory in the colours of Llanelli back in 2011 when his side defeated then league champions Bangor City 4-1, but he also remembers the heartache of losing three finals with Carmarthen (1999), Llanelli (2008) and Aberystwyth Town (2014).
“I think I’m pretty grounded,” he explained while reflecting his career highs and lows. “I played in Europe with four different clubs and representing Wales at semi-pro level was one of the greatest feelings ever. As for winning the Welsh Cup, the team we had was unreal, and everything went right for us that day.”
A JD Cymru Premier legend and a member of the Hall of Fame, Thomas made 536 appearances in the top-flight and is one of the most-recognisable figures in the domestic game.
“I’ve been playing football since I was six when my mother was my manager for the local park side in West Wales,” he explained. “Football has given me so much and it’s still giving me things now. That’s why I want to give back, because I’ve had so much out of the game.”
Thomas took his first steps into coaching in familiar surroundings at Aberystwyth Town, but it was his time at Swansea University that gave him a different perspective prior to his switch to Ammanford to become part of Harrison’s coaching team.
“Swansea University was a huge learning curve for me,” he explained. “We had students coming from all over the world with different ideas, different mentalities and different religions. Those seven years opened my eyes so much.
“I just want the players and people involved to know how much I love the game. Hopefully, they can feed off that and then they can put their own stamp on the way they want to play and how they play. Like I said, it’s all about the performance. We’ve spoken about the opportunity and the lads know that if they perform then we’re confident that we can give it a good go.”
