The magic of the cup is certainly alive and kicking around Cascade, who are in the middle of an exciting fortnight.
It started in the Genero Adran Trophy Round of 16 last Sunday when they hosted top-flight side Cardiff Met. It’s never easy to face off against higher ranked opposition, but for defender Casey Thomas, she was optimistic about what her team could do.
“Even though football is fun, things don’t always go the way that you want it to go. That’s been the case at this start of this season in the league, but when it came to Cardiff Met, they’re someone we’ve played a couple of times in pre-seasons before, and the games are normally quite close.
“We knew we had a chance to turn things in our favour heading into Sunday. We never underestimated Met, especially because they’re in the Adran Premier, but we also didn’t underestimate ourselves.”
And the power of the underdog carried them through, as a sole Chrystella Moreton goal saw Cascade knock out the Archers. The atmosphere in the dressing room was electric, as was the scenes in the stands, as a vocal supporter base roared them onto victory.
“The whole changing room was buzzing after the game. We were all so happy, and it gave us a bit of a confidence boost, which is something we probably needed. It was a moment for us where we realised, we can do it, we can grind results out, and we can compete against top teams.
“We thrive massively off the support we get in Ystrad Mynach. The louder the crowd is the better we play. Whether fans are shouting positive things or negative ones, we seem to kick on from whatever they say and they push us on.”
They’ll need the home support once again in the quarter-finals, as they’ve been drawn to face Swansea City. Thomas is well aware of how difficult the challenge will be but says anything can happen when they play at home.
“It’s probably one of the hardest draws that we could have got. We’ve played them before in the past, and while they are a good team, I don’t think we see it as an impossible job. It’s going to be a tough game, but to have them come to our place is a real bonus, and hopefully we can use that to our advantage.”
That, for now, is in the future. Focusing on the present, and Cascade have yet another exciting cup game to look forward to, as they take on Cardiff City in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup.
The win against Met will certainly give the Genero Adran South side a boost heading into this difficult clash, but Thomas says her side will not underestimate the Bluebirds in any way.
“We’re certainly not going into this game thinking because we’ve got one win under our belts that we’re going to win again this time around. We never underestimate the challenge that any team will pose us. We do know this game will probably be one of, if not the toughest game we will have all season.
“It is on paper the toughest draw any team could get, but being the underdog is something that we thrive on. Obviously, they are Cardiff City and they have built a great team, and they’ve been successful for so many years. But we will take a lot of confidence from our game on Sunday into this one. We know what we have to do, but we are very wary of what they can do to us too.”
Just over two years ago, these two played in the cup, and it was City who ran out 5-0 winners. A lot of change has taken place at the Bluebirds since then, but there’s been developments at Cascade too, and Thomas knows that.
“Cardiff are in good form and have had a lot of success, and we played them a couple of seasons ago and lost, but our team have come a long way since then. We’ve strengthened a lot since then, and I think we can go out there and give them a good game.”
It really is another classic David vs. Goliath story, but come Sunday afternoon, Thomas wants her team to rally around each other and try and pull off yet another cup upset.
“We’re going to give it everything we’ve got and leave everything out on that pitch, like we did against Cardiff Met. We’ve got nothing to lose. We will go out and play our game and hopefully we can bring over the support we had from last week and they can push us on in this one.”
