After spending 20 years at Ynysddu Welfare I never thought the day would come when the club wouldn’t be a part of my day to day life. Since taking over as manager in the summer of 2016, I have lived and breathed Ynysddu Welfare but unfortunately all good things come to an end.

I would like to place on record my gratitude to the committee of Ynysddu for firstly giving me the opportunity to step into management with a club I loved and secondly for giving me a phenomenal level of support. I would also like to thank every player who pulled the yellow and black shirt for me, each and every one of them were exceptional.

It was always going to be a heart-breaking decision to leave the club but when an opportunity to manage a club like Abergavenny Town becomes available you just have to take it.

The home ground of Pen-y-pound was a massive draw for me, it’s one of those Welsh football grounds that has a special feel about it and managing a side there regularly was something I couldn’t resist. Another major factor was the quality of the playing squad.

I have to pay testament to the previous manager, Ben Bannon, who took over at a challenging time but went on to develop a superb squad who narrowly missed out on promotion last season. This season hasn’t quite gone to plan but Ben is leaving behind a squad with so much potential.

The potential of the playing squad and the club is incredible. The majority of the squad are familiar to me, mainly through playing against them and also managing a few of them. I really am excited to start working with them and realising the potential of this club.

A town the size of Abergavenny should have a side playing in the highest level of Welsh football and I really believe this is possible. Our short term aims are to secure our position in Welsh League division 1 for this season but at the same time building something ready to really push on for promotion next season.

I’m under no illusions that there is a big challenge in front of me and to achieve our goals we need the full backing of the town, I want to see Pen-Y-Pound packed out on a game day.

We will look to play some high tempo attacking football but I’m a firm believer that the only way to play football is winning. Sometimes it will be extremely entertaining and other times it will be ugly but the style of play comes second to 3 points every time.

However, what I can promise the supporters is they will never leave the ground feeling they haven’t had their moneys worth. The players are going to run through brick walls for the club and their rewards will come with positive results.

I hope to see you all at Pen-y-Pound for the first game of the new era against Aberbargoed Buds on Saturday 21st December.

Enjoy the ride
Ben