Aber Stars Impress in Fishguard

After a busy summer looking for new players and trying to promote the team, Aberystwyth Town’s Disability Team known as ‘Aber Stars’ finally got their season underway in Fishguard on Sunday 30th October and for the first time in a long time Aber were able to have two full teams, writes atfc.org.uk's Steven Brookes. One in the Champions League (Advanced), one in the Premier League (Intermediate) and also had two players in the Championship (Novice).

The Championship players were Meilyr Llwyd who won Manager’s Player of the Season last year and last year’s top scorer Peter Williams. Unfortunately neither was on the scoresheet this time but they both as usual worked hard and enjoyed the day.

The Premier League team were made up of many new players and unfortunately lost their opening match but that was to be their only defeat. They lost just one, won two and drew one. Debutant Alex Evans scored all three of Aber’s goals.

The Champions League team last season couldn’t put together a full team at this level but this time around they had a full team plus subs. But this new group of players started slowly. They were struggling to keep up with Swansea Bravehearts, losing possession regularly and getting caught out of position on numerous occasions. This resulted in a fair 3-0 defeat.

Defender Jack Mccallum went in goal and goalkeeper Stephen Lester moved into defensive midfield. This changed seemed to work and a quickly taken free kick from the hard-working Derfel Reynolds found Aber’s player-manager Steven Brookes in the box who opened the scoring. Aber were looking like a completely different team and a late second from Steven sealed a 2-0 victory. Their third match was against Cleddau Warriors. The team struggled to create many chances in the first half but immediately in the second half, Derfel Reynolds scored a brilliant goal straight from kick off. It was a strike that anyone would have been proud of. Reynolds later doubled Aber’s lead and the final result was 2-0 but could have been more.

The final match was against another strong Swansea side.  Aber looked tired but were still working extremely hard and an early goal from Brookes after a well-worked corner meant they had something to hold on to and they did just that. It was another fantastic team performance and a 1-0 win.

Afterwards Aber’s player-manager said, “To come back from that opening defeat and put in three fantastic performances shows how determined this team is, and this whole squad get on very well, some may play in different leagues to others but we all feel like one team.”

Champions League team player and debutant Sean Anderson said “The tournament wasn’t just exciting, it was exhilarating, competitive, levels were high and I made sure I won every tackle I went in for. It was a great honour to
put on the Aberystwyth shirt and represent Aber Stars and I can’t wait until the next tournament.”

Stephen Lester was fantastic on the day and ended up winning the FairPlay award.

All players should be proud of their performance on what was a brilliant day for the team.