The much vaunted Monmouth Town Waitrose Football Academy is now up and running and going from strength to strength.

The Academy was the brainchild of its now Director Barry Burns and was the cornerstone of the club's youth policy to develop 'More players and Better Players' and boy has it taken off.

Discussions started with the Partners Monmouth Comprehensive School a year ago and the deal was finally done in June this year.

Sponsorship was kindly supplied by Waitrose and local company CMC and in kind support supplied by the school.

Sports council funding in excess of £5000 was also secured but there was one problem. It had no students!

September arrived and although the numbers in the mini's section were swelling it was still touch and go whether there would be enough recruits in the competitive age groups (Under 12 and above) to make the Academy work football wise and financially.

Since then the recruits have been growing (with a few notable absentees) and can now boast approaching 100 students which was way above the targets privately set.

Put this with the numbers attending mini sessions on Fridays and Saturday mornings and we now have approaching 200 children receiving coaching from a mainly volunteer workforce.

Dave Walker and his team in the Minis including Tim Sutton, Seane Keane, Kevin Johnson, Shelly, Tim Bell and Terry Cleaves are also committed to undertaking their appropriate levels of qualification and the academy and mini section as a whole is aiming for Bronze accreditation within the next year.

Congrats to Smudger and Kevin on passing your recent coaching badges!!

Beattie Stops the Rot

Monmouth Town 1 Llansawel 1

It wasn't quite a fairy tale start for new boss Andy Beattie but a hard earned point against fellow strugglers Llansawel ended the Kingfishers run of eight straight defeats and laid some solid foundation for harder tests over the winter months.

Looking more solid and tighter defensively with clear instructions to increase the mobility of the forward play Town looked sharper in the early exchanges bringing good saves from the Llansawel keeper and generally keeping any opposition threat as far away from goal as possible.

Some good chances went begging and it seemed as if a familiar story was unfolding until a great move was capped with a calm finish by Alderdice.

The initiative swung the visitors way in the second half as Town seemed unable to clear their lines and 'Sawel earned a deserved equaliser when a corner was badly defended and a header found the bottom corner.

With Town stuttering to find rhythm Smith earned a penalty that should have wrapped up the points but Dean Palmer's wild attempt troubled only the visiting birdlife as it sailed embarrasingly high and wide.

A late double substitution saw Williams earn his first team debut and the injection of pace from subs Tabb and Wookey created some late havoc but no end product.

A relieved Chairman Lee Robson said after the game "In between making the half time tea and putting the pasties in the oven for the after match meal I was impressed with what I saw. We look more organised and whilst I would have been ecstatic with a win I think it was important to get something from the game.

"The players responded brilliantly all week and they have been very positive and willing to learn a new way of doing things. it's a bit of a shame we haven't got a game next week but the players have been told to report for training in any event, which is a good sign "

Sorry Town Slump Again

Monmouth Town 2 AFC Llwydcoed 3

It was case of after the Lord Mayor's show for Monmouth 's Kingfishers as last Wednesday's brave performance against Cwmbran Town was rendered null and void with a second half horror show against title challengers Llwydcoed.

Two nil up at the break courtesy of goals by Rogers and Palmer and facing the second half against a ten man Llwydcoed who had seen their 'keeper dismissed as early as the twenty fifth minute the home supporters could have been forgiven for expecting a mature performance to see off spirited but limited opponents.

What they got was a second half performance so lacking in discipline and heart that Llwydcoed simply blew them away with two goals in the final five minutes, the winner with the last kick of the game.

For almost the entire second half Llwydcoed showed the necessary desire and commitment, constantly outnumbering a labouring midfield and overlapping at will to create panic every time they reached the Monmouth Town penalty area.

The Kingfishers simply had no answer to the barrage despite manful performances by Davies and Alderdice at the heart of the back four and plenty of attitude by Smith and Wookey.

Town Chairman Lee Robson didn't mince his words afterwards "To say I'm not happy at the moment is an understatement. OK we played well against Cwmbran midweek and agreed that we have set a standard for ourselves. Then we just go through the motions. We simply cannot expect to compete at this level if we have no game plan and if we're happy for players to do as they please.

Good as they are individually, too many went missing today and will shrug it off and expect to play next week. I hope that's not the case."

This Saturday Town are at home to fellow strugglers Seven Sisters

Town Lose Out in Seven Goal Thriller

Gwent Senior Cup

Cwmbran Town 4 Monmouth Town 3 (aet)

Monmouth Town's brave Kingfishers came within inches of a famous victory at Cwmbran Stadium last Wednesday having fought back from a goal and 2-1 down to see a last kick of normal time game cleared off the Cwmbran goal line.

For long periods the Town looked most likely and weren't shy of shooting for a change but saw most of the attempts fly high and wide.

Neville Harris was looking to the manor born in a new right back berth and Alderdice prompted well in the absence of skipper Smith. Rogers Bowen and Palmer also caused problems and Murphy was having a tidy game on the right hand side.

Against the run of play however the Crows struck first when Town failed to deal with a long throw to the near post which was flicked on and in by the home striker.

The second half was much the same pattern with both sides keen to keep the ball on the floor and on 62 minutes Bowen caught the keeper in possession, kept his composure to round him and roll the ball home.

Just five minutes later town were undone as they lost possession in midfield and the long ball caught Harris on the wrong side and the ball was tucked past Williams. Cue new signing Sam McCoy. His horrible first touch in Town's colours belied his second as he latched on to the ball on the edge of the area and clipped the ball home for the equaliser.

Town had much the better of the late exchanges but were nervous in front of goal when with the last kick of the normal time McCoy eased past his marker and sent in a dangerous cross that somehow failed to go in.

Extra time saw McCoy go close again and Palmer and Rogers forcing saves but a hopeful cross to the back post was headed back across the Town goal and Cwmbran took the lead . Moments later Williams flapped at a cross and in the ensuing melee Cwmbran made it four.

Town did have time to launch a late rally as again good work by McCoy set up Rogers to finish smartly and at the death Palmer had a goal bound effort well saved by the keeper.