Steve B the Groundhopper

7.15pm 31 January 2025 West Wales Premier League Rockspur 5 West End 1 (att 72) Rockspur are in a title race with fellow Swansea side St Joseph’s, and gained an important three points thanks to a comfortable win against West End. Their winning margin would probably have been more if wasn't for a straight red card, for a bad challenge, with just over half-an-hour played. By then Rockspur already had a 3-0 lead. The sending off levelled things up, but only to an extent. Rockspur attacked less but had little difficulty keeping the visitors at bay despite their numerical disadvantage. In the second half their superiority was underlined by two more goals. West End at least got some consolation, late on, with the game's final goal. Rockspur have applied for promotion to the third tier of Welsh football, although I assume promotion would mean a move away from their current home ground, a 3G pitch at Penyrheol Leisure Centre in Gorseinon. Unusually for such grounds, spectators have to ...

2pm 21 September 2024 West Wales Premier League Penlan 0 Rockspur 1 (att 332) The day's second game was a local derby between two Swansea sides who have been dominant forces in local football. Rockspur are currently in the ascendency, and cemented their position after a hard-fought win in a game that was more than feisty. The visitors were looking the better side, but then had a player sent off for a bad challenge after about 30 minutes. That evened up the play, but just before half time the 10 men went ahead, scoring a goal that turned out to be the winner. They may have scored the only goal, but Rockspur didn't get the game's only red card. The second half became increasingly bad-tempered, and with 10 minutes left a Penlan player was dismissed to make it 10-a-side. By full time it was down to eight against nine. A second Rockspur sending off was followed by two stoppage time Penlan dismissals. I don't keep a count of such things, but I can't recall ever seeing ano...