PURE SWANSEA: Three from three, and now the toughest test — Midwinter ready for Cardiff trip

Pure Swansea travel to Cardiff on Friday night to face a Caerau Ely side many expected to win the Novira Cymru South this season.

Jack Midwinter’s team go to Cwrt yr Ala Road top of the table with three wins from three, having beaten Llanelli Town 3-0 on Saturday without conceding a goal all season.

Their hosts finished fourth last season and missed out on promotion by the narrowest margin.

“I think Caerau were many people’s favourites to win the Cymru South this year. I don’t think it’s a secret that they were probably disappointed not to get promoted last year by finishing fourth,” Midwinter told Swansea Bay News.

“I think it’s by a point or maybe goal difference, so we’re not expecting an easy game, we’re expecting a tough challenge.

“It’s also a challenge for us as we believe Caerau are a footballing team.

“Both teams will want to play on the front foot and try to play football, so they’ll be tough. They’re experienced and favourites in this league. They have had a mixed start, but it’s a one-off game.”

A Friday night away in the capital is, he suspects, exactly what his players want.

“They’re at home under the lights on a Friday night. It’s what most players at this level want to play for, so it’ll be interesting, and I hope there’ll be a big crowd there again,” he said.

“We will approach it with a smile, going up to Cardiff on a Friday night with a lot of supporters who are probably from that side of Wales, and probably get a little bit of stick for being from Swansea.

“But the lads love it. We’ve built a club with more or less everybody involved from Swansea, so there’s a togetherness and there’s a want to do well for each other.

“Going into some hostile environments builds togetherness, and we really have to stand up and be counted for performing under the pressure of playing in Cardiff and against those clubs and those supporters.”

One player has a particular reason to look forward to it. Full-back Daniel Ingram joined Pure from Caerau Ely 18 months ago and has been among the standouts of the opening three games, providing the assist for two of Casey Coughlin’s hat-trick goals at Baglan Dragons.

“Dan’s been brilliant. He came from Caerau 18 months ago and he’s probably not missed a match since he’s gone,” Midwinter said.

“He’s the talk of the changing room at the minute with the form that he’s found himself in, and he’s surprised a lot of people with how much he’s come on since the end of last season.

“I think it’ll be big for Dan to show Caerau that he’s a good player and that he can do it at this level. Even though he is from the area, I think he’ll be up for getting a positive result as well.”

‘I don’t normally praise him’

Saturday’s derby brought another reason for the manager to be cheerful, and an unusual admission about his captain.

Jordan Hughes headed the opening goal against Llanelli and was named man of the match.

“He was good. I don’t normally praise him, I normally give him as much stick as he can get, but the first person I spoke to on Saturday after the game was Jordan,” Midwinter said.

“I just praised him, I challenged him to be good at this level, and he’s been excellent the first three games.

“He’s a brilliant leader for our group as a young squad, but what he does off the pitch goes unnoticed, so for him to get the praise on it is great.”

Hughes is 27, which in most dressing rooms would not make him a senior figure at all. In this one it does.

“Jordan’s one of the oldest in the group, but he’s only 27. In other changing rooms he’d still be seen as a young player, or someone that’s not in the leadership group,” Midwinter said.

“There’s a couple of lads in that 27, 28 age range now who are seen as leaders and they’re enjoying stepping up. Because there’s young leaders in our team, the youngsters also feel they’re more approachable.

“They can ask those questions and challenge people who are only a little bit older than them, and it breeds a level of confidence. It gives a great atmosphere in the changing room where whether you’re 18 or 19, you have your opinion and you can challenge people in a nice manner.”

The derby itself, he says, was calmer than the build-up suggested it would be.

“It was a great win. The game was built up to be a bit grittier than it needed to be really, so we just had a chat between ourselves as players and staff and just said, look, we do what we do, and we concentrated on ourselves,” he said.

“We had an early scare in the first couple of minutes but after that we were relatively comfortable. The boys dug out the result and we scored two late goals, but I think there was never a moment in the game where we looked uncomfortable really, which is a credit to the lads and how quickly they’ve adapted to playing at this level.”

He was less satisfied with the finishing, with chances created and not taken before the second goal arrived.

“The keeper did do well before the goal went in. We did create a lot of chances, and we were a little bit sloppy with our finishing and decision making in those moments,” Midwinter said.

“There was never a time where we thought we weren’t going to break Llanelli down or get a result.

“Everyone that we’ve spoken to since we’ve played them, the comment they give us is how good we look going forward, how creative we are and how good our forward players are.

“The biggest thing was just keeping our concentration defensively and making sure we kept a clean sheet, because we know if we keep tight, we’ve always got a chance to win the game with those people that are high up the pitch.”

Kick-off at Cwrt yr Ala Road is on Friday night at 7.45pm.