Cardiff Met will be hoping to go one better this year and secure European football as well as a £200,000 prize money windfall in the finale of the JD Welsh Premier League season.
The Students reached last year’s final only to be beaten by hosts Bangor City. Met are again on the travels as they face Cefn Druids and manager Christian Edwards believes his current group of players can go down in club history.
“We came a little bit short last year and it’s important we go one better this year.
“Someone asked me the other day if I’d been dreaming [about reaching Europe], I haven’t been dreaming for myself, I’ve been dreaming for the boys – they deserve their bit of history, they’ve been history makers along the way and I just hope for those – myself included – that when the journey comes to an end we finish in the Europe so that we have left our mark and the shirts and nice and heavy for those that pick them up after us,” he said.
Cardiff Met’s unique set-up has however meant that the squad have had added distractions coming into this game – something Edwards believes could be a positive given the importance of the game.
“Mentality their prepared, they’ve had exams all week, so the lads have their focus elsewhere,” he explained.
“I think that’s been a good added distraction for ourselves, because you can get sucked down into too much football, so it’s been nice that we haven’t really seen too much of each other this week.
“We’ve had the two training sessions and the focus has been about getting the shape right, getting the mentality right, getting the attitude right.
“We’re dual career athletes and we’re a strong believer in that as a club and we’re pushing that forward. The boys have careers after football and at the moment their doing their studies alongside their football and enjoying themselves.”
Wales’ oldest club Cefn Druids last qualified for Europe six years ago when they were awarded a Europa League qualifying spot after being defeated by The New Saints in the Welsh Cup final.
This year Huw Griffiths men have surpassed expectations going from relegation candidates to finishing fifth in the table and having home advantage in the play-off final.
Griffiths insists he won’t be changing his winning formula: “It’s vitally important that we don’t change things from what we’ve been doing throughout the season, especially going into such a big occasion.”
“Met have got the benefit of experience from travelling up to north Wales for last year’s final and losing 1-0 to Bangor City, so they’ve been there, they know what it is like, and they’ll have learnt an awful lot from that experience and improved a lot too,” he said.
“We’ve got to be ready for everything they have, I’m sure Christian and his team will have gone through what happened last time and where it went wrong, but all we can do is look after Cefn Druids.
“We can’t affect them, what goes on at Cardiff Met, and that’s all we’ve done all season – look after ourselves. Against every team we’ve found ways to create overloads, put players in certain areas where we can cause opposition problems, but we’ll have to be at our absolute best to win, as they will be.”
The £200,000 Uefa prize money would be a significant boost to the club’s coffers but Griffiths believes that pressure lies with him rather than his playing staff.
“With the money that is available to the winner on Sunday, I think everyone is under pressure to be fair. Possibly the management teams more than anybody else, because the manager is the one directly in line with the chairman who can influence things going forward, not that the players would see it as just another game either.
“There’s huge pressure on it but, whatever happens, come the end of this game there will not be anyone who is prouder than me. If we’re not successful, I’ll be more disappointed than anyone else, but with what we’ve done from day one until now I’ll be exceptionally proud regardless, this group is superb, they’ve done it against all odds, people have jumped on the Cefn Druids bandwagon.
“There’s one more game to go, just one more, so let’s see what we can do.
“Our philosophy is crucial, that’s what the club has been built on, it’s the motto of the club and it’ll be there long after Huw Griffiths have left the club too. Strength, Passion and History is engrained within the club, it is engrained within the players too, so as long as stick to our beliefs we’ll be ok.”
JD Welsh Premier League final
Cefn Druids vs Cardiff Met, 12.15
Live on Sgorio, online
