Baglan Dragons welcomed Swansea City academy in the first round of the Nathaniel MG cup on Sunday in the curtain raiser for the 2024-25 season.

Many things have changed at Baglan over the summer; significant investment in the pitch, spectator facility upgrades but the most important was the merger of Baglan Dragons Football Club and Baglan Boys & Girls Club and Sunday marked the first competitive game for the new club.

Baglan in their new red and black kit and Swansea City in their traditional white kit were joined by mascots from u8s and u10s of our boys and girls sections.

A young Swansea kicked off in front of our largest ever crowd of over 750 and looked to assert themselves on the game by controlling the ball and the speed of the game, which they did impeccably. The pattern of the game was clear, the Swans would have the majority of the ball and Baglan would need to be very well organised and disciplined in order to keep them at bay.

The opening goal came after 10 minutes when Ben Lloyd whipped in a blistering cross that newly professional Sammy Henia-Kamau headed beyond Stanton who was given no chance at all. 

The Baglan reply was fairly immediate, a ball forward from Stanton was collected by new signing Artiom Legavec, who played in former Swansea City academy graduate Dylan Thomas who struck his left footed shot back across the goalkeeper and into the corner from the edge of the box to level the scores at 1-1. 

The rest of the first half followed the same pattern with large spells of possession for the swans who were kept at arms length by a really well organised Baglan side who were marshalled well by goalkeeper Stanton who was rarely troubled in the first half. Baglan in turn looked dangerous on the break with the pace of Jack Fleming, Artiom Legavec, Josh Evans and the tireless Tom Davies.

Half time - 1-1

The second half continued in the same manner as the first - the young Swansea City side very comfortable on the ball and enjoying large spells of continued possession but without really endangering the Baglan goal that was protected well by the back 4 of Jack Fleming, Luke Evans, captain Lewis Holmes and Kieran Parsons.

Baglan looked even more dangerous on the break with Tom Davies going very close on a couple of occasions, while Swansea were limited to long distance efforts that didn't trouble Stanton.

Dylan Thomas looked to have scored his second of the game through a free-kick 5 minutes from full-time, but it was adjudged to be offside. The officiating team of Jordan Harman, Daniel Beckett and Matthew Johnson were excellent throughout and added to the occasion.

Full time 1-1 and on to penalties.

After winning the toss, captain Lewis Holmes chose the clubhouse end and Swansea decided to ask Baglan to take the first kick. 

First up for Baglan was Tom Davies who made no mistake to put Baglan into a 1-0 lead.

Up first for Swansea was goalscorer Henia-Kamau whose penalty was struck into the bottom corner but was stopped by goalkeeper Mathew Stanton.

Lewis Holmes buried Baglan's second penalty to extend the lead to 2-0, before Swansea's Mitchel Bates converted to make it 2-1.

Baglan's third was comfortably scored by Jack Fleming to take us to 3-1. Swansea's Ben Lloyd scored his penalty to take the scores to 3-2.

Baglan's fourth penalty fell to Luke Evans who also made no mistake for 4-2. The pressure now was on Swansea's Thomas Woodward who had to convert to keep Swansea in the cup. He did and took the score to 4-3.

Baglan's fifth penalty was taken by Dylan Thomas who had an excellent game against his former side. He calmly scored his penalty to send Baglan through to the second round of the Nathaniel MG Welsh Cup.

Another incredible day in the history of Baglan Dragons football club and another one that will live in the memory for a very long time. 

The league campaign begins next Saturday with an away trip to Penrhiwceiber with kick off at the Glasbrook at 2.30pm.

Thank you to Baglan Cricket Club, South Wales Police and St John Ambulance for their support on the day.

Photos courtesy of Mason Jones and Lewis Mitchell / FAW