Bont enjoy most successful season
PENYBONT have just completed the most successful season in the fouryear history of the super club, writes Tony Poole.
In their inaugural season managers Francis Ford and Paulo Wiseman guided them into a highly promising third spot.
They followed it up with a fifth-place finish in 2014/15 while next time around the Bridgend super club came 11th.
It led to Ford feeling he had taken Bont as far as he could, and that the club should look towards a new influx of blood.
The Bont directors responded last summer and brought in Rhys Griffiths from Aberystwyth Town as player-manager.
Though the secondhighest goal scorer in Welsh Premiership history took time to settle in at the Kymco Stadium, results since the turn of the year proved remarkable.
During the calendar year, Bont completed 17 league matches, winning 12 with three drawn.
It jettisoned them into the runner-up spot behind new Welsh Premiership entrants Barry Town United – and a better start might well have seen Bont crowned champions.
They also enjoyed a fine JD Welsh Cup run – bowing out to eventual winners Bala Town – and were losing finalists on penalties against Taffs Well in the South Wales Senior Cup.
Looking back on last season, the Golden Boot winner was Marcus Griffiths with 22 goals – six more that Josef Hopkins, who responded superbly to going up top.
Bont scored 108 team goals with the remainder going to: 12 Cullen Kinsella, 10 Rhys Griffiths, 9 Kyron Tolland, 8 Kostya Georgievsky, 6 Adam Carpenter, 5 Owain Warlow, 4 Harrison Collins, 3 Kane Owen, James Parry, 2 Connor Goldsworthy, 1 Adam Atyeo, Billy Borge, Kieran Davies, Kieran Howard, Matt Symons, Kurt Thornbury, Bleddyn Webster and Shaun Barney-Williams.