Athletic going under the radar in search of play-off place

BRIDGEND Athletic are “getting on with things” quietly in One West Central, almost unnoticed. But can they defy the odds to claim a place in the promotion play-offs?

Athletic were in the National Championship as recently as 2016, but are currently in their second season outside the second tier.

After a fifth-place finish last season, Athletic are aiming for an improvement this campaign and, with their young stars shining, they are on track to complete their target of breaking into the top four.

“I think with the team we had we were quite happy with that [position last season],” said team manager Paul Hearne.

“We fell away a bit towards the end but realistically that was good for us because we lost a lot of players from the year before.

“When we dropped down we relied on our youth players.

“They stepped up to the plate and helped us out.”

This season started with a disappointing 29-19 defeat against Ammanford. Defeats to Maesteg and Ystalyfera followed a 14-10 triumph at Tondu and their inconsistent form continued with victories over Waunarlwydd and Seven Sisters and a loss to Maesteg Quins.

But since that defeat to league leaders Quins, Athletic have gone on an incredible run and boast a sevengame winning streak. “We’re doing okay,” said Hearne. “We had a bit of a shaky start but we’ve gone unbeaten now for seven games and we’ve scored a lot of tries.

“I think all the boys are training together and they are all playing for each other.

“We’ve got a young side, probably eight of last year’s youth team are now in the first team.

“We’ve also blooded a number of youth boys this year in readiness for next year.

“It’s looking good for the future providing we can keep them all together.

“Teams don’t like playing us because we’re fit and active and we tend to throw the ball around and play good football.

“It’s worked for us so we’ve just got to keep doing what we are doing and see where it takes us.”

Hearne admitted that club have aspirations to return to the Championship and they could go to the summit this weekend if they beat Bonymaen with a bonus point. However, the odds on finishing the season on top would remain with Quins and Ystalyfera who will have four games in hand at the end of this week.

“It’s a tough game for us at Bonymaen, it always is,” he added.

“We’ve just got to try our hardest, remain focused and let our rugby do the talking.

“If we keep winning then the pressure is on them to win those four games.

“We’re not talking ourselves up we’re just getting on with it quietly and we’ll just see where it takes us.

“When you’re in a league where there is a chance of promotion you’ve got to have ambition.

“If you just remain where you are then players get disgruntled and move on.

“At the moment our target is to get as high up in this league as we can.

“If we finish in the top four, that was our target so we’ll be happy but you never know what can happen.”