2017/18 Carno FC Season Review

The season has now finished and it is one we quickly want to forget. On route to our first league game our bus broke down before we'd even travelled a mile and we were optimistic things could only get better, we were wrong!

Another poor start to a season saw us lose our first 2 league games, this had us playing catch up immeadiately. We managed to gain some composure and in the space of a week we produced some top performances and convincingly beat quality opposition in Welshpool and Llani, an injury time winner saw us beat Llanfair and draws away at Knighton and Bow Street gave us something to build on. Unfortunately, we would be brought back down to earth quickly with the biggest defeat of the season, a 6-2 hammering at home to Aberaeron.

Our performances in the Cup competitions were poor as we were knocked out of the Welsh Cup, FAW Trophy and Montgomeryshire Cup in the space of a few weeks. Fortunately, we managed to steady the ship and a 9 game unbeaten run, which included 5 wins on the bounce to take us in to 2018 in which we scored 28 goals, the best being our 6-0 win on Boxing Day against Tywyn, an in fact our biggest result of the season. This Run had helped helped us climb the table and saw us back in the top 4.

A terrible second half of the season would see us drop as low as 11th place at one point. We started 2018 by exiting the Central Wales Cup, however a victory away in the League Cup against eventual League winners Llanrhaeadr was a high point in the season and we hoped it would be something to build on but we never pushed on from there.

The weather then took its toll and postponement after postponement disrupted the whole league. When we finally got back to consitantly playing we had a terrible run of results which included us being dumped out of the League Cup with an embarrassing 5-1 home defeat in the Quarter Final and 2 back to back loses to Lladod in the space of 4 days which meant in 2018 we had picked up 4 points in the league from a possible 21. By early April we were left with little to play for and it was very much abut getting the season over as quickly as possibly.

However, under tough circumstances with a limited squad through injuries, departures, player availability and 6 tough fixtures remaining, with trips to Llani, Churchstoke and Aberaeron and home games against Radnor and Knighton the players available pulled together and we managed to end the season with some good results picking up 13 points from a possible 18, the only defeat coming against League winners Llanraheadr. Unfortunately, it was not enough to repair the damage and in the end we had to settle for a 7th place finish, our lowest league position in 5 years.

Chris Davies had this to say:

"Consistency was the issue, we produced some brilliant performaces, some of the best I've seen over recent years but the problem was we also produced some of the worst performances in years and looking back there were far more bad than good. Very uncharacteristically we lost more home games this season than the previous 4 years combined.

It was a real struggle which is something we weren't used to. In recent years we've done very well and always competed in the league and been in Cup Finals and to have nothing to play for from early April was hard to deal with. Hopefully that experience will make everyone hungrier to do better next season. We'll try and shake things up in the off season. Simply everyone has learn from it, come back ready to work harder in pre season and hopefully we'll be stronger for it next season"

Season in numbers:

Games Played = 38

Won = 17
Drawn = 7
Lost = 14

Goals scored = 86
Goals conceded = 66
Clean Sheets = 7

Longest Winning Run = 5
Longest Undefeated Run = 9
Longest Losing Run = 4

Biggest Win = Carno 6 v 0 Tywyn
Biggest Loss = Carno 2 v 6 Aberaeron

Yellow Cards = 5 (Daniel Lewis)
Most Red Cards = 1 (Daniel Lewis v Bow Street & Harry Holt v Machynlleth)

Most Appearances:
Luke Holt (36)
Andrew Evans (34)
Daniel Lewis (34)

Top Goalscorers:
Scott Williams (19)
Andrew Evans (12)
Jac Petrie (9)

Most Assists:
Scott Williams (19)
Harry Holt (7)
Andrew Evans (6)

We would like to thank the players, supporters, management team and the committee for the effort put in over the season. It's been one of the toughest in recent years and we hope everyone enjoys the summer break and is ready to get back to work on the 28th of June when pre-season starts.

#upthehill

Updated 17:50 - 30 Aug 2019 by Chris Davies