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Bluebirds’ fans are top travellers
It’s finally official – Haverfordwest County’s players and supporters are the most-travelled in the Welsh Premier League as their matches take them a massive 3,938 miles across South, Mid and North Wales.
In 17 away matches they complete an amazing total of 12 round trips of over 200 miles, with half of them over 300 miles, so that their hardy band of supporters, who travel to every game, rattle up the mileage and the cost of supporting their team being far more expensive, especially when compared to teams in Mid and North Wales.
Short trips galore up north
A nice comparator is the fact that the Bluebirds’ fans regard games against Carmarthen Town as local derbies when they travel the 31 miles to Carmarthen and then back again, whilst teams like Bala and Airbus respectively have 12 and seven journeys that are shorter than that!
Undoubtedly the real local derbies are between Prestatyn and Rhyl, who are just four miles apart, closely followed by games featuring Airbus and Gap Connors Quay, whose supporters face a round trip of ten miles! Similarly close are journeys for matches between Caersws and Newtown (6 miles apart), plus Neath against Port Talbot, the South Walians being seven miles away from each other.
Highest and lowest
It is also interesting to note that all the major travelling falls on the South Wales clubs because in second place are Port Talbot (3,874 miles) followed by Neath (3,692 miles), Llanelli (3,524 miles) and Carmarthen (3,168 miles).
Of the North Wales teams, Bangor make the longest journeys, with 3,082 miles, followed by Rhyl (2,896 miles) and Prestatyn (2,842 miles), whilst at the other end of the scale are Newtown, the lowest total with 2,160 miles, Welshpool (2,192 miles) and Bala (2,194 miles).
Brazilians love their trips
So does so much travelling dismay the Bluebirds’ fans, who have dubbed themselves ‘The Brazilians’ after manager Derek Brazil? Not a bit of it! They are well organised by the likes of Eddie Bunston and Kevin Bryce as they regularly use a minibus for the journeys and have favourite stopping off points for breakfast and perhaps lunch en route. They always try to make sure that they arrive at their destination in time for a pint and to look around opposing grounds before cheering Haverfordwest County with some vigour, win or lose.
For some games, like the Boxing Day clash at Aberystwyth and the more recent tussle at Port Talbot, they organised a coach and came back with stories of minor break-downs, Kenny Roberts trying to stop a car rolling into the bus at a garage, and lots of laughter en route.
Top fans
Of course they would like shorter trips sometimes but they are great supporters whose motto is ‘Have a game to watch, so let’s travel’ – and they are a refreshing bunch with their love of the game that seems to have disappeared somewhat at the highest echelons of the sport.
Their team might have the title of most travelled team but the supporters would argue that they could also lay claim to the title of ‘Most loyal and best supporters’ and having been on a trip with the Brazilians I can only recommend it as something not to miss if you really love football!
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