With the ever increasing commercialisation of the game, it’s nice to see some traditions remain, with a Neath v Aberavon Boxing Day derby. These festive (and sometimes feisty) games are part and parcel of the domestic calendar in Wales and long may it continue.

It was good to see the boys register a win at home to Maesteg last weekend. It might only have been a friendly but a win is a win and will surely be a confidence booster ahead of today’s vital game. It was also a chance for new coach Paul Williams to run the rule over his players and today will give them another opportunity to impress.

As far as the supporters club is concerned plans are in the pipeline already for launching the 2016 Hall of Fame early in the new year. We’ll soon be asking you for your nominations for who you think should join the likes of Shane Williams, Gareth Llewellyn and Brian Williams in being inducted to the Hall of Fame, so get your thinking caps on. We’ll also be announcing the date for the celebration night, one of the highlights of the year for many of our fans, so keep an eye out in the programme, our website and social media platforms for further details.

Finally, given the time of year it seems appropriate to thank all our members who have supported us through the year. Your support has been invaluable and helped us to purchase more kit and equipment for the team than we had anticipated.

On a personal level we’d also like to offer our thanks to those who have helped us out on many occasions, not least Rhys and Sarah Davies of R&SD Risk Management for their kind sponsorship of our Hall of Fame night earlier in the year.

We’d also like thank Paula Thomas for her tireless work in selling raffle tickets through the clubhouse and ground at every home game. If you’ve bought a ticket, then the chances are you bought it off Paula, and her efforts have raised a considerable amount of money for the supporters club. (By the way, details on what we’ve bought with that money will be announced soon). So thank you very much Paula for all your help during the year.

So, it just remains for us to with you a Merry Christmas and to wish the boys well for tomorrow’s game. Nadolig Llawen.