When you think of sport in the Valleys many people think of rugby as being dominant but - in one village - there is a community coming together to celebrate their love of football.
Cwm Welfare AFC is a football club located in Beddau - a large former mining village. The area initially started off as a rural community, but Beddau’s fortunes changed in 1909 when the first turf was cut for the Cwm Colliery - the colliery that went on to inspire the name for the local football team.
Fast forward more than 100 years there is now significant demand to play more sport in the area, and Cwm Welfare AFC now welcomes players and supporters to the grounds most weekends.
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In the space of around six years the club has gone from having a single team to having over 250 registered players across 15 different teams - girls, boys, men and women of all abilities have shown interest - but the state of their facilities is currently holding the club back from being the golden sports hub it truly has the potential to be.
Last Saturday the village witnessed the usual scenes at the grounds as supporters gathered to watch Cwm Welfare AFC take on Whitchurch AFC.
But, as the club continues to expand, you can see it's leading to players outgrowing the facilities at their home ground at Mount Pleasant Park.
The club describes its changing rooms as being "outdated, environmentally inefficient and simply not suitable", so it's now putting all its energy into raising funds to use as match funding to enable the facilities to be completely transformed.
Not to mention, the club doesn't have its own bar, so uses the Cwm and Llantwit Workmen's Hall and Club next door. This is why there are plans to build a second storey to develop a function room too.
The enhanced facilities are simply what's needed to accommodate for the local love of football.
Committee member Phillip Sainsbury, 40, said: "Even through Covid - it has been growing.
"We have been growing as a club quite big within the last five to six years. We started with a single senior's team, and now we have about 15 different teams in total.
"The plan is to have a women's team too, and we are trying to get more girls teams."
Speaking about the facilities at the club, he added: "They are not really pretty. They are not really suitable or up to standard."
You only have to visit the facilities to see that this is true.
Even though players are passionate, and Saturdays see the pitch buzzing with atmosphere and excitement as children and adults take to the grounds, the changing rooms are much less inviting.
They're not big enough to accommodate for the club's increased demands, and they need much more than a lick of paint to be made more suitable for the children who are desperate to kick a ball about on the weekends.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the club raised some funds and a grant provider was almost about to sign the cheque which would have put the project into motion. Sadly, as a result of the pandemic, the project was mothballed.
The club has since received several quotes, and has discovered that building and labour costs have risen significantly as a direct result of Covid-19.
Due to this the club took matters into their own hands, and decided to start raising their own funds to make the transformation possible which has, so far, brought in more than £11,000.
The club has also submitted a grant application to the Football Association of Wales (FAW), and hopes to find out if it has been approved soon.
Speaking about how community spirit has grown at the club, Phillip said: "We probably had three to four people running the club, but we have continued to grow, so we have a committee set up now to drive things forward.
"Most of the committee have got kids who play for the club from the junior teams. There are people who have been supporting the club for years."
The plans are to use the funding to modernise and extend the ground floor of the existing changing rooms to provide not only clean and modern facilities, but to increase the two changing rooms to four.
It's hoped the second floor will be transformed into a function room, which the whole community will be able to benefit from as well as the club using it during match days for supporters and players to watch from the balcony or visit after games.
If the project goes ahead it would see a huge transformation to the facilities which witnessed a lot of vandalism during lockdown.
"When we were in lockdowns I think what we saw in the area was quite a lot of anti-social behaviour," added Phillip.
"We were getting a lot of criminal damage and people messing around.
"Since restrictions have eased we have seen less of it.
"We have been working with the council, and they have just put fencing around our top pitch."
But, the long-term goals are much bigger at the club, and it plans to do a lot more to sustain the passion for football for future generations over the next five years.
According to Cwm Welfare AFC, the main ambition is to build a community football club that is "inclusive, sustainable (financially and environmentally) and forward-thinking".
The installation of perimeter fencing to the main pitch (the top pitch) has recently been completed, which will help protect the pitch from vandalism and enable the first, development and youth teams to have a pitch befitting their league status.
Later in the year there are also planned essential pitch upgrades to the club's second pitch (the lower pitch), which will double the club's match-playing capacity as soon as it becomes playable by all age groups.
Now all the club needs to really drive it forward is to find as many volunteers and coaches as possible to make the club a thriving success, as the passion for sport is already deep-rooted within the community.
Phillip said: "It's finding people who want to coach. We would have three to four more teams set up if we could find people - especially girls' football. It's just finding volunteers to coach."
Speaking about the plans for the improved facilities, he added: "It's for people of all ages, and this is just the early stages. The future plans - we are looking at turning the pitch into a 3D pitch, but planning this will take a lot of time."
To find out more about Cwm Welfare AFC, and to make a donation to the fundraiser, visit the crowdfunding page.
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