Cambrian & Clydach

Nathan Shepperd came through the academy at Cambrian & Clydach Vale before Swansea City took him on, then Brentford, then a run through Dundalk, Wycombe Wanderers and Queens Park Rangers, with call-ups to the Wales under-21 side along the way. In 2025 he signed for The New Saints. Terry Evans went the other direction: a defender who had already played for Cardiff City, Barry Town, Swansea City, Newport County and Haverfordwest County, and who chose Cambrian & Clydach Vale to finish his career in 2013 and 2014.

The club carries the name of the Cambrian Colliery, and it was founded in 1965 as Cambrian United. A merger with Clydach Vale Boys and Girls Club in 1980 did not last; a second attempt in 2002 did, and the side spent the following two decades as Cambrian & Clydach Vale Boys and Girls Club. Before the 2024/25 season it reverted to the original name, Cambrian United.

Promotion has come in steps rather than in one leap: the South Wales Amateur League in 2005, Division Three of the Welsh Football League a year later, Division One in 2012. Runner-up finishes have outnumbered the titles — three of them in Division One alone, plus a losing Welsh League Cup final against Cardiff Metropolitan in 2019. The clearest sign of where the club now stands came in 2026, when it finished second in Cymru South and earned promotion into the JD Cymru Premier, the top flight in Wales.

Home games are played at the Cambrian Lakeside Sports Academy, a ground that holds around 350. Across the valley sits Ton Pentre, the opponent in the Rhondda Derby.