The Climb #6 – Season Two: Kat’s Diary

I didn’t write much during the season.

Not because nothing was happening, but because everything was. Every time I thought about sitting down and making sense of it, the next match arrived, the table shifted, or someone scored late and changed the mood for the week.

Now the fixtures have stopped. The table isn’t moving anymore. The ground is quiet enough to hear your own thoughts again. That’s usually when a season finally shows you what it was really about.

Pre-season was the first hint that this year wasn’t going to behave like the last one. The goals came quickly – too quickly. The kind of scorelines that make you suspicious rather than excited.

Barry Town United 8–0 Porth Harlequins
Pre-season friendly

The 8–0 against Porth wasn’t reassuring. It was unsettling. Everything looked too easy. Movements were sharp. The press was clean. Lleucu Mathias was scoring like she’d been doing it her whole life.

I told myself not to get too carried away.

Then MK Dons happened.

We lost Emily Freeman in the fourth minute and went behind. That was the moment I watched most closely – not for the response itself, but for how calm it was.

We didn’t rush. We didn’t force passes. We trusted the plan and let the game come back to us.

MK Dons 1–3 Barry Town United
Pre-season friendly

But the match I kept returning to was the quiet one.

Aberystwyth Town away – two goals, clean sheet.

No panic. No unnecessary risks.

That was the first time I thought this form might actually hold.

September confirmed it.

We didn’t feel like a team finding its feet. We felt like a team that already knew where it wanted to stand. Away at Cwmbran Celtic, we were calm from the first whistle. The ball moved quickly and the shape stayed compact. Nia Jones set the tone early, and Emily Freeman found space that shouldn’t have been there.

By the fourth goal, the celebrations had gone quiet. That’s when I realised this squad wasn’t just coping with expectation – it was absorbing it.

October was where the pressure started to show. Not in results – we stayed unbeaten – but in how games felt. Swansea slowed everything down. Wrexham turned matches into noise. Cardiff made things chaotic in a way that demanded attention.

Barry Town United 3–3 Cardiff City
Adran Premier

That draw stayed with me. We went behind, levelled, went behind again. India Shanahan dragged us back into it twice, refusing to let the match drift away.

I didn’t sit down for the last fifteen minutes. Neither did anyone near the bench.

We equalled our club record that month – six games unbeaten. Third in the league. And yet most weeks, the dressing room felt frustrated rather than relieved.

Veruca called it progress.

November arrived quietly.

Training felt sharper. Fewer directions were needed. The players understood each other without explanation. Briton Ferry away summed it up – wet pitch, long ninety minutes, one goal.

Briton Ferry 0–1 Barry Town United
Adran Premier

I nodded at full-time. Veruca nodded back. That was enough.

Carmarthen away was the opposite. Four goals with total control. Freeman and Mathias dictated the tempo like they’d agreed on it beforehand.

Carmarthen Town 1–4 Barry Town United
Adran Premier

By then, winning had stopped feeling surprising. That’s when seasons turn serious – when expectation weighs heavier than nerves.

Wrexham away after the winter break felt like a line being drawn. They had the crowd behind them. We had patience.

Wrexham 1–4 Barry Town United
Adran Premier

That was the night I stopped thinking about good runs and started thinking about what this could become.

February brought big fixtures and tired legs. The sense that everything now came with a cost.

The Welsh Cup didn’t go our way. It hurt – but not in the old way. No spiral. No panic. Just adjustment.

February and March brought momentum back when it mattered most. TNS dismantled. Wrexham managed. Cardiff beaten without any fuss.

Cardiff City 2–3 Barry Town United (AET)
Adran Premier

Records followed. Highest league finish. Highest points total. Longest unbeaten run. Articles praising us that I stopped reading halfway through.

April arrived already holding the answer of what came next.

Losing to Cardiff away hurt, but it didn’t define the season.

Cardiff City 2–1 Barry Town United
Adran Premier

The title was decided on the final day. Not with drama – just with confirmation.

Barry Town United – Adran Premier Champions

Confirmation of our return to Europe after seven years followed soon after.

Barry Town United qualify for UWCL

That one made me emotional.

Europe doesn’t just reward you. It asks questions – about squads, depth, and whether what worked in Wales will survive somewhere else.

One evening, long after training had finished, Veruca came into my office.

“So,” she said, “what are you going to do, Kat?”

I didn’t answer straight away.

“I’m staying,” I said. “One more season.”

She nodded, like it was already written somewhere.

After she left, I sat for a while. I looked at the board – the squad list, the tactics, the blank space where the European fixtures would go.

Before turning the lights off, I made myself a mental note: I need to get my passport up to date.