“For the ones who never made it off the pitch — but never left it either.”

Gethin drives to a caravan park in Porthcawl. Knocks on a door at 11 p.m. Dai opens it. Beer in hand. Faded dragon tattoo on his neck. “You look like death.”

After the match, Gethin sits alone in the changing room. Steam from the shower. A photo on his locker: 2005, Welsh Cup Final. He’s holding the trophy. His son, Rhys, age 7, on his shoulders. Smiling.

The pitch is mud. Not the soft, forgiving kind — the kind that pulls your boots down like it wants to keep you. Floodlights flicker. Scoreboard: Llanharan Steel 3, Abercwm 41.

Rhys: “I already did.”

Dai closes the door. Opens it again. “I don’t have boots.”

Rhys now plays for the rival club — the one that just put 41 points on them.

Dai is 35, banned for two years after punching a referee in a semi-pro match in New Zealand. He and Gethin haven’t spoken since a career-ending collision in that 2005 final — Gethin went low, Dai went high, and someone’s jaw broke. They’ve blamed each other ever since.