Cambrian & Clydach will be heavy underdogs in Saturday night’s Nathaniel MG Cup final with Cardiff Met – but the Rhondda side will have every reason to believe they can spring another upset.

Barry Town, Aberystwyth Town and Newtown had all fallen victim to Cambrian & Clydach’s giant killing exploits this season, prior to the club’s biggest scalp of all, when they eliminated Nathaniel MG Cup holders The New Saints in extra-time on a dramatic November night, under the floodlights at the M&P Group stadium.

“The home draw was obviously the big factor in all of them, when you’re playing at home you naturally get that advantage of playing in the comfort of your own ground with the support –  but we do work on how to beat teams, especially formations and working out of possession, and how we can retain the ball and press them as high as possible. I think it’s something that they weren’t expecting of us,” reflects manager and former player Dane Williams.

Cambrian & Clydach are expected to take 700 fans to Jenner Park with the club’s initial allocation of 500 tickets quickly selling out.

Winning the Nathaniel MG Cup and building on that support base, along with all the hard work done to develop the club’s infrastructure, is what Dane Williams hopes will eventually help the club secure its own place in the top-flight.

“We’re a relatively young club, it’s only being going thirty-odd years and in our short history, winning on Saturday would be the absolute pinnacle so far – but for the community, it’s an opportunity to see that they have a very good team on their doorstep and if we can attract crowds as well as players, it could springboard us further and into the Welsh Premier,” he said.

“The club has been quite open in its aspirations to achieve Welsh Premier League status and to be fair to the club, they’ve gone about it the right way.

“They’ve put all the structure in place, facilities, the academy, and everything which is needed to be a Welsh Premier team. It’s just the team has got to do it on the field now, and maybe perhaps a little bit more financial support from the sponsors or backing.”

It’s that direction and togetherness on and off the field which is giving Cambrian & Clydach the foundations to achieve their aim.

“I played for the club and we won Division One in my last season. My assistant manager Dean Matthews was captain of that team and my coach Liam was playing for us when we won the league as well, so we’ve all got good connections to Cambrian and have been here for years,” explains Williams.

“The morale in the dressing room has been great. We’ve had seven or eight players who have come right through from the youth team together in the same age group, so they’ve been friends for a long time, and the players we’ve recruited this year have added to the squad.

“Everyone is local, everyone’s grown up together and bothered together outside of football, so we’ve been fortunate enough to bring that group together.

“We’ve gone to extra-time against TNS, and Barry as well, and I think a lot of people would’ve thought we’ve run them close but would have expected the full-timer’s to take over – but that little bit of togetherness we have has just pushed our players the extra yard and that’s helped.”

So, just what is the secret behind their extraordinary Cup run, you may wonder? According to Dane Williams, it’s all about preparation and the levels of commitment his players go to achieve peak condition: “The players have got to do their own training sessions, where we train once a week and the players have got to do their own fitness sessions and post it to the WhatsApp group.”

“One of the youngsters posted himself following a Jillian Michaels home workout video because he didn’t have time to go for a run!,” laughs Williams.

“Now, a Jillian Michaels home workout is basically a 50-year-old woman doing her abs, bums and tums. So the player posted that to the group thinking ‘Yeah that’s a great, I’ve done a workout’. It’s like a Davina McCall home workout!”

Jokes and middle-aged women’s fitness workouts aside, Williams is measured about his team’s chances of pulling off one more upset.

“We’re glad to be part of the day but if I said I didn’t think we could win it, people would think I’m stupid because we’ve already beaten four very good teams. Of course we can win it – but for us to win it, we would need to be at our very best and have a little bit of luck go our way as well.”

Admission is available on the gate with tickets priced at: £7 adults, £3 concessions, £1 under-16s.