CWMBRAN Town's vastly experienced shot-stopper Pat O'Hagan is hoping to make it third time lucky and help the Gwent side lift the Welsh Cup.
The 30-year-old Crows keeper - who played his 350th league game for Town earlier this week - was in the Cwmbran side that lost 2-1 to Barry Town in the 1997 final at Ninian Park but was second choice to Gary Wager when they lost 1-0 to Bangor City at the Racecourse Ground in 2000.
But now O'Hagan is hoping to put those disappointments behind him and ensure that Town lift the Welsh Cup on Sunday, May 5 - at a venue yet to be announced.
Tomorrow (2:30pm) O'Hagan and his team-mates travel up the Welsh Valleys to Ton Pentre for this quarter-final showdown at Ynys Park.
However, the veteran custodian of the goals is adamant that the ultimate prize is the League of Wales championship and anything else is "just a bonus."
"It will be great to win the Welsh Cup," said the former Cardiff City trainee. "Because of my disappointments in previous years. But the league is our priority. "I know it's an old clich but it's so true. We have not got the results we would have liked at Caersws on Saturday, when we lost 2-0, and at Newtown on Tuesday, when we drew 1-1, but we can still do it.
"The top teams in the league like Barry, Rhyl and TNS still have to visit Cwmbran Stadium and we, as a team, love playing there as our last three results at home have shown, in which time we scored 22 goals.
"So there is still all to play for." But the league is put on the back-burner tomorrow as they visit Crows boss Tony Willcox's old stomping ground Ton Pentre, where former Cwmbran striker Lee Brown now plies his trade.
The Rhondda Valleys side have were in the League of Wales in 1997 when the "resigned" due to financial problems.
And it was for that reason that they have not been promoted in the last four campaigns when they have won the Welsh First Division on each occasion.
The Bulldogs are leading the closely-fought chasing pack again this campaign and club officials say they will join the LoW next term if they get promoted.
O'Hagan warned: "It is a potential banana skin, but we have got past these type of sides in the past."
He pointed out that the other top sides in the competition play each other - like Barry v TNS and Carmarthen v Bangor - so if Cwmbran get through they "have a good chance." Meanwhile, Cwmbran's 1-1 at Newtown on Tuesday stopped Town entering the record books as the British club that has played the most amount of consecutive games in league and cup without a draw. The Crows beat the 96-year English and Welsh record of 30 games but the draw was one short of the 34-game British record held by Glasgow Celtic.
Cwmbran Town (from): P O'Hagan, S Wharton (c), C Watkins, R Carter, A Moore, R David, N Smothers, A Wright, S Mainwairing, N Wigg, N Cotterrall, M Davies, C Hughes, J Welsh, M Pattimore, P James, L Thomas, J Wile
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