Port

 

PORTHMADOG TILL I DIE..

A great club, lovely people, great welcome aye nice words from the football family about my hometown club but  the club is facing relegation to the depressing depths  of Tier 3 – the second time in 3 years.

How has a club who were founder members of the original new all Welsh league in 1992 ended in this situation – again?

The board, management and the players must ALL take responsibility for this ridiculous situation.

Local

There is also an inherent problem with the local population of the town – Port is a footballing town – fact, the world local comes up in numerous conversations , the apathy amongst the people who deem their from the town stems from the fact that not enough local players wear the red and black striped shirt.

When I started going down the Traeth in the late 60’s early 70’s the teams were a mix of local and scousers, they were great servants with a certain Steve Woodin representing New Zealand at the 1982 world cup, how many clubs can boast that. Port were a very successful team in the 90’s, we had a manager from Penygroes  a team with a sprinkling of Port lads with lads from the Caernarfon area – there was no apathy from the locals, a successful team makes it all right and what is local, is it the town the region, district, answers on a post card.

We then had three former professional footballers as managers Mickey Thomas, Ian Edwards and Clayton Blackmore- they weren’t local.

The final hurdle

Now we find ourselves in this horrible situation, but to be honest as a team Port has done nothing for a few years with what I’d perceive very good teams, ‘always fall at the final hurdle’ was a common statement from the loyal Traeth fans. The other problem is that whenever we have a decent player they will certainly move to a club who plays at a higher level, it was Bangor City and now it’s Caernarfon Town – you can’t blame the individual for trying to better himself but sometimes you felt why didn’t you stay till season end, but that’s football.

Promise

Onto this season which promised so much when the board backed the manager 100% with six excellent singings from Llandudno and we beat Caernarfon Away in the Welsh cup - all looked good for a top 4 finish and a decent cup run – I think this is what we expect, I don’t expect us to runaway with the league or lose meekly to Buckley in the Welsh cup. There were also rumours of a dressing room bust up and one of our best players of recent times left the club and is now plying his trade at Llanrug -did these situations contribute to the disaster which has unfolded?

Clubs like Guilsfield and Ruthin manage to compete in Tier 2 so why can’t we?

WE changed managers in January and despite 2 away wins the losses have kept on coming, I’m sure the new management team at Porthmadog are as disappointed as ALL connected with the club.

Many great players and occasions have graced the Traeth, them days are a long way off, Tier 3 will be no walk in the park as clubs will see Port as a major scalp – the board and management team have a very important decision to make regarding the future of the club, at the end of the day it’s a results business.. C’mon Port. Porthmadog till I die...