PORTHMADOG TILL I DIE...
I first started going the Traeth in
the early seventies to watch my local side Porthmadog play. I’m sure some league
clubs played us in pre season friendlies. There were certainly big crowds there and it was
my first taste of live football. I then went to Hereford whilst still in school
(English clubs participated in the Welsh cup then) for a Welsh cup tie in 1974.
Coincidentally it was where I saw my first Chelsea match in 1977. A certain brother
of mine didn’t attend the Welsh cup tie due to misdemeanours in school!
Scousers
The club at that time played in the
Welsh league with a team mainly made of scousers and a sprinkling of locals,
there were no issues with they’re not local back then. I also remember trips to
Flint, Connah’s Quay and Holyhead until I was old enough to venture to Pwllheli
which was always troublesome for us as the locals weren’t friendly. I then
started to follow my team Chelsea and Wales regularly but would always ask be
nath Port – what did Port do.
The '50s, '60s and '70s were highly
successful decades for the club. The Welsh Amateur Cup was won in 1955/56 and
1956/57. The arrival of the great John Charles‘s brother Mel heralded more
success. Port was league champions in three successive seasons between 1966 and
1969. Also in 1966, they played against Swansea in the Welsh Cup at the Vetch,
before a crowd of 10,941. The 1989/90 saw us win the league and we became inaugural
members of League of Wales in 1992. We finished 9th in the first
season thanks to free scoring striker Dave Taylor.
Locals
When we were relegated from the WPL for the 2nd
time due league reorganisation in 2009/10, who’d have thought that we would now
be staring at the 3rd tier. Also if I’m right the rise of a
successful Bala town meant that players would move there instead of the Traeth,
and if we had a decent player Bangor would come calling. The great days of
Meilir Owens’s team which was deemed to be full of locals have long gone. What
is local though, some of these players were from the Llanberis area is that
local to Port? But boy did they play for the shirt
.
.
Next season this famous club in
Welsh football circles could be plying their trade in the 3rd
tier/pyramid of Welsh football – a disaster. How has this come about? I have questioned
the boards seemingly lack of ambition of gaining promotion to the Welsh Premier
League on numerous occasions. It seemed like a closed shop to get a fans voice
on the board. The former secretary basically told me it was painters we needed
not fan groups, I was shot down by numerous fans etc for merely having the
audacity of questioning the clubs direction
- or lack of it. With hindsight possibly the committee were right on not
to over invest on the squad etc, but with having a team capable of finishing in
the top half but always failing in an important league or cup game it was
frustrating.
Domestic license
The latest problem came recently
when we finished third and we all thought we can kick on from here, but there
was a problem, our manger Craig Papirnyk didn’t have the required coaching license
to manage in the 2nd tier, he eventually stepped down, he admitted
that it was his fault for not completing the license, it was a 50/50, the club
were also to blame for not reacting to this requirement or foreseeing the
problem, hindsight eh.
So this season we started with a
Sion Eifion Jones a young coach /manager who had the required license and Craig
moved to pastures new. New singings were
brought in but the crux of the squad and team had seven or eight of last season’s
regulars. Results were poor and eventually Sion was replaced with Craig back at
the helm and former players returning to try and help us get out of the mire but,
today we are staring relegation in the face after a 7-1 thrashing by Gresford
yesterday, Craig to his credit and as always has come out and apologised, one
player also did this last night on social media - only one though?
The club founded in 1884 could be
playing next season in local derbies against Penrhyndeudraeth and Blaenau
Ffestiniog. The season could go two ways, we could romp the league with this current
squad who have underperformed ALL season, surely they owe it to us to stay and
try? Or we could languish in the 3rd tier, we will be a scalp.
Good club
Wherever I go and talk football
from Pwllheli to Caernarfon from Penybont to Carmarthen, Port are perceived as
a great welcoming club with excellent facilities, many have told me that was
the problem, as a team we were too nice especially at home. Also many manager/
coaches from Welsh Premier League clubs are astounded with the clubs position with
such a talented squad.
I hope yesterday hurt them players, if not
Craig should ship them out of the club ASAP, anyway all is not lost we have 11
games to save ourselves and if we do we can’t let this happen again, will Craig
stay, would he be the man to bring us back up?
