Bangor City F.C. - History

History

Bangor City F.C. is one of Wales' older football clubs, and has an illustrious history of competition in European football, the English pyramid system and now the Welsh Premiership.

Bangor was a founder member of the North Wales Coast League in 1893, the Welsh National League in 1921, the North Wales Combination in 1930, the Welsh League (North) in 1935, the Northern Premier League in 1968, the Alliance Premier League (now Football Conference) in 1979, and in 1992 the League of Wales.

In the 1961/62 season, Bangor City won the Welsh Cup, and consequently was entered in the European Cup Winners' Cup for the first time. In the first round, Bangor was drawn against the Italian Cup winners, Napoli, at the time one of Europe's greatest football teams. A thrashing was confidently expected. In the first leg, played at Farrar Road, unexpectedly Bangor won 2–0; three weeks later, in front of a crowd of 80,000 in Naples, the result was 3–1 in Napoli's favour. Under modern rules, Bangor would have progressed under the "away goals" rule, but at the time the tie was drawn 3–3 and a playoff had to be played, at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium, in London (this was the first ECWC tie played at Highbury), and this time AS Napoli won 2–1, scoring the winner seven minutes from the end of the match, to put an end to Bangor's dreams for the moment.

World superstar Bobby Charlton guested for the Blues in the 1978 Anglo-Italian Tournament. At the end of 1977/78 when Southport was relegated from the English Football League Fourth Division, Bangor City, Boston United and Wigan Athletic were considered for promotion instead. Due to Wigan Athletic having installed crush barriers, Bangor missed out on promotion.

In 1979/80 Bangor City was invited to compete in the Alliance Premier League, which would become the English game's de facto fifth division.

On 12 May 1984 Bangor became the first Welsh club to play at Wembley since Cardiff in 1927, when reaching the FA Trophy final against Northwich Victoria. The match finished 1–1, with local boy Paul Whelan scoring for Bangor. The replay was played in Stoke's Victoria Ground, and despite a goal from another Bangor lad (Phil Lunn), Bangor lost 2–1 conceding in the last minute.

In 1985 Bangor City was back in the ECWC, in the first round drawn against the Norwegian cup winners, Fredrikstad. The first leg in Norway was a 1–1 draw, while the return leg in Bangor was a 0–0 draw, resulting in Bangor progressing to the second round, where the club was drawn against the mighty Spanish side Atlético Madrid. Atlético was expected to win easily, but in the event the first leg in Bangor was only won 2–0; in the return leg in Madrid, Bangor won much admiration with a dogged defence which only allowed Atlético one more goal, and Bangor keeper Dai Davies saved an Atlético penalty kick.

Interestingly, captain of Bangor that season was midfielder Mark Palios, who was later to find himself in the headlines as chief executive of the English Football Association during 2004–5. Against Atletico, Palios shaved the post with a header in the first minute that would have given Bangor an unlikely lead in the first leg at Farrar Road following a cross by Phil Lunn.

In 1994 as League of Wales Champions, Bangor City entered the UEFA Cup. They were drawn against the Icelandic champions, IA Akranes, and were seriously hampered by UEFA's ruling that a team could only contain three foreigners – many of Bangor's team were English, and despite some creative genealogy it was not possible to field a full-strength Welsh side. Akranes won the leg in Bangor by 2–1 (the match was played in the close season when Bangor hadn't played a competitive match in three months), while Bangor lost the match in Iceland by 2–0.

In 1995 Bangor City retained the League of Wales championship, and this time drew the Polish champions Widzew Łódź in the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup. Łódź were an extremely powerful side, having played Liverpool, Juventus and Manchester United in earlier campaigns, and quite easily triumphed over Bangor City, winning 4–0 in Bangor and 1–0 in Łódź . Manager at the time was Nigel Adkins, now in charge of Championship side Southampton F.C..

In 1998 Bangor were back in the Cup Winners' Cup, having won the Welsh Cup under the stewardship of Scottish International and Everton legend Graeme Sharp.

Unfortunately between winning the Welsh Cup and playing their opponents, FC Haka, the manager and most of the team had left, so new manager John Hulse had the impossible task of putting together a completely new side, a week before the start of the Welsh football season (and three-quarters of the way through the Finnish football season). Unsurprisingly Bangor were beaten, 2–0 at home, and 1–0 in Finland.

In 2006 the club made it to the Welsh Cup final where they were beaten by Rhyl 2–0 at Wrexham's Racecourse ground. The game turned on a controversial handball decision 3 minutes after the break when Paul O'Neill was adjudged to have handled the ball, the resulting spot kick gave Rhyl a decisive lead and a second goal added 12 minutes from the end broke Bangor hearts on the day.

The club managed to win back the Welsh Cup in 2008, defying the odds and defeating league high fliers Llanelli 4–2 after extra time at Latham Park, Newtown. An injury time equaliser saw a pitch invasion by celebrating Bangor fans before the Blues were able proceeding to defeat their expensively-assembled opponents during the additional period.

Victory in the Welsh Cup meant that Bangor had again qualified for Europe and in the following seasons UEFA Cup they were drawn to face FC Midtjylland of Denmark. The first leg was held at the Racecourse ground, Wrexham saw Bangor beaten by a talented Danish side.

Despite this early setback Bangor ended the 2008–09 season with yet more silverware as they retained the Welsh Cup by defeating Aberystwyth Town 2–0 in a match held at Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli. The result maintained manager Neville Powell's 100% record in the Welsh Cup competition since joining the Farrar Road club at the start of the 2007–08 season, the manager cementing his legendary status with the club following his lengthy period as a player in the mid to late 80s including that famous Fredrikstad/Atlético Madrid campaign in 1985.

The 2008–09 Welsh Cup success meant that Bangor participated in the inaugural Europa League competition at the start of the 2009–10 season. They were drawn to face Honka Espoo in the second qualifying round and were eliminated at the first hurdle losing 3–0 on aggregate.

Bangor – and Powell – made it three Welsh Cup wins in a row in 2009–10 with a deserved 3–2 success against Port Talbot in the Welsh Cup Final, again held at Llanelli – some 40 miles from Port Talbot.

In the 2010–11 Europa League campaign, Bangor City were again drawn against Honka Espoo but this time they made history by overcoming the Finnish side in the Europa League second qualifying round with a 3–2 aggregate scoreline. Bangor succumbed to Portuguese side CS Maritimo in the third qualifying round. Despite losing the first leg heavily in Portugal, Bangor restored great pride in the second leg at Wrexham, holding a 1–0 lead at half time before going on to lose a hard-fought game 2–1.

The 2010–11 season marked a significant change in the set-up of the Welsh Premiership, with Bangor one of the 12 sides (down from 18) contesting the championship. They won their opening 15 games of the season, eventually winning their first league title in 16 years on the final day of the season. This was achieved by beating the current champions, TNS, 1–0.

By winning their competitive league, they were involved in the 2011–12 Champions League campaign. Bangor City were against HJK Helsinki in the second qualifying round but lost 3–0 at home. In the away fixture, Bangor City were demolished 10–0 in the game and 13–0 on aggregate.

Bangor started the 2011/2012 season with a 3-2 home win over Llanelli in a thrilling encounter watched by 558 fans.

In July 2012 Bangor City forward Les Davies made the 32 man longlist for UEFA's best player in Europe award