Carmarthen Town A.F.C. - History

History

Carmarthen Town was founded as recently as 1948 and moved to their current ground Richmond Park in 1952.

The club was elected to the Welsh League in 1953 and gained promotion from Division Two in 1960. In 1996 Carmarthen won the Welsh League and the Cyril Rogers Cup. Carmarthen were promoted to the League of Wales in the same year. They have maintained their place in the League and shown gradual improvement, reaching the final of the Welsh Cup in 1999, but losing on penalties. They also reached the final of the Welsh Cup in 2005 losing 1–0 to Total Network Solutions. Carmarthen reached their third final on 1 April 2007 after a 1–0 win against Llanelli.

The appearance in the Welsh Cup final was enough to earn the club a UEFA Cup spot for 2005/6 as TNS had already won the Welsh Premier title and thus qualified for the UEFA Champions League. The ensuing campaign pitted the Old Gold against League of Ireland side Longford Town in the first round. Despite losing the first leg 2–0 away from home, Carmarthen put in a whirlwind performance at Newtown's Latham Park to beat their Celtic counterparts 5–1 and advance to the second round, winning 5–3 on aggregate.

That result earned them a tie against Danish giants F.C. Copenhagen. Carmarthen were big underdogs for this encounter, but put in a creditable display despite losing 4–0 on aggregate and bowing out of the competition.

The 2006/7 season saw Carmarthen qualify for Europe again via the Intertoto Cup, finishing fourth in the Welsh Premier. However, the result was not so good, Town suffering an 8–1 thrashing at the hands of Finnish side Tampere United.

The season saw the Old Gold finish in a slightly disappointing 7th. position. However a fine Cup run saw Town edge out Llanelli 1–0 at the semi final stage to reach the Welsh Cup Final for the third time in their history.

With a 3–2 win over Afan Lido at Stebonheath Park Llanelli (06.05.07) Carmarthen Town lifted the Welsh Cup for the first time in their history and with it secured their third consecutive foray into European competition.

With the departure of Mark Jones at the end of the 2007 season Deryn Brace took over as Player / Manager and Town hosted their first European tie (UEFA Cup) at Richmond Park on the 19th of July .

Carmarthen lost 14–3 on aggregate to S.K. Brann in the UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round. 8–1 at Richmond Park and 6–3 at Brann Stadion in Bergen. The Norwegian giants progressed to the knockout stages eventually losing to Everton.

Town progressed to the semi final of the FAW Premier Cup but in a tight end to the season the Richmond Park outfit finished in 6th position.

On 9 April 2010 Carmarthen Town were awarded a FAW Domestic Licence and a UEFA Licence, enabling the club to participate in the restructured Welsh Premier League and European competition for the 2010/2011 season.

The club finished the season in tenth position and in June 2010 Manager Deryn Brace resigned. Tomi Morgan was appointed manager.

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