History
The only English club playing in the Welsh Premier, Oswestry Town had a chequered history.
Founder members of the Football Association of Wales in 1876, a rare achievement for an English club, Oswestry went into decline despite winning the Cheshire League in 1972. They also competed in the Northern Premier League and they also reached the FA Cup 1st round on several occasions. Oswestry were forced to sell their Victoria Road ground to pay their debts and the club folded completely in the late 1980s.
The re-formed club opted for Welsh football and played in the Cymru Alliance or the Welsh Premier from 1995/6 until 2003. After being initially refused entry to the LoW on ground criteria, Oswestry moved to the Park Hall athletics stadium and considerable improvements were carried out to reach Welsh Premier standards, although the ground had a long way to go to meet the modern standards of the Welsh Premier.
The club remained financially weak, and on 7 June 2003, it was announced that the club would merge with Total Network Solutions, from Llansantffraid, eight miles away, with the aim of playing at a new stadium in Oswestry from 2005/06. The Football Association of Wales approved the merger, but on 12 August 2003 the European governing body, UEFA, ruled against the merger on the grounds that the two clubs were in different countries. On appeal two days later UEFA reversed its decision having reviewed the history of the development of football in England and Wales, and particularly noting Oswestry's role in the founding of the F.A.W. and regular participation in the Welsh Cup from 1877 to the present. Consequently Oswestry Town was excused from completing its fixture at the start of the 2003/04 season on 16 August. This signalled the end of the club after 143 years.
The merger agreement provided that the merged team would be known as "Total Network Solutions" and will play half its matches in Oswestry Town's dark blue strip. In 2006, after the club sponsor Total Network Solutions was taken over by British Telecom, Total Network Solutions renamed themselves The New Saints while maintaining their prior colour scheme, including the use of Oswestry Town's colours on the road.
Read more about this topic: Oswestry Town F.C.
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