There’s only one place I can start this time
around, being the recent passing of former Caernarfon Town manager John King.
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| John King in front of Caernarfon Castle. Photo by Richard Birch. |
The sad news instantly
brought back memories of those glorious days thirty years ago when our
legendary manager transformed the Canaries into the best amateur side in Wales,
and one of the of finest in Britain. When North Wales’ finest sports reporter,
Dave Jones, mentioned he was looking for someone to share a few memories of Mr
King, I immediately put my name forward, and am so pleased I took the plunge!
The following is what I told Dave and, standing by every word I said, I’m happy
to reproduce them here, in tribute to a special figure in the club’s history:
“Most Caernarfon Town supporters I know feel that the team Mr King put
together at the Oval is the best to have represented the club, and I would agree
that it’s certainly the strongest I’ve seen since in my thrity three years on
the terraces.
The team was struggling in the old Northern Premier League when Mr King
arrived and he transformed us, in a very short time, from also-rans to one of
the best non-league sides in the English non-league system.
Reaching the third round of the FA Cup in 1986/87 was an extraordinary
achievement when one thinks that Caernarfon defeated two football league sides
in the opening two matches before narrowly losing out to Second Division
(now known as The Championship) Barnsley in the replay at their ‘Oakwell’
ground. There were three thousand people at the Oval for the first match with
Barnsley and the atmosphere was electric. I remember Mr King saying that
Barnsley manager Allan Clarke was sweating on the touchline during the match in
fear of defeat, and I’m sure he was right! The club has had some great times
since then, of course, but I doubt that anything could ever match the
excitement of that Cup run.
Caernarfon had such a good side under Mr King that we as supporters fancied
our chances against anyone and the FA Cup ties were no different. The players
he brought to the club were excellent, one or two of whom had played in the
football league, such as Steve Craven and some who then made a name for
themselves in the Professional game. Ray Woods played on the right wing for us
and appeared for Coventry City in the Premier League a few years later, whilst
Dave Higgins and Dave Martindale followed Mr King to Tranmere.
Whilst the cup run was undoubtedly the highlight of his tenure at
Caernarfon, it is often overlooked that he also led the team to third position
in the Northern Premier League, which was no mean feat in itself.
John King will always be associated with Tranmere Rovers Football Club due
to his long history with them, and rightly so, but he also enjoys, and desrves,
legendary status at Caernarfon Town Football Club.
One lasting memory I have of those halcyon days for the club was seeing a
photograph in the local newspaper of Mr King standing in front of Caernarfon
Castle under the headline ‘King of the Castle’ and this is how I will always
remember him.”
I was very proud that Dave decided to use my words in the Daily Post and
Caernarfon and Denbigh and, making it even better, was that he also included
the photo of Mr King that I rememebered, with the manager standing in front of
Caernarfo Castle. The shot had been taken by Richard Birch, who helped so much
with my Oval Ways book and Richard has been kind enough to let me use it
here.
Like everyone else who was lucky enough to have witnessed that wonderful
Canaries side, I have a number memories of that FA Cup run, from the massive
crowds at the Oval with the Two Twenty Crew in full voice, watching former
Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes predicting on national television that we’d beat
Barnsley, to the Police escort to Oakwell where we danced the Cofi Conga on the
terraces.
Magical days, provided by
a magical man.....
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| Nathan Craig was on the mark against Flint Town United. |
Waiting to Pounce.
I'm sure I was not alone
in feeling rather nervous whilst awaiting the FAW's announcement on the
Domestic Licence applications last thursday. As we now know, the game's
governing body refused Caernarfon's application although the club have made it
clear that we'll be appealing the decision and are confident of success.
I won't pretend to know everything about the requirements of the Licence but do
know that many people from within the club, including the chairman, manager,
committee members and supporters have worked extremely hard to meet the
required criteria. That we failed at the first attempt is disappointing of
course but, despite the very few who have found it impossible not to try and
criticise the club, all of whom have no links whatsoever to the club I should
add, I know that the outstanding issue is being dealt with and will be sorted
out in time for the appeal date of April 21st. It's an edgy, but exciting time
to be a Caernarfon Town supporter, but we WILL get there!
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| Chris Williams (left) and the Cofi Messi. |
The most disappointing
aspect of the news was the rather predictable handful of people who were
obviously waiting to pounce on the news and took to social media in an attempt
to gloat. All rather sad, and we'll just have to see if the same people appear
again in a few day’s time!
The
Holy Dean of Haselwell.
Back
on the pitch, it’s been a mixed bag since the last blog, although this is due only
to the weather and not to what the team has been doing on it.
I
don’t think anyone had expected the Holywell match to have been called off last
week but the constant rain for much of the preceding twenty four hours put paid
to everyone’s hopes of another classic encounter between the two sides. I’ve
mentioned more than once in the past that the Wellmen are a very good side and
always make it tough for the Cofis, but we have a decent record against them in
recent years so it’s a match most of us look forward to.
It
was rather disappointing to read a few social media messages from our old
friend, the Holy Dean of Hasselwell who decided to share a few photos of the
Oval pitch on his account, and seemed to suggest that the match should have
been played.
Quite
apart from the futility of someone making the trip to the Oval just to take
photos and try to prove a point (when I could have sent him a few photos
myself), maybe he forgot that clubs do not make decisions to postpone matches,
referees do. He should know that every club is at the hands of the officials in
such scenarios and the inspection was an early one due to the travelling
Holywell would have had to do. Having travelled most of the way to Llanfair Utd
earlier this year only to be told the match had been cancelled an hour before
kick-off, I certainly think it’s a pretty sound idea to carry out an early
inspection. So, a bit disappointing, but
hardly surprising, going by past experience of the Dean and whilst he really should
have known better, at least he apologised the following day for any offence
caused by his remarks. I’m sure it’s not the first, or last time, he’ll need do
this.
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| Jay Gibbs (right, next to referee) strikes his latest perfect free-kick as he nets against Flint Town United on saturday. |
Thankfully,
Saturday’s match with Flint Town United went ahead as planned and it was an
entertaining affair, where we were treated to six goals, plenty of attacking
football, an extremely rare Chris Williams goal and, incredibly, a mistake from
Caernarfon’s number one, Paul Pritchard!
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| Breesy heading towards the Cofi Army after his goal. |
The
match got off to a decent start with Flint showing plenty of attacking intent
but, from the moment Chris Williams went on his brilliant run past three
defenders and coolly slotted the ball into the net, Caernarfon were quite
comfortable in victory. Man of the match Jay Gibbs struck another perfect
free-kick, the ball thundering over the defensive wall and into the onion bag
from all of thirty yards. I know there’s a video clip of the goal on the club’s
official twitter account and I’d recommend you having a look if you haven’t
done so already, it's brilliant! I’m publishing the above photo, showing the ball heading towards its target, just to show how far Jay was from goal! Town’s
other goals were scored by Nathan Craig from the penalty spot and Jamie Breese,
who ran onto a Gibbs pass before expertly finishing past the Flint keeper.
All
in all, it was another fine performance from the team and, whilst I had been
feeling nervous about the match since tea-time on Friday, the players obviously
didn’t feel the same way and were impressive as they set about their business.
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| Messi celebrates Jamie's goal in front of the linesman, who is wearing a rather striking pair of shorts! |
The
Cofis have just five league fixtures remaining and, still sitting top of the
league, it would be easy to be over confident of success at this stage.
However, I know that Iwan, his management team and all the players are aware
that there is still a lot of football to play and there’s another huge test awaiting
the side at Llanfair on Saturday.
I’ve
heard that a busload of Cofi supporters will be making the trip to the Mount
Field, so there’s going to be a wonderful atmosphere at the ground.
Come
on the Town!
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