Legends, Suspensions and Starsky's Hand Me Downs....

The title of the last blog was Month from Hell, due to my writing it in the middle of the team’s four week long road trip to mid-Wales. The results had been excellent during the ‘adventure’ but I think we were all ready for a home match and our return to the Oval turned out to be a very special day for the club.

It turned out that Iwan Williams’ squad was not the only group of Caernarfon Town players to return to the ground, as March 18^th also saw a special get-together of our famous FA Cup side of 1986/87. Cofis supporter Alex Philp had somehow managed to arrange a reunion of that legendary side and not only did most of them turn up to the special evening held to commemorate their efforts of thirty years ago, but they also managed to make it to the match to support the present players in their efforts against Holywell.

There was a special feeling at the ground as John King’s side took to the pitch before kick-off and watching them pose for a photo with the present squad was superb. Seeing Nathan Craig, Austin Salmon, Darren Thomas and Ray Woods lining up together with their respective team-mates was a great moment, and I couldn’t help but wonder how many of today’s squad would have got into Mr King’s side? Every supporter who’s been lucky enough to see both teams will have their own opinion but one thing’s for sure, putting both squads together would have given us a seriously impressive side. An idea for a future blog maybe, but one thing I have no doubt about is that, despite the perceived riches and advantages of those clubs who presently monopolise the game in Wales, a mixture of these two Caernarfon squads would prove more than a match for every other team in the Pyramid system.

The old and new guards.

Jamie Breese finds the net against Holywell. 

The match against our opponents from Halkyn Road turned out to be a real cracker as the Cofis steamrolled the Wellmen in a blistering first half performance that blew Johnny Haseldine’s men away. The visitors are a good, tough side and had been enjoying a fine run of results leading into the match, with former Town player Jamie McDaid impressing since joining them in January, so a tough encounter had been expected. However, once Darren Thomas scored in the seventh minute, the Canaries turned on the style and went into the half-time break four goals ahead. The Cofi Messi was simply unplayable for the first half an hour, during which he completed an impressive hat-trick, and in that type of

Kevin Roberts may need to work on his goal celebrations....

mood I don’t think there’s a better playmaker in the Welsh Pyramid. Jamie Breese added a fifth soon after the restart and whilst Holywell managed to pull two goals back, a rare netfinder by Kevin Roberts restored a fairer reflection of the match. Kev doesn’t score many so it was good to see him finding the net although he may need to work a bit on his goal celebration!

Ray Woods, Player of the Season for 1986/87.

The victory, and performance, was a great way to start the 86/87 celebration and the actual reunion itself was a memorable event, where we enjoyed watching a superb hour-long dvd of the FA Cup  run on a big screen in the team’s presence. This was a special experience as I was a teenager at the time of those halcyon days for the club and that group of players obviously mean a great deal to me. Russ Hughes, Huw Williams, Dave Higgins, Ken Jones, Dave Wignall, Steve Craven, Ray Woods, Phil Wilson, Stuart Clynch, Bobby Tynan and Ian Cockbain are all names that bring back lots of great memories to Town supporters and it was greatto meet them all during the reunion. The dvd itself was excellent, and I’m sure it must have brought back sweet memories for the players, many of whom told me they had never seen most of the footage before, which I find quite remarkable. Having said that, those cup matches took place thirty years ago and not everyone had video recorders back then, not to mention Sky + and whatever other gadgets there are to record programmes on today. How times have changed!

Steve Craven, Top Scorer in 1986/87.

Highlights of the evening were seeing Ray Woods and Steve Craven receiving their long overdue Player of the Year and Top Goalscorer awards respectively for the 86/87 season, hearing Phil Wilson explain how he got his ‘permatan’ all those years ago, listening to the players’ stories and hearing a number of refrains of the classic ‘Johnny King’s Cofi Army’ chant from those who used to watch the side from the terraces. Alex Philp was an absolute star for organising such a wonderful event, and special thanks are also due to Phil Jones and Jamie Richardson of the Canaries club for assisting him. Caernarfon Town chairman Richard Morris Jones also deserves a mention for providing the best comedy moment of the evening when a clip appeared on the dvd of him introducing the Barnsley match to the television camera. Richard’s delivery was as slick as I remember from his time on our screens in the seventies and eighties so he got full marks for that. I cannot, however, say the same for his choice of clothes as, standing on the Oval pitch with microphone in hand and the Welsh Guard Brass Band behind him, he looked for all the World as if he was wearing ‘hand me downs’ from Starsky or Hutch!

Reunion Booklet Cover.

On a personal note, I had been delighted and rather proud when Alex asked me last summer to put together a commemorative booklet for the reunion and Ii had a great time working on it. I’m sure I’ll be writing about the whole process in a future blog, and am looking at the possibility of working on a more in-depth publication in the future but what I can say is that the booklet was a very enjoyable, albeit rather stressful experience, though the latter only because the team’s achievements deserved a quality product. Whilst I was very happy with how it turned out, there was some pressure to get it right and I just hope the players thought it was an accurate reflection of their heroics! Interviews with Huw Williams, Ken Jones, Ray Woods, Russ Hughes and Phil Wilson certainly made added authenticity to it. 

It really was an excellent day and one I felt proved that whilst Caernarfon Town has a rich history that needs to be celebrated, we also has a very promising future to look forward to, as shown on the pitch that afternoon. I caught up with Ray Woods during the reunion and he was very complimentary about the present side, and manager, so that is proof enough to me that we’re on the right path!

Iwan, back on the road with the Cofis!

We were all back on our travels seven days later, although thankfully not on the A470 this time as we got to use the relative luxury of a decent road to Mold. My son Iwan accompanied me for a rare away trip and we had a great time, helped in part by a dinner-time stop at Subway and an impressive cheeseburger at the ground! Iwan has always enjoyed watching the Canaries and was a regular at home matches up to the end of last season when he became so disillusioned that off the field matters had cost the team promotion that his interest waned. It’s taken him a few months to get back into the swing of things but he’s back in the groove and I’m delighted about it!

The match at Alyn Park was a peculiar one, with the Cofis dominating large parts of the encounter and going a goal ahead but ending up scrambling for a point after the hosts hit a ten minute purple patch during which they scored twice.

Although the sides’ respective league positions suggested that Caernarfon were favourites for the points the hosts were battling to survive in the Huws Gray Alliance and played like it. They gave an excellent account of themselves on the day and deserved the draw, although Nathan Craig’s late equaliser on its own was worthy of all three points. I’ve mentioned in the blog after past visits to Mold that it’s an away day I always enjoy and if ever points were awarded for friendliness of stewards and staff, they would be nowhere near the wrong end of the table! The staff there are always good for a chat and have plenty of time for everyone, which is not always the case at a select few grounds, where all you get is a nod and scowl and, if you’re lucky, a decent car park with no potholes in sight!

Alex Crofts.

A share of the spoils may not have been what we wanted but the match was far from a disappointment as there were a number of positives for the Canaries to take out of it. The performance of young goalkeeper Alex Crofts was the highlight of the day for me, as the young glovesman enjoyed an impressive debut. We’re spoilt at Caernarfon to have Alex Ramsay between the sticks and so I was surprised to see our number one sitting on the bench as the team walked on the pitch, but the reserve keeper proved a very able deputy and a fine early save to deny a certain goal settled him down well as he showed his potential with a good, solid display. A very promising debut by the keeper, who has obviously impressed during his first season with the club’s second string.

The supporters voted Leigh Craven as man of the match as he followed up a great performance against Holywell with probably his best in a Town shirt. We all know that he is a fine footballer but sometimes I feel Leigh doesn’t always get the credit he deserves. He isn’t the type of player who will score double figures every season from midfield but he has many other strengths, including being excellent at keeping possession and he has a great engine. He’s also a really nice guy and it’s been good to see him back at the Oval in recent months!

Leigh Craven was man of the match against Mold.

I mentioned earlier that the match had been a peculiar affair and to continue with this theme, I found myself for the first time carrying out post-match interviews that did not include one with the Caernarfon manage! The fixture with Mold was the first of a three match ban for Iwan and, whilst it had been odd not seeing him in the dugout alongside Alun, Richard and Mike, it seemed even more surreal that I couldn’t interview him.

The FAW’s suspension included all media duties in addition to match duties and so I put the phone in front of Alun Winstanley and found out that he, just like the gaffer, is another member of the management team who is a straight talker and needs just one ‘take’ to get his point across! I’d heard that Alun is a hard task master and, from talking with him after the match, I can well believe it! All thoughts after the match turned to Rhyl and our Welsh Cup Semi-Final with Bala Town, which I’ll be looking at in the next blog….  

Alun Winstanley (left) and Mike Innes at the Mold match.

Before finishing I just have to mention the manager’s recent three match suspension. Iwan was sent off during the match at Holyhead Hotspur on February 4^th and, after a pretty lengthy, he was finally handed his punishment, which was to begin on March 24^th. This means that it had taken seven weeks for the suspension to kick in! I won’t pretend to know how the FAW goes about this type of thing but what I do know is that the process is ridiculously long-winded and, in Iwan’s case, resulted in him having to sit out the biggest match of his managerial career to date.

It would be too easy to point out that the referee who sent Iwan off at Holyhead left both sets of supporters perplexed at his red card to Alex Ramsay that led to the manager’s dismissal, though in his defence the Greg Louganis wannabee (replace Mr Louganis with Tom Daley if you’re under forty years of age!) wearing blue and white stripes hardly helped.

Although the man in black was definitely out of sorts on the day, once his decision had been made it was left to the FAW to determine the punishment. And this is where I have to question the their  process of determining the suspension and the surprisingly long amount of time it took to implement. Why did it take seven weeks from the day of the incident for the suspension to begin,  and does the FAW really need so long to reach a decision? If the answer is yes then there must be something wrong with their processes, and they need to re-assess and adjust them as quickly as possible.

The questionable delay in implementing the ban resulted in Iwan having to sit out the Welsh Cup semi-final with Bala and, as far as I’m concerned, this was unjustified and unfair on him. One or two people have suggested to me that the timing of the ban which resulted in the manager sitting out our biggest match in twenty nine years was not totally coincidental but I would never subscribe to such claims.

I would never question the FAW’s integrity and their wish to ensure fairness but in my opinion Iwan and Caernarfon Town deserved better than the fiasco they served up in taking so long to implement their ban.

#UnClwb