Haverfordwest County A.F.C.

Haverfordwest County
Full name Haverfordwest County Association Football Club
Nickname(s) The Bluebirds, The West
Founded 1899 (1899)
(as Haverfordwest F.C.)
Ground Bridge Meadow Stadium
Haverfordwest
Ground Capacity 2,000
Chairman David Hughes
Manager Wayne Jones
League Welsh Premier League
2015–16 Welsh Premier League, 12th

Haverfordwest County A.F.C. is a football team, playing in the Welsh Premier League, currently managed by Wayne Jones and his assistant Sean Cresser.

The club was founded in 1899 and was variously known as Haverfordwest FC, Haverfordwest Town, and Haverfordwest Athletic before adopting the current name, and plays at the Bridge Meadow Stadium, Haverfordwest, which accommodates 2,000 spectators.[1] The teams' first choice strip is blue shirts, shorts, and socks and the second choice strip is orange and black shirts, black shorts, orange socks.

History

Haverfordwest Football Club was formed in 1899, and was quickly renamed Haverfordwest Town in 1901. In 1936, the name of Haverfordwest Athletic was adopted and the first team switched to the Welsh Football League, leaving a reserve side in the Pembrokeshire League. In 1956 they gained promotion to the Welsh League Premier Division, having won the First Division title. The present name of Haverfordwest County was adopted and the club embarked on a long stay in the top flight. Disaster struck in 1975–76 when the club won only four league matches and was relegated to the First Division. Promotion eluded them until 1980 and they went on to take the championship in their first season back, losing only five games.

In 1983 the Welsh League was reorganised to create a form of "premiership" for the leading clubs and Haverfordwest's facilities, administration and playing record secured their admittance. In the nine years of existence of this National Division, Haverfordwest were out of the top six only once, but their way to the title was blocked by the powerful Barry Town side. Their opportunity to take the championship came in 1990, once Barry had decided to move to English non-league football.

Haverfordwest County were founder members of the League of Wales in 1992–93 but their stay was brief. Having accepted an offer which involved the redevelopment of their Bridge Meadow ground, and unable to find a suitable alternative ground of League of Wales standard, they resigned from the League in 1994. The decision to take a long-term view was fully vindicated by their return to the League of Wales three years later. The league has since changed its name to the Welsh Premier League.

In 2004 Haverfordwest County qualified for Europe via league position in the League of Wales and played in the UEFA cup losing over two legs 4–1 to Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjardar of Iceland.

In the 2010–11 season Haverfordwest County were involuntarily relegated from the Welsh Premier League for the first time. On May 5, 2015, they were promoted back to the Welsh Premier League following an unlikely 5–0 victory against Aberdare Town[2]

Honours

Biggest victories and losses

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
Wales Craig Morris
Wales Sam Roden
Wales Antonio Facciuto
Wales Ricky Watts
Wales Dale Griffiths
Wales Chris O'Sullivan
Wales Jack Britton
Wales Sean Pemberton
Wales Greg Walters
No. Position Player
Wales Declan Carroll
Wales Nicky Palmer
Wales Jordan Follows
Wales Laurie Haworth
Wales Dan Evans
Wales Sam Wilson
Wales Spencer Williams
Wales Luke Borrelli
Wales Steffan Davies

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.