Bangor City F.C.

Bangor City
Full name	Bangor City Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Citizens
Founded	1876 (as Bangor F.C.)
Ground	Farrar Road; Bangor; Gwynedd; (Capacity: 1,500 (700 seated))
Chairman	Dilwyn Jones
Manager	Neville Powell
League	Welsh Premier League
2008–09	Welsh Premier League, 6th
Home colours	Away colours

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This article is about the football club in Wales. For club in Northern Ireland, see Bangor F.C..

Bangor City F.C. is a football team, playing in the Welsh Premier League.

The club was founded in 1876 as Bangor, and took its present name in 1923, and plays at the Farrar Road Stadium, Bangor, where their ground accommodates 1,500 spectators (700 seated).^[1]

The teams' first choice strip is Royal blue shirts, Royal blue shorts and Royal blue socks. The second choice strip is Light yellow shirts, shorts and socks, all with a Royal blue trim.

[edit] History

Bangor City F.C. is one of Wales' older football clubs, and has an illustrious history of competition in Europe. They were founder members of the North Wales Coast League in 1893, the Welsh National League in 1921, the North Wales Combination in 1930, the Welsh League (North) in 1935, the Northern Premier League in 1968, the Alliance Premier League (now Football Conference) in 1979, and in 1992 the League of Wales.

In the 1961/62 season, Bangor City won the Welsh Cup, and consequently were entered in the European Cup Winners' Cup for the first time. In the first round, Bangor were drawn against the Italian Cup winners, Napoli, at the time one of Europe's greatest football teams. A thrashing was confidently expected. In the first leg, played at Farrar Road, unexpectedly Bangor won 2-0; three weeks later, in front of a crowd of 80,000 in Naples, the result was 3-1 in Napoli's favour. Under modern rules, Bangor would have progressed under the "away goals" rule, but at the time the tie was drawn 3-3 and a playoff had to be played, at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium, in London (this was the first ECWC tie played at Highbury), and this time AS Napoli won 2-1, scoring the winner seven minutes from the end of the match, to put an end to Bangor's dreams for the moment.

In 1979/80 they would co-found the Alliance Premier League, which would become the English game's de facto fifth division.

On 12 May, 1984 Bangor became the first Welsh club to play at Wembley since Cardiff in 1927, when they reached the FA Trophy final against Northwich Victoria. The match finished 1-1, with local boy Paul Whelan scoring for Bangor. The replay was played in Stoke's Victoria Ground, and despite a goal from another Bangor lad (Phil Lunn), Bangor lost 2-1 in the last minute.

In 1985 Bangor City were back in the ECWC, in the first round drawn against the Norwegian cup winners, Fredrikstad. The first leg in Norway was a 1-1 draw, while the return leg in Bangor was a 0-0 draw, resulting in Bangor progressing to the second round, where they were drawn against the mighty Spanish side Atlético Madrid. Atlético were expected to win easily, but in the event the first leg in Bangor was only won 2-0; in the return leg in Madrid, Bangor won much admiration with a dogged defence which only allowed Atlético one more goal, and Bangor saved an Atlético penalty kick.

In 1994 as League of Wales Champions, Bangor City entered the UEFA Cup. They were drawn against the Icelandic champions, IA Akranes, and were seriously hampered by UEFA's ruling that a team could only contain three foreigners - many of Bangor's team were English, and despite some creative genealogy it was not possible to field a full-strength Welsh side. Akranes won the leg in Bangor by 2-1 (the match was played in the close season when Bangor hadn't played a competitive match in three months), while Bangor lost the match in Iceland by 2-0.

In 1995 Bangor City retained the League of Wales championship, and this time drew the Polish champions Widzew Łódź in the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup. Lodz were an extremely powerful side, having beaten Liverpool, Juventus and Manchester United in earlier campaigns, and quite simply outclassed Bangor City, winning 4-0 in Bangor and 1-0 in Lodz.

In 1998 Bangor were back in the Cup Winners' Cup, and were drawn against the Finnish side FC Haka. Unfortunately between winning the Welsh Cup and playing Haka, the manager and most of the team had left, so new manager John Hulse had the impossible task of putting together a completely new side, a week before the start of the Welsh football season (and three-quarters of the way through the Finnish football season). Unsurprisingly Bangor were well beaten, 2-0 at home, and 1-0 in Finland.

In 2005, the club was also duped into thinking they had signed the next Italian football legend, Alessandro Zarelli, who turned out to be a conman.^[2]^[3]

In 2006 the club made it to the Welsh Cup final where they were beaten by nearby rivals and cup favourites Rhyl FC 2-0 at Wrexham's Racecourse ground. The game having turned on a controversial handball decision 3 minutes after the break when Paul O'Neill was adjudged to have handled the ball, the resulting spot kick gave Rhyl a decisive lead and a second goal added 12 minutes from the end broke Bangor hearts on the day.

The club managed to win back the Welsh Cup in 2008 by defying the odds and defeating league high fliers Llanelli 4-2 after extra time at Latham Park, Newtown. However, the game was marred by ugly scenes and stopped for 10 minutes following a pitch invasion by celebrating Bangor fans with Llanelli goalkeeper Duncan Roberts shoved to the ground.

The cup win meant that Bangor had yet again qualified for Europe and in the following seasons UEFA Cup they were drawn to face FC Midtjylland of Denmark. The first leg held at the Racecourse ground, Wrexham saw Bangor beaten heavily by the Danish side, losing 6-1 in the home leg, and 4-0 in the away leg.

Despite this early setback Bangor ended the 2008-09 season with yet more silverware as they retained the Welsh Cup by defeating Aberystwyth Town 2-0 in a match held at Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli. The result maintained manager Neville Powells 100% record in the Welsh Cup competition since joining the Farrar Road club at the start of the 2007-08 season. En route to the final Bangor City managed to overcome traditional rivals Rhyl FC on penalties in the Fourth round. The Cup success now means that Bangor will participate in the inaugural Europa League competition entering at the 2nd qualifying round phase.

[edit] Home

Bangor City have played at Farrar Road since 1920, and the 2008/09 season will be their last at that ground. A new stadium at Nantporth on the outskirts of the City is in the process of being built. It will initially have 800 seats.

[edit] Honours

League of Wales Champions (2): 1993-94, 1994-95

Welsh Cup Winners (7): 1888-89, 1895-96, 1961-62, 1997-98, 1999-2000, 2007-2008, 2008-09

League of Wales Cup runners-up: 1993-94, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1999-00, 2002-03, 2008-09

FA Trophy runner-up: 1983-1984

Northern Premier League Champions: 1981-82

Northern Premier League Cup Winners: 1968-69

North Wales Coast League champions: 1895-96, 1899-1900, 1903-04, 1904-05, 1905-06, 1907-08, 1918-19

N.Wales Coast Challenge Cup winners: 1926-27, 1935-36, 1936-37, 1937-38, 1946-47, 1951-52, 1957-58, 1964-65, 1967-68, 1992-93, 1998-99, 2004-05

European Cup Winners’ Cup entrants: 1962-63, 1985-86, 1998-99

UEFA Cup entrants: 1994-95, 1995-96, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2008-09

Europa League entrants: 2009-10

Intertoto Cup entrants: 2003, 2005

[edit] European record

UEFA Europa League:

Season	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2009-10	Second Qualifying Round		FC Honka	?-?	?-?	?-?

UEFA Cup Winner's Cup:

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1962-63	First Round	Napoli	2-0	1-3	3-3 (Napoli won playoff game 2-1 @ Highbury, London)
1985-86	First Round	Fredrikstad	0-0	1-1	1-1 (a)
	Second Round	Atlético Madrid	0-2	0-1	0-3
1998-99	Qualifying Round	FC Haka	0-2	0-1	0-3

UEFA Cup:

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1994-95	Preliminary Round	ÍA Akranes	1-2	0-2	1-4
1995-96	Preliminary Round	Widzew Łódź	0-4	0-1	0-5
2000-01	Qualifying Round	Halmstads BK	0-7	0-4	0-11
2002-03	Qualifying Round	Smederevo	1-0	0-2	1-2
2008-09	Qualifying Round	FC Midtjylland	1-6	0-4	1-10

UEFA Intertoto Cup:

Season	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2003	First Round		Gloria Bistriţa	0-1	2-5	2-6
2005	First Round		Dinaburg FC	1-2	0-2	1-4

[edit] Biggest victories and losses

Biggest win: Not recorded
Biggest defeat: 0-12 v. Everton Reserves in the 1930s.
Biggest League of Wales win: 9-0 v. Haverfordwest County in 1994.
Biggest League of Wales defeat: 0-6 v. Holywell Town in 1992; 0-6 v. Cwmbran Town in 2000

[edit] Current squad

(Correct as of 7th March 2009)

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Paul Smith
		DF	Martin Beattie
		DF	Jamie Brewerton
		DF	Dave Morley
		DF	Peter Hoy
		DF	Michael Johnston
		DF	David Swanick
		DF	Clive Williams
		MF	Sion Edwards
		MF	Kieran Killackey