Llanelli Town A.F.C.
Llanelli Town Association Football Club are a semi-professional Welsh football club that plays in the.
The original club was wound up on 22 April 2013 at the High Court in London following a petition presented by HM Revenue and Customs. They were reformed later that year as Llanelli Town AFC and played in the Welsh Premier League. The club finished 12th in the 2018–19 Welsh Premier League season, and were relegated after failing to gain a Tier 1 Licence. They played in the Cymru South for the 2019–20 season.
Background
The team is based at Stebonheath Park from 1922, having previously played at the Halfway Park athletics ground.Formed in 1896, the club's first honour was the Welsh League division one title in 1913–14 with further wins coming in 1929–30 and 1932–33. Llanelli made several attempts to join The Football League, in 1922, 1923, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1950 and 1951. Despite making an effort to turn professional, the club was not elected. The closest they came was in 1933, where the club received 20 votes compared to 26 for Newport County and 45 for Swindon Town who were re-elected to the Football League Third Division South. Llanelli was a founding member of the Welsh Premier League in 1992, but after only four seasons suffered relegation. Promotion back to the top division was achieved in 1998–99, but 2002–03 saw the team demoted only to return to the top-flight for the 2004–05 season. In 2005 a wealthy business man and his consortium, The Jesco group bought the club. Since then, the club's fortunes have transformed remarkably on the pitch. They have played in Europe for 7 consecutive seasons, they won the Welsh premier league and Loosemores challenge cup in 2008 and won the Welsh Cup in 2011.
2012–13 was difficult financially with three petitions to wind the club up presented by HM Revenue and Customs.
The club was wound up on 22 April 2013 at the High Court in London following a petition presented by HM Revenue and Customs. The formation of a 'phoenix club' of Llanelli Town AFC meant the town of Llanelli was still represented in Welsh football. The new team started in the Welsh Third Division for the 2013–14 season. In 2014-15 they were crowned Third Division champions and as such gained promotion to the Welsh Second Division. In April 2018 the club was crowned champions of the Second Division. After an appeal to the Football Association of Wales against a decision not the grant the club a Tier 1 licence, the club returned to the Welsh Premier League for the 2018–19 season.
History
The game of Association Football was introduced to the townspeople of Llanelli when workers from Staffordshire migrated to the town to work in the 'newest' of the town industries – the Pottery works from 1892 to 1920. Finding the game of rugby Football Union alien to their natural habitat whilst domiciled in the town, workers founded a team to play friendlies versus other teams from the various pottery works industry which had been set up in Swansea and Neath. However, by 1896 interest had waned due in the main to those initial workers returning to their homesteads having successfully instructed their local co-workers into the intricacies of the pottery world. The first playing area had been at 'Cae Blake' in the Furnace area of the town, but when the new Peoples Park in the middle of the town was opened as a recreation area for the town's populace the team had transferred to this new ground. By 1904 with more and more clubs being formed in the south of the principality ardent soccer aficionados decided to resurrect the club under the astute managership of Bert Andrews, a man from Ironbridge, Shropshire, who had remained in the town working in an administrative post at the Llanelli Pottery. The club entered into the Swansea and District League and played their home matches firstly at Tunnel Road and thence to Penyfan Fields.The Pre-War Era
In season 1911–12 after seven years of consolidation Llanelli AFC became League champions and were also losing finalists in the League Cup. This was the spur that was needed to progress even further and led by another immigrant to the town, W T Morris who hailed from Llanidloes and was a leading entrepreneur in the commercial world of Llanelli, the club decided to become fully professional and applied for membership in both the Southern League and the Welsh League. A further move was necessary to entertain the professional game and Halfway Park some two miles from the town centre was chosen as the new venue. This former cycle stadium was the ideal velodrome for Association Football boasting a grand stand and natural banking, and this was the catalyst, which both league structures sought when sanctioning the club's inclusion in the two participating Leagues. Their first season 1912–13 was an immediate success finishing in 6th position of the Southern League and joint 3rd with Swansea Town in the Welsh League. They were also invited to participate in the FA Cup for the first time, reaching the 3rd Qualifying Round before being beaten by Cardiff City at home. The following season they entered also into the Welsh Senior Cup competition and reached the final at the first time of asking, before losing to Wrexham, the eventual winners in the replay at Oswestry after a 0–0 draw at Pontypridd. It was also during this season that the club achieved its best win to date beating Treharris 17–0 at home in a League game.The Interwar Period
In the 1919–20 season the reformed club's formats of pre-war years when the 1st team squad contested in both leagues and the team's reserve side participated in the Swansea Senior League. By 1922 it was obvious that to further their ambitions of achieving Football League status a new stadium near the town centre would have to be sought. A piece of ground in the Stebonheath area of the town was purchased and plans were afoot to move the club lock stock and barrel from Halfway. This was achieved just in time for the 1922–23 season, when Bridgend Town were the first visitors. Later on in the season to mark the period of the club's history although proving successful was fraught with financial problems, and at the end of this official opening of the ground the FA Cup holders of the previous season Tottenham Hotspur were invited to participate and were given a rude awakening when the Reds defeated them on the day by 2–1. Later on Burnley and Charlton Athletic were invited to participate in this inaugural season at Stebonheath Park running out winners. At the end of the season which had been a merited success from a playing point of view the club made its first application with Pontypridd Town for inclusion in Football League, Third Division, but just failed in their bids when both the member clubs up for re-election, Southend United and Exeter City were both re-elected. For the next three years. Llanelli AFC built up a reputation as one of the leading non-league clubs in the country and in 1925 became the only club to contest every round in the FA Cup from Preliminary to Qualifying and on to the equivalent Third round of today, when they met Fulham at Craven Cottage before losing by the odd goal in a highly emotional game. This period of the club's history although proving successful was fraught with financial problems, and at the end of this emotional season the club terribly in debt and failing to meet their obligations to their players and the two respective management committees of both leagues were forced to resign and the club went into voluntary suspended animation.By 1928 after three years in the wilderness football enthusiasts in the town including the groundsman/caretaker of Stebonheath Park Jack Goldsborough who had joined the club in 1922 as a player/trainer resolved the resurrect the club once more and fate decreed that they were able to succeed when they took over the fixtures of Aberdare Athletic in the Welsh League, another club by this time who were in dire straits and themselves had had to resign from the Welsh League for the same reason as Llanelli. Their first season was naturally one of consolidation but at the season's end once more they made overtures to the Southern League hierarchy and gained a place for the following season in this prestigious league. For the next five seasons the club were once again on a high, winning trophies once more and just failing on three other occasions in cementing a place in the Football League playing excellent football to the joy of their supporters and it was a golden era for the club, but the bubble was to burst once more. Falling attendances, high outlay of cash on imported players and escalating costs all played their part and first their withdrawal from the Southern League was implemented for the 1934–35 season with the club plying their trade only in the Welsh League 1st Division, where they remained until the outbreak of World War II suffering many defeats including their record defeat of 0–12 at Rexville home of now defunct Lovells Athletic on Boxing Day 1934.