Aberystwyth Town F.C.

Although Aberystwyth Town FC was formed in 1884, the club probably existed in the 1870s in an earlier incarnation – the re-establishment of a "town" club is recorded in 1876.[2] The club was founded by Arthur Hughes, son of a local solicitor, and his brothers Jack and Hugh. Although football had been played in the town since at least the early 1870s, it was in October 1884 that Arthur Hughes placed an advertisement in the local press:[3][4]

Aberystwyth Football Club
Gentlemen wishing to join the above club are requested to attend a meeting to be held at the Belle Vue Hotel on Saturday, the 4th inst., at 4pm. Members' subscriptions to be paid in advance, 2s. 6d.[5]

It is possible the 1884 incarnation may have become inactive at some point as evidence exists of Aberystwyth Association Football Club forming in September 1892.

Football Club Banquet
Success to the Aberystwyth Association Football Club. He observed that the Club was started last year. One afternoon at the end of the summer when cricket was pretty well over, he saw three good looking but miserable individuals on the Terrace — Mr Di Morgan, better known as Llanybyther, Mr Boycott, and another Adonis —Mr Ellis. (Laughter.) They looked as miserable a trio as any trio he had seen for a long time. He went up to them and said, Why on earth don't you start a football club and get something to do." The idea was at once taken up, a meeting was held that evening. and ultimately on the 23rd September a meeting was called at the Town Hall which was attended by seventy or eighty persona, at which meeting no fewer than forty members were enrolled. (Applause.) That was the origin of the Club.[6]

The club's early days were limited to friendly matches, as the club did not join a league until 1896. It joined the Welsh League for a year, before reverting to playing friendlies again.[7] In 1900 Town beat Druids 3–0 in the Welsh Cup final and became the first team from mid-Wales to take the trophy.

The club joined the Welsh League (South) in 1951, although they also continued to field a team in the Mid-Wales League, and for a while in the Cambrian Coast League. Aberystwyth returned to the Mid-Wales competition in 1963 but did not win the league championship until 1984, after having been runners-up six times. They retained the title the following season, both under team boss Meirion Appleton.

In 1987 they returned to the Welsh League (South). They were three times runners-up before they became founder members of the League of Wales in 1992. Aberystwyth achieved third in the first season. Aberystwyth Town are one of only three teams that have taken part in each season of the Cymru Premier; the others are Bangor City and Newtown. Manager Meirion Appleton was replaced by Barry Powell after a 5–0 home defeat to Caersws. In 1998/9 they qualified to represent Wales in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

Aberystwyth lost 3–4 over two legs against Floriana of Malta. The success of European qualification brought many changes to Park Avenue. There were a new BBC studio and TV gantry, followed by the new Dias stand which brought the number of seats in the two stands up to nearly 600. The Dias stand was named after David "Dias" Williams, who holds the club scoring record of 476 goals in only 433 games between 1966 and 1983.

The club did not qualify for European football again, but they gained entry to the FAW Premier Cup competition for the third year running. They reached the quarter-finals twice. Barry Powell left the club by mutual consent.

Powell was replaced at the beginning of the 2001–02 season by Frank Gregan. Gregan was unanimously voted in as new manager before the start of the season. He was responsible for bringing in several players with extensive experience in the English pyramid. Town lost in the Welsh Cup to Aberaman Athletic in October 2001. This was combined with a poor away record and an exit from the later stages of the FAW Premier Cup at the hands of Caersws.

Gary Finley took over as player/manager immediately after Gregan departed for Weston-super-Mare. There was an instant improvement in form and minimal additions to the squad despite most of Gregan's signings departing. The club missed out on the FAW Premier Cup, ending up in ninth place in the league.

Finley took the club to fourth in 2003–04 and the club again qualified for the UEFA InterToto Cup, but following a policy decision to base the team on more local players, Finley departed and David Burrows took over as player/manager. The change of strategy produced a worsening of results in 2004/05, but the club's management decided to stick with the Ceredigion player policy despite seeing Park Avenue attendances slump by nearly 40%.

The club received a further setback in December 2004 when a serious fire destroyed much of the social club's facilities, ruling out the ground for the staging of cup finals until the new John Charles lounge was opened in 2005 by his widow, Glenda.

After several undistinguished seasons, the Seasiders reached the final of the Welsh Cup in 2009 under manager Brian Coyne, only to be beaten 2–0 by Bangor City F.C. Coyne stepped down early the following season with Alan Morgan appointed as the new boss, and the club finished fourth in the 2009–10 season, missing out on qualification for Europe.

Then in the first season of the Cymru Premier Super 12, Aberystwyth, although in the top six for most of the first half of the season, were in the bottom half of the table at the mid season split, being beaten to the top half again by Port Talbot. The club finished in seventh place, before beating Airbus in the UEFA Europa League playoff quarter final, and eventually losing out to Neath F.C. in the semi-final.

In the 2011–12 season Aberystwyth Town found itself in the bottom six again, and in a relegation battle. After a defeat to Cymru Alliance side Cefn Druids A.F.C. in the Welsh Cup, Alan Morgan stepped aside and Tomi Morgan returned as manager. Under Morgan the team finished in eighth place, and so qualified once again for the end of season Europa League playoffs. After beating Airbus U.K in the quarter finals, Aber faced Llanelli but lost in extra time.

The club created history for all the wrong reasons by losing 10–1 to The New Saints in their second home game of the 2019–20 season.

On the 2nd December 2022, Aberystwyth Town lost 11-0 to The New Saints, their largest ever defeat. –

• Biggest win: 21–1 v. Machynlleth in 1934.
• Biggest defeat: 1–20 v. Caersws in 1962.
• Biggest League of Wales win: 6–0 v. Briton Ferry Athletic and Llanidloes Town, both in 1993. Also by a margin of six, Afan Lido 0 Aberystwyth Town 6 on Tuesday 18 February 2014, Aberystwyth Town 7 Afan Lido 1 on Friday 28 March 2014 and Aberystwyth Town 7–1 Prestatyn on 16 December 2017.
• Biggest Cymru Premier defeat: 0–11 v. The New Saints on 2 December 2022.

As of 23 July 2023

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ENG Dave Jones 2 DF  WAL Liam Walsh 3 DF  ENG Ben Woollam (on loan from TNS) 4 DF  ENG Louis Bradford 5 DF  WAL Harry Owen (on loan from Connah's Quay) 6 MF  ENG Jack Thorn (captain) 7 MF  ENG Calum Huxley 8 MF  WAL Iwan Lewis 9 FW  WAL Mark Cadwallader 10 FW  WAL John Owen 14 FW  WAL Steffan Davies

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 DF  WAL Rhys Jenkins 16 FW  WAL Tom Mason 17 FW  ENG Luca Hogan (on loan from Connah's Quay) 18 MF  WAL Owen Taylor 19 DF  WAL Isaac Pridmore 21 GK  WAL Dave Owen 28 FW  WAL Alex Darlington 34 DF  ENG Billy Kirkman (on loan from TNS) 41 GK  ENG Sam Green 46 DF  ENG Akeem Hinds 47 MF  WAL Beau Cornish

As of 1 September 2022

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  WAL Talfan Hyett — GK  WAL Iestyn Greaves — DF  WAL John James — DF  WAL Isaac Pridmore — DF  WAL Rhys Jenkins — DF  WAL Rhys Lovell — DF  WAL Jesse Hopkins — MF  WAL Kenneth Dzah — MF  WAL Owen Wilton

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  WAL Luke Bowen — MF  WAL Stanley Thomas — MF  ENG Eddie Grantham — MF  WAL Mat Thomas — FW  WAL Caleb Rees — FW  GAM Ismaila Camara — FW  WAL Cameron Allen — FW  ENG Archie Bales

• Angus McLean (Player/Manager) (1951–??)
• Ron Cullum 1974-1977
• Ron Jones 1977-1979
• Brian Morris 1979-1980
• Chris Brown 1980-1981
• Meirion Appleton (1981-1992)
• Tomi Morgan (1992 – September 1994)
• Meirion Appleton (September 1994 – February 1999)
• Barry Powell (March 1999 – May 2001)
• Frank Gregan (June 2001 – November 2001)
• Gary Finley (November 2001 – August 2004)
• David Burrows (August 2004– November 2005)
• Brian Coyne[8] (November 2005 – September 2009)
• Christian Edwards (interim)[9] (September 2009 – November 2009)
• Alan Morgan[10] (November 2009 – February 2012)
• Tomi Morgan[11] (29 February 2012 – 9 May 2013)
• Ian Hughes[12] (21 May 2013 – 19 April 2016)
• Wyn Thomas (interim)[13] (14 January 2016 – 19 April 2016)
• Matthew Bishop[14] (24 May 2016 – 21 May 2017)
• Tony Pennock[15] (21 May 2017 – 15 June 2017)
• Neville Powell (12 July 2017 – 28 March 2018)
• Seamus Heath (28 March 2018 – 9 August 2018)
• Neville Powell (3 October 2018 – 27 January 2019)
• Gavin Allen (interim) (27 January 2019 – 24 March 2019)
• Matthew Bishop (24 March 2019 – 15 June 2020)
• Gavin Allen (15 June 2020 – 24 May 2021)
• Antonio Corbisiero (2 June 2021 – 12 May 2022)
• Anthony Williams (28 May 2022 – present)