Merthyr: New Balance — Terrace Edition

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Dave Harry

Merthyr Town is a football club in Wales and by logic should play in a Welsh league.

But football has never been a logical sport.

So they don’t.

The ball is round and spins, just like our social history rotates around us.

They’ve got long memories at Merthyr, they still sing “free potatoes for the workers” on the terraces at Penydarren Park, about a popular rising that happened in the town back in 1831.

©Dave Harry/ Terrace Edition. Merthyr Town vs Plymouth Parkway.

So the football club’s record in the English leagues, since forming in 1909 is recent history and counts for more than you’d think.

The approach by the Football Association of Wales for Merthyr Town to leave the majority English Southern League Premier Division South and join the Cymru Premier (Welsh Premier League) was rejected to the tune of 96% by the member-owners last month.

A six-million pound package from the Welsh FA wasn’t met as a lottery win, more a gift that was never really asked for and that the recipients don’t really know what to do with.

Merthyr Town FC sit top of the Southern League Premier Division above recognisable English non-league names such as Swindon Supermarine, Havant and Waterlooville and Gloucester City.

It was hardly the ideal time for the Welsh FA approach, with Merthyr Town supporters daring to dream of adventures ahead in the National League North or South, if promotion is achieved this season.

Merthyr were once part of the ‘irate 8” who resisted joining what was then known as the League of Wales, when it was formed in 1992.

Merthyr; Bangor City, Barry Town, Caenarfon Town, Colwyn Bay, Newport County, Newtown AFC and Rhyl all put up varying degrees of opposition to being sucked into the new Welsh set-up that started in the same year as the English Premier League.

Bangor City, Newtown AFC and Rhyl did finally agree to play in the League of Wales but Caenarfon Town, Colwyn Bay, Barry Town and Merthyr refused. As a result, four of the clubs went to play in exile in England.

Caenarfon Town played played for two years at Curzon Ashton, some 110 miles away near Manchester. Colwyn Bay went to Northwich and Ellesmere Port, while Barry Town officials reformed the club as Barri AFC and played in Worcester to retain their English league membership.

Newport County proudly call themselves “The Exiles” to this day, after having to play at the aforementioned Gloucester in England.

In 1994, Caenarfon Town, Colwyn Bay and Newport County AFC took legal action against the Football Association of Wales for restraint of trade, which was ultimately successful. It was too late for Newport County’s historic Somerton Park ground however, which had been torn down and replaced with housing.

Perhaps due to their relatively high status in the GM Vauxhall Conference at the time, the club that went by the name Merthyr Tydfil FC escaped exile in England. Supporters seem less irate about the recent Football Association of Wales proposals and more perplexed at the timing but they haven’t forgotten the early 90’s wrangling.

The fact that Merthyr Town is itself a phoenix club, formed in 2010 after the previous version, Merthyr Tydfil were liquidated following a financial crisis, shows that the Martyrs know that the English leagues are no crystal stair.

As a fan-owned club, Merthyr Town deal with themes of identity on a daily basis and the supporters are appearing to take a wider view on how they want to play their football, than obvious themes of nationality.

Merthyr lost four players in World War I; William Kirby, Jabez Cartwright, Frank Costello and Stanley Reed, which adds different layers of identity to the club. Footballing talent like Syd Haworth returned form the terrible theatres of World War 2 to rebuild and propel the Martyrs to two Southern League titles in 1947-48 and 1953-54.

©Dave Harry/ Terrace Edition. Dial M for Merthyr.

History like that is hard to give up on.

Then you have the strong Merthyr terrace culture which is a thing of its own. Grudges and rivalries and friendships built over decades crossing the border and taking the game to the English.

Merthyr Town supporter and terrace photographer Andy Evans points to the “working-class traditionalist” element of the Merthyr fanbase who enjoy “a pint on the terraces and a Saturday 3pm kick-off”, rituals which wouldn’t be guaranteed if joining the Welsh setup.

Current regular gates of over 1000 at Penydarren wouldn’t be a given if exiting the Southern League for Wales and the temptation of European football via the Cymru Premier isn’t enough to trade matches with AFC Totton for TNS.

It’s a polite thanks but no thanks from these proponents of “international Merthyrism” who probably just prefer to do their own thing.