Bangor
City FC is a football team, playing in the League of Wales.
The club was founded in 1876 as Bangor FC, and took its present name in
1923, and plays at the Farrar Road Stadium, Bangor, where their ground
accommodates 2200 spectators (800 seated).
The teams' first choice strip is red shirts, shorts, and socks.
The second choice strip is blue shirts, shorts, and socks.
History
Bangor City FC 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 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, AS 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 AS 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 FC'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 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 Atletico Madrid. Atletico 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
Atletico one more goal, and Bangor saved an Atletico 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 (fielding
three Yugoslav players!) 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 Lodz in the preliminary round of the UEFA
Cup. Lodz were an extremely powerful side, having beaten Liverpool FC,
Juventus and Manchester United FC in earlier campaigns, and quite simply
outclassed Bangor City, winning 4-0 in Bangor and 1-0 in Lodz. On a lighter
note, scores of Lodz and Bangor supporters joined each other after the match
and proceeded to drink dry every pub in Bangor High Street!
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, one of Bangor's periodic bouts of boardroom shenanigans had
led to the departure of the manager and most of the team, 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.
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. |
