Farrar Road – One month ago

Farrar Road – Today

I haven’t got the correct words to describe this. Let’s just say it’s symptomatic of contemporary British society.

“THE New Saints have made their final Welsh Premier League game of the season, at home to Bangor City, an all-ticket affair.

With City and TNS currently separated by just a point at the top of the table, there is every likelihood that the game – on Saturday April 21 – could be a repeat of last season’s title showdown at Farrar Road.

TNS have fixed the admission price for the game at £13, but a special early-bird ticket offer has been made available which offers away supporters a £2 discount on the admission price for Bangor’s last visit to Park Hall and a £7 reduction on the ticket for the season’s final game.

“There was some confusion over admission prices for away fans when we last hosted Bangor,” says TNS owner Mike Harris, “so we are please to offer them a discount this time around.”

Tickets can be ordered online from www.saints-alive.co.uk/shop or by postal application (details below) but must be purchased before February 4.

Cheques payable to TNS FC should be sent with a stamped addressed envelope to:
The New Saints FC
The Venue
Burma Road
Park Hall
Oswestry
SY11 4AS”

Look at this part again;

“TNS have fixed the admission price for the game at £13, but a special early-bird ticket offer has been made available which offers away supporters a £2 discount on the admission price for Bangor’s last visit to Park Hall and a £7 reduction on the ticket for the season’s final game.”

I read the first sentence and something inside my head fell on its side. For the last game of the season it will cost £13 to watch a Welsh Premier League match. Penfold of the WPL actually thinks that he can charge £13 to watch a Welsh Premier League match. THIRTEEN POUNDS, THIRTEEN FUCKING POUNDS. That’s three more pounds than a tenner, I could buy a couple of good world cinema DVDs for that!! I could pay for two people to go to see two films on Orange Wednesdays with that amount of money!!! I checked the figure, I checked the paragraphs four times in fact,  I hadn’t misread it and neither have you;  it still said £13.  They only charge five pounds usually but they want to charge thirteen fucking pounds for the visit of Bangor City.

I re-read the whole paragraph after the initial shock subsided. It was a totally confusing paragraph, the numbers threw me. Where did the £2 discount figure? How did the £7 discount come in to it? It wasn’t until  I clicked on the link to their shop and that the tickets cost £6 if you buy them early. You’d think that someone would proof-read stuff that appears on official club websites.

I think Penfold of the WPL works for DFS – He must like initials or something!!!.

- His tickets are actually worth £5.

- Before the last match he tried to tell us they were worth £8.

- Now he’s trying to tell us they’re worth £13.

- DON’T WORRY ABOUT THIS!!! If we buy early we can have a massive saving of £7!!! Yes, we’re getting something that’s worth £13 for £6!!!

The whole thing is a shoddy piece of marketing. On the most basic level it sounds fantastic. It sounds like the bighearted communications magnate is making a fantastic gesture. It appears that we’re getting something that’s worth £13 for £6. Just listen to the philanthropic heartthrob;

“There was some confusion over admission prices for away fans when we last hosted Bangor,” says TNS owner Mike Harris, “so we are please to offer them a discount this time around.”

I hate to go over old ground here but if they was any confusion last November it arose because TNS decided to charge Bangor City fans nearly twice as much as the home fans without any notice whatsoever, but let’s not allow the truth get in the way of another grasp for extra publicity. As I’ve already hinted, that’s another story anyway.

To return to the matter in hand, in reality we’re not getting something that’s worth £13 for £6, we’re getting something worth £5 for £6. Even with the discount he’s still making at least an extra £1 from each person that turns up.

Some people wonder why Penfold of the WPL  is disliked. If you say you don’t like him they call you bitter and jealous, they say you hold a grudge, they say you’re the irrational one around here. These people are idiots, do not trust them. Penfold of the WPL is not to be trusted. If people don’t want Penfold of the WPL to be criticised then these people should tell Penfold of the WPL to stop acting in this way.  To say ”Hey, that offer is presumptuous!!!!” doesn’t cover the  jaw-dropping gall from Penfold of the WPL , mind you jaw-dropping gall seems to be a default setting with him. Why does he assume that Bangor City and TNS will be the two clubs in first and second places on the last day? There was absolutely no need to make any sort of announcement about a match that’s 3 months away, let alone an announcement like this.

After standing in the middle of destruction it’s hard to get your head around the idea that only 2 and a half weeks ago over 2,500 people were standing on the Farrar Road terraces. I know time waits for no man but I can’t help but feel that certain people sent the diggers in with indecent haste.

We’ve been made to feel like stragglers at last orders, the heartless landlord sweeping behind us as he kicks us out of our favourite place before we want to go. That’s the trouble with Thatcherite society; the people with the power to make things happen know the cost of everything  and the value of nothing.

Here’s what you call progress;

If I was actually a Blackburn fan I’d like to think that I’d be one of the enlightened Blackburn fans that follows football in general but this wouldn’t help me as it  would mean that I’d know that “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams” was working his magic down at West Ham. Consequently, if I was actually an enlightened  Blackburn fan I’d be a very frustrated enlightened Blackburn fan.

I’d try to be hopeful but I know that I would constantly remember the good old days under “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”. I’d remember how those were the days when mid-table mediocrity was a safety blanket, the days when I could meet the gaze of my postman, butcher and stockbroker.  I’d remember the time when BIG SAM the alchemist provided took the base ingredients of  two banks of four and long throw ins and produced a new golden era of mid-table mediocrity. Then I’d remember how the time of the great magician “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams” was cut short so horribly, then I’d be upset again.

If I were a frustrated enlightened Blackburn fan I’m sure that I would become so frustrated that I’d organise some kind of risible protest against something I couldn’t properly define. I’d even make a banner for it.

Fortunately I’m not the sort of enlightened Blackburn that protests for no discernible reason, I’m not a Blackburn fan at all actually. Like all right-thinking people  I detest Sam “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Big Sams” Allardyce. I remember his conceit;

“I’m not suited to Bolton or Blackburn, I would be more suited to Inter or Real Madrid,” Allardyce said. “It wouldn’t be a problem to me to go and manage those clubs because I would win the double or the league every time. Give me Manchester United or Chelsea and I would do the same, it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s not where I’m suited to, it’s just where I’ve been for most of the time.”  – I don’t care if the arsehole thinks he was being ironic.

I remember how he used the buzzwords of sports science to disguise agricultural football with the cloak of progressiveness. I remember how he treats football with contempt, how he fills his  interviews with  optimistic hopes of something good then asks his team to hoof it to the big man up.

Most of all I remember his moaning. “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”  is quite simply one of the biggest moaning bastards in football. In case you’ve forgotten this just type in “Sam Allardyce” and “referees” and see how many hits you get. After you’ve done this you will realise that the names “Sam Allardyce” and “BIG SAM” are naked without an extra word or two. Words like; “Claims”, “Blasts”, “Hits Out”, “Furious”, “Lashes Out”, “Accuses”, “Fumes over”…

Football has produced so many glorious and joyful moments yet I still think of  “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams” but that’s the power of “BIG SAM -the biggest of all Sams”, he looms over the landscape of British football like a morose monolith. Fortunately when I’m about to  think of the grumbling fucker I start shaking and if I catch the shaking early enough it’s usually ok. After taking medication my brain usually reboots and I shudder back to life.

Because of the effect that  “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”  has on my joie-de-vivre  I try to forget the morose monolith but the modern world doesn’t let me forget him. Last month West Ham decided to start sending personalised e-mails from the moaning get. Needless to say he spent most of the e-mails moaning, as if what he has to say matters. Have a look;

On the 12^thDecember “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”  told me that…

“Saturday’s defeat at Reading was a day where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong………………We are still second but at this stage, and where we want to go this season, you don’t want to lose two on the trot. We have lost five overall now and we have to put it right next weekend

We lost at Reading because we have lost our cool. We had two players sent-off and it made life hugely difficult for ourselves. After we lost Joey O’Brien, we didn’t even defend the free-kick properly and they were able to score a soft goal.

If we had coped with that, we would have reorganised, put in two banks for four and tried to make it as difficult as we could for Reading to score against ten men. We would have said ‘let’s see the game out and take nil-nil’.

With eleven v eleven we were attacking and we would have every chance of getting that fifth win away from home in a row.

It looked like Freddie Piquionne was pulled down in the box as he went through but it is more about the chances we have missed. Freddie had a free header on the far post, there was a great header from James Tomkins that Papa Bouba Diop didn’t convert.

If we had scored, Reading would have found it difficult, but we went down to ten men, gifted them the goal and made it easy for them.

Players have to keep their cool whatever is happening. They know that if a team beats us it is going to be like they have won their biggest game of the season. It is a loss of control that I haven’t seen in my time at the club.

We have lost two to suspension and with Guy Demel’s injury after two minutes, it means we are short on numbers for Barnsley next week. The challenge is to come back…..” (Boo Hoo, football’s rubbish)

On 20^th December there was “a fantastic win against Barnsley in front of a sold-out stadium on Saturday”  but……

”We had injuries and suspensions before we started and when we did start, Abdoulaye Faye pulled up in the warm-up meaning we had to give Daniel Potts his debut at the age of 17……………..The squad situation went from bad to worse to desperate but we still won the game and won well. We should have scored more than Papa Bouba Diop’s header but the major decisions did not go our way………………It was a great debut from Pottsy, really very good defensively and in possession…………It is great to see a man of such young potential, a local boy who has had a massive trauma in his life with overcoming leukaemia. All credit to him as a 17-year-old for withstanding the pressure in such an important game.…….There were a lot of massive contributions from a squad that is being stretched to its very limit and we still managed to come up with a victory.” (Boo Hoo, Football’s rubbish)

On 28^th December Sam told me he was “happy overall”  but ……

“..not with the last four games. We have only taken four points which is nonsense compared to what we have done and it tells you we have to go and win three or four on the trot now………………..We have got to put a run of wins together to get back in touch with Southampton and not let the gap get too big.………. ……I have been pretty critical to a patched-up team which has been patched up for a long time now. We have got a 17-year-old at left-back away from home for the first time while George McCartney was playing centre-half. …………… The loss of four players to suspension for Derby on New Year’s Eve is a massive blow.” (Boo Hoo, woe is me – Have you stopped and thought why the players were suspended?) 

On the 3^rd of January Big Sam was “optimistic for 2012” but …..

“it was a shame that we could not get more goals than the one we did.” ……….……. In an ideal world, I will bring in two new players this month – a forward and a defender – because we only have five subs and we have to rotate the squad. Two quality players would be great. Maybe we will go for a wide player as well……………….We have already started the process of bidding but without any success at the moment, either permanent or loan deals. The co-owners Mr Sullivan and Mr Gold have pressed the button on a lot of potential deals already……………………..I can’t be more pleased with the way they have supported me. More goals is what we are after but we haven’t managed to clinch one yet………………. I am optimistic for 2012. My hope is we can get the players in the squad fit and have a full squad to choose from. That would give me the opportunity to pick the best eleven for each game rather than just who is available…….. (Boo Hoo, woe is me)

On January 9th  “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams” wanted me to “look forward‏” with hope but……

“……..Where we are in our position is to look at the squad and say ‘Are we going to take enough chances with the squad that we’ve got?’…………………We’ve already made offers for six or seven players that have been unsuccessful, but we’ll carry on trying as hard and as efficiently as we can to ensure that we acquire a new player if that’s at all possible………………………. But I will only buy a player who I think can make us better.” (Boo hoo, the world’s against me!!)

You can see the problem with “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”’ ‘s take on football. He has a squad of 32 players to choose from, he’s a self-proclaimed managerial genius, he’s a wonderful tactician yet this is still not enough for success – see how he casually drop hints about needing extra players. The fact that he’s already got his excuses ready for a potential  lack of success highlights what a negative bastard he is. He reduces football to a series of grumbles. He’s the avatar of what’s wrong with football; the lack of calm acceptance.

In the Championship there are two automatic promotion places available and to any normal person if your club remain in one of those two places it will be good enough for promotion. This is not enough for “BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”. I hope he doesn’t transmit negative waves over to the players as they’ll never get promoted

I presume that West Ham are still bombarding people with e-mails to get people interested in West Ham. I’m not sure how succesful they’ll be if they’re going to subject people to a  litany of moans

“BIG SAM – the biggest of all Sams”   doesn’t seem to get much enjoyment out of football, why does he bother? I’ll send him an e-mail to ask him why.

Step 1

Pay 2 quid for a ready made new ground kit!

Step 2

Open the packet!

Step 3

Read Instructions and follow them to the letter!

Step 4

Watch the ground spring up!

Step 5

Marvel at the quick process!

Step 6

Admire what’s happened and wonder why more clubs don’t take this approach.

With a decade to prepare for this match I took the last few weeks in my stride. I didn’t feel as emotional as I thought I would be. I remembered that I’d be working in a new, damp-free, club shop on matchdays. I’d also have a longer walk to the new ground but that didn’t really matter did it?

Last night I gave Joel two tickets (for him and Rhian) for today’s match and the situation felt so normal. I’d grown so used to hearing the words “Farrar End” (I even helped to plan the events of the last day by helping to arrange the brass band) that the final day began to feel like just another important event organised by the supporters’ association. The words “Last Ever Day” had lost their significance, there was no poignancy. When I thought of the last day at Farrar Road there was scarcely a sad thought in my head, my mind was filled by stories, memories, jokes, goals and muddy boots instead. Rhian told me that she used to go with her dad and this added to my joy. I think the medical qualities of cider also helped my joie de vivre..

As I stood on the platform this morning I cursed my bag, it was heavy enough without the two packets of scarves that I’d stuffed inside them. Today was going to be a flag day, today we were going to give the old girl the send off she deserved. Then my hangover kicked in and  I worried that the rain would ruin my flags, why was everything so complicated? Why were flag days so bad for my back? My hangover and the potential of a sore shoulder occupied my mind on the train.

The fresh air was invigorating so I walked to Farrar Road without a care in the world; I knew I was early enough to set up the shop properly, I knew that I would cope with the expected massive crowd. I got the shop ready as normal and just knew that it was going to be busy (You get to know the little signs –  like loads of people walking around the ground when there are still two and half hours before kick off.) Mark gave me one of the 20 disposable cameras that would record the day (and  hopefully lead to  a fantastic collage)

Before the crowd arrived in earnest I decided to have a walk around the ground for the last time. I already knew that the roof had been removed from the Farrar End so I was expecting a big shock but when I saw the now roofless end I didn’t feel the shock I had been expecting. I decided to stand on the shelf at the back of the Farrar End for old times’ sake.

It was only when I was on the shelf that the significance of the day finally dawned on me. Today would be the last ever day that I would be standing here to watch a football match. After today these terraces would be silenced forever, it was quite an eerie sensation. I gazed at the historic ground, I tried to drink it all in for one last time. I drifted away on reverie. Oh what tales the walls of Farrar Road could tell us!!!

Without a crowd I was able to clearly gaze at the St. Paul’s End mural for one last time, I was about to drift away again when I noticed something untoward. Caernarfon fans had decided to deface Nige P’s hard work with crude Neolithic daubings, I noticed that they had tried to do the same on the pitch. You have to laugh at their pettiness really, thinking that their primitive cave drawings would have any effect upon today’s events!!!

Thanks to the very, very brisk trade I missed most of the planned events. I only caught glimpses of Chris’ brass band, the Samba parade and the parade of ex-players. While  I managed to gain a distinct sense that the atmosphere was building I forgot to add my flags to the flag day.

I made it out of the shop for kick off., then I had to go back in for the disposable camera for the BCFCSA art project. Unexpectedly Prestatyn’s players made a guard of honour for the Bangor lads. My God, how I’d misjudged Gibson!!! What a gesture. The Prestatyn fans were in the Santa spirit too.

While Farrar Road is certainly historical it also has crap sightlines when it’s busy. I couldn’t see the pitch from my place near Joel so I decided to move around to the side to take some pictures. This turned out to be an inspired substitution of position as I was able to see Les open the scoring.

I returned to my original spot near Joel to find that I still had a crappy view. Luckily Dylan Reggae was standing near by and we both agreed that the lack of a good view didn’t matter today as today was more than about one silly match. It was about having a laugh, reminiscing and celebrating an occasion in the company of good people. As if to underline this point with a red pen I saw Harry and Darren from Llandudno. The whole world was there!! Just after I saw those two fine gentlemen Sion scored Bangor’s second.

Unfortunately Gibson managed to score a rather good goal by dribbling the ball through our defence, which unfortunately this led to a bit of silliness behind the St. Paul’s goal as the santas went a bit mad. The scoreline remained 2-1 until half time.

Thanks to the vast crowds I was busy all half-time but this wasn’t a day to worry about missing anything. Besides I didn’t miss Dave Morley’s thunderbolt of a strike. This was truly a magical way to turn things back in our favour, it was a truly apt goal for such a historic day. We scored again as I made my way around the ground to take my normal place in  the St. Paul’s end. We were playing some truly great football today. Then Prestatyn scored again.

The score was now 4-2. Would Prestatyn and Gibson succeed in spoiling the party just like their message board idiots claimed they would? Thankfully this didn’t look likely when Dave Morley scored his second goal. Then it looked more likely when Prestatyn made the score 5-3. They couldn’t actually spoil the party could they? They didn’t spoil anything in the end.

It was such a fantastic game for a last game. I was worried about the opposite happening before today as emotion can weigh heavily on occasions like this. Fortunately today was a real celebration. I made my own sedate pitch invasion to join in with the festivities.

For the rest of my time in Farrar Road I stood against the Farrar End wall thinking, silently thinking, about what I’d seen today and what it all meant. I was going to miss this place.

Here’s a bit more of a flavour of today

“Oh the Caernarfon and Rhyl are tragic……

 

                                       …….but Bangor City are magic!!!!!!

 

We’re losing our spiritual home…..

 

                 ……..FARRAR ROAD, FARRAR ROAD, FARRAR ROAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

As with all the best songs our creation wrote itself in about 5 minutes. Now we had a lament for our impending loss……

                                    …….And so it came to pass that upon that particular Tuesday at the end of December in the year of lord Two Thousand and Eleven Bangor City did play their last ever match upon the hallowed turf of  Farrar Road, and lo there were many tears……….  

Even with a decade to prepare for last Tuesday the tears still arrived, no-one could believe that the final day had finally arrived, in fact someone would have been able to cut the disbelief with a blunt knife.

Over the last few months there has been a justifiable display of heartfelt emotion; deep mourning , recrimination, accusation. Unfortunately none of it could alter the watertight development contract that the club was subject to. The development contract of Damocles cast a very long shadow and probably led ”casual observers” to wonder why Bangor’s fans were in a state, but then in my experience casual observers tend to stick their oars in, ahem, notice things. 

In the minds of “casual observers” “casual observers” are special people in local football circles because they think notice things that others don’t, consequently they will have noticed that Farrar Road was a bit of a ramshackle place. When it come to issuing opinions “casual observers” are anything but casual so we can take it as red that their observations will not have remained unexpressed.

If you’ve ever visited non-league circles you will have seen “casual observers” before, if you haven’t seen them before don’t worry, they’re very easy to spot. Just look for the group comparing notes with a knowing smile and measured tone of voice. If they’re nice people they’ll be comparing notes about the standard of pies they’ve received at various grounds.  If they’re nasty they’ll be comparing notes about the gossip they’ve heard.

If you actually try to converse with the nasty ones, and they deign to reply, you’ll find that they won’t have an allegiance; “Oh, I just like local football” will be their approach. Usually they will inadvertantly shatter your preconceived ideas about how you think your clubs’ season is going with a well-placed opinion. ”Jones isn’t playing very well this season is he?” If you converse with them for long enough they will try to ellicit your opinion so they can add it to their local football gossip databank. For your continued mental health I suggest that you ignore them. If you’re you’re an agent provacateur, like me, I’d suggest that you feed them some erroneous gossip for a bit of laugh.

Normally I don’t spare more than a passing thought for irritants. Normally I’m the dude that abides, people are just people after all. Essentially the “casual observers”, even the nasty ones, aren’t actually hurting anyone. However when I combine Farrar Road and “casual observers” I don’t feel as charitable towards them. I’ve stood close to a group of these anti-social pests on too many unfortunate occasions to feel that way, I know how these anti-social pests operate.

Consequently I can picture their fevered conversations about Farrar Road; they will have told people not to peer too closely at the historic ground lest they see that it’s a little frayed around the edges. They’ll have said that it’s a shame that Farrar Road has seen better days and it’s a shame there’s now air of dampness, mildew and weeds, they’ll say how it’s shameful the terraces are now a bit bumpy and uneven. They’ll have said that the approach to the ground flouts most health and safety legislation. They’ll tell you the club shop is damp and the toilets are basically a walled cesspit. They’ll have pointed towards the main stand, highlighted the bits that cannot be used any more, and then told people that the ground is on it’s last legs. They’ll say how glad they’ll have a new ground to visit.

It’s not just what they say, it’s how they say it, it’s the self-satisfied air they use. Unfortunately they are too self-satisfied to realise that everybody has already noticed what they’re talking about. Most people, even Bangor fans, will have noticed that Farrar Road has seen better days.

Unlike the “casual observers” a lot of people won’t have  restricted their view to the obvious evidence, we won’t need a soul transplant either but that’s another story. When the less visible aspects of Ffarrar Road are considered Farrar Road ceases to be a tip, it becomes an historic football venue.  The obvious surface blemishes can’t hide the 90 odd years of social history that was around us. It’s was a history that we felt, a history that we helped to create. With the direct help of the players Bangor’s fans have helped transform Farrar Road from a blank canvas……….

….into a historical masterpiece of such glorious vividness it reduces grown men to silence. Just because most of us haven’t actually witnessed the 90 odd years of history doesn’t mean we can’t feel the history, we can all still visualise it.

We can see the crowds of 3,000, 6,000, even 10,000, we can visualise the Napoli, Fredrikstad and Atletico matches. For us the old Welsh Cup Finals and semi-finals, the FA Trophy runs and the FA Cup runs all happened yesterday. We have justifiable pride in our achievements;  founder members of the Conference, Northern Premier League and even League of Wales, the only Welsh club not to have lost at Wembley,  the only Welsh club to have played in all 4 of UEFA’s club competitions.

We can close our eyes and still see the legends in blue upon the lush green turf, we can see them all; Iorys Griffiths, Jimmy Conde, Albert Jackson, Tony Broadhead, Paul Whelan, Viv Williams, John Mcllelend, Neville Powell, Ray Stubbs, Mark Palios, Marc Lloyd Williams, Phil Lunn, Paul Roberts, Owain Tudur-Jones…… All we needed to do was close our eyes.

Each story, each image, each memory was passed on in such detail that the history continued to live. Each memory spoke of a great connection to a place, every memory meant something to people. This is major problem with our move, now that the action has stopped, now that we’re cast out of our spiritual home, these memories will begin to lose their potency. The visualisation of historical events become difficult without the site.

The ground was a connection between an area, it’s people and history, without the ground these connections are lost. Living breathing social history suddenly becomes pictures in dusty books. “Casual observers” couldn’t see any of this no matter how hard they looked.

The fans weren’t just witnesses of history, they helped to create the history. Without fans the atmospheric ground could not have existed. At Farrar Road the fans didn’t stop at building an atmosphere , they actually helped to build the ground, they built history.  Fans helped build the High Street terracing and they helped to build the fencing UEFA demanded for the Atletico match in 1985;

It may be obvious thing to say that people cannot spend so much time in a place without feeling a connection but it’s true. Therefore the impeding loss of Farrar Road was obviously going to be felt keenly, as my friend Ian Gill says;

“It’s really been a character in my childhood. The back of our house looked over on the ground. Each morning I’d open the curtains and the first thing I’d see would be the goal at the Farrar end and the back of the stand. This was my back garden to all intents and purposes. This is where I would come and kick a ball after school and I’d come and watch the team training.

Bangor City’s president, the ex-FIFA refereee Gwyn Pierce Owen said this;

“It’s 65 years since I’ve been coming here to watch matches. There are many memories – good ones and unfortunate ones – but mostly good ones.

“I remember coming here with my father at the age of 12 when the place was packed and trying to find a place to watch the game. You couldn’t watch it from behind the barriers. It was that popular. We used to sit between the touchline and the barriers. I remember the public address man saying ‘would everyone sitting in the stand please move inwards to leave more room for people.’

Phil Stead has also noticed that there is something special  at Farrar Road;

It was 1995 when I first made a visit to the ground. A car-full of Cardiffians made the five hour drive to Bangor to watch the UEFA Cup defeat to Widzew Lodz. I was smitten. Here, in one of the most beautiful, remote parts of our country was a proper football ground. It had fans who cared just as much as we did, and the Bangor City support that night for a team that was outclassed stayed with me. It even influenced my decision to move my family to the area a decade later.

These were glory nights for a stadium that sits right at the centre of its community. Bangor citizens rightly have a pride in their club’s achievements that are tied inextracibly with their ground.

And here as well;

That’s what we want from our football – for once, the players are behaving like fans behave – it means as much to Les and Sion as it does to the Bangor faithful. That’s rare these days. After Cardiff City beat Leeds 4-0 at Elland Road recently, the players wandered about 5 yards towards the 1200 fans who had travelled for 5 hours on a Monday night and half-heartedly applauded.

But Bangor City are good at this. In fact, I can’t think of a club that has a closer relationship between team and its supporters.In this image below, the man in the brown coat is Bangor City Chairman Dilwyn Jones, a long-time fan himself. A moment before I had overheard the manager Nev Powell telling his team to go over to the fans “Go on – get over there, get right in amongst them”

Fans of other clubs have also seen something special in Farrar Road;

“For me, it represents a reminder of childhood holidays and a rare occasion when I actually made an accurate football prediction. I should really try to get back there one last time before it disappears for good……”

This one too;

“Farrar Road¹, Bangor’s footballing Mecca, is home to Bangor City Football Club. It was the scene of some magic moments, like Bobby Charlton’s last game ever and the visit of Athletico Madrid, and is the place where all Bangor’s devotees congregate to worship their heroes.

The ground’s capacity is approximately 5,000, of which 350 are seated, and the team it hosts have proved themselves capable of challenging for the Welsh League Cup (finalists in 1999-2000), Welsh Cup and the League of Wales. Farrar Road lies about five minutes’ walk from Bangor’s mainline railway station and does a mean line in pies.”

A Merthyr fan wrote this;

“Always enjoyed our visits to Farrar Road especially of course our Welsh Cup semi-final win on penalty kicks in 1987. A great old-fashioned stadium very much like our very own Penydarren Park. Good luck to them at their new stadium in Nantporth.”

These feelings are not just the sentimental cliches of idealistic fans, they are tangible, they are felt by the players too. Neville Powell, ex-player and present manager, said this;

“It’s been a special place for so many people and I’ve been lucky to be part of it. There’s been some really special times there and for me to go back and do it as a manager has been doubly special.

“Bangor’s been one of the top non-league clubs in the country for decades. The Farrar Road ground has meant so much to so many people – players, managers and fans. Visiting players always like playing there – it’s a proper football stadium that creates the atmosphere you want to be involved in.”

Owain Tudor Junes, the Welsh international and ex-Bangor captain said this;

“I have many different memories from being a young boy growing up seeing Nigel Adkins’ Bangor City side winning the league to initially playing with the reserves and moving on to the first-team under Peter Davenport.

“It was always a good place to play and certainly intimidating. Certainly teams didn’t like coming up to play against Bangor.”

Marc Lloyd Williams, or Jiws as he’s known to us, said this;

“What has made Farrar Road an iconic place over the years has been the faithful supporters that have continually given their all to the club and who have been fundamental in securing financial stability in recent years – the atmosphere they generate has been second to none.

There will be no ground like it ever to grace the WPL again, although I am confident the faithful Citizens will do their utmost to re-create the magnificent Farrar Road experience at their new home. I will always treasure the memories I had of playing there.”

Southampton’s manager Nigel Adkins won two consecutive league titles as Bangor’s goalkeeping player-manager,  he said this;

(Adkins and Bangor parted company in 1995)………. “However, there were no hard feelings on Adkins’ part and he remains a City fan to the present day.

“I’ve got nothing but happy memories of my time at Bangor,” he said. “We had some good players, played good football and were successful……….The fans at Bangor were amazing and made Farrar Road have a unique atmosphere all of its own.”

The TV presenter Ray Stubbs is an ex-Bangor City player and he sent me this tweet;

“………sad day but positive day in same breath I guess …. Best wishes to great club”

One of the best quote I’ve heard about Farrar Road was made by FC Midtjylland’s general manager in 2008, he described Farrar Road as a “place that smells of football”. This is the effect that Bangor City amd Farrar Road has on people.

I can’t explain exactly how much I will miss Farrar Road. I may not have been going there for as many years as the other hard-core fans (I’ve only been going for the last 18 and a half years) but I’ve still managed to feel that Farrar Road means something. And now for a bit of a personal tribute from me….

During the early 1990s BBC Wales used to broadcast a programme called  ”Wales on Saturday”.  Every week Alan Wilkins would tell us all about sport in Wales, he even told us about non-league football because the  programme had a weekly section about the Welsh non-league clubs, it then had section about the League of Wales after the league’s formation.

Thanks to this coverage Farrar Road reminded me of the grounds that featured in the less well known Roy of the Rovers stories. I think it was mainly the perimeter fences.  It was nice to see that there was a proper football ground in north Wales that was a bit closer than Wrexham. At this point in my life I never been to Farrar Road but due to the programme I’d gained a sense of of what Farrar Road was like, it also gave me a sense that I was missing something.

It may seem odd that took me so long to visit Farrar Road, especially with Bangor being so close to Llandudno. With the power of hindsight it certainly feels odd to me. You have to understand that when I was younger I felt that there was a gap between Llandudno and the rest of the world, I suppose that every young person must feel this about their town. Even though I knew that I was born Bangor the city felt quite far away, I wasn’t even sure where it was exactly. This sense of alienation is down to the A55. In my youth the A55 wasn’t the slick motorway that connects north Wales to civilisation that we enjoy today, it was a turtuous strip of tarmac that connected me to travel sickness and ruined bank holidays.

If I think back to the late 1980s/early 1990s I don’t remember much coverage of Bangor in the local media until the start of the League of Wales,  I certainly don’t remember too much coverage of Bangor in Llandudno’s papers – although I must qualify this statement by stating that I don’t remember being an avid reader of the local press. I don’t remember many people talking about them in school and my dad didn’t really mention local football either so I continued to live in ignorance of the soulful city. I knew that Bangor had beaten Napoli in the 1960s but not much more.

My desire to visit Farrar Road really began in Autumn 1993 when I went to Bangor University for an UCAS open day. I walked up the slope at the side of the University’s main arts building and I saw Farrar Road for the first time in the flesh. It looked like I’d imagine it; a proper football ground. I resolved there and then that I would go to Farrar Road at the next available opportunity.

I first went to Farrar Road in November 1993. I don’t remember too much about the match, I remember that that there was a bit of sun but that’s it.  There are two matches at Farrar Road that I remember vividly from my first season. A Wales v England non-league international that was played in a virtual blizzard and the historic 9-0 victory over Haverfordwest that took place on the same day as the 1994 FA Cup final. The vistory meant that Bangor only needed a draw in Porthmadog to win the league. I was there with the other 3,000 Bangor fans to see the victory, as the scar on my right hand will testify.

My next three notable games were two European matches and a Welsh Cup quarter final with Wrexham. All three matches involved bigger crowds than the usual  and it was great to see so many people come to Farrar Road. The Welsh Cup match felt like a proper match because it was end-to end stuff and there were loads of away fans, in fact there were so many away fans that the St.Paul’s end was filled by Wrexham fans.

The European matches were also great in their own ways. They were both played in warm sunshine and this always helps. The first one against Akranes was in the balance for a long time when Frank Motttram reduced the Icelandic sides’ lead. By the end of the match on that lovely warm evening it felt like Bangor had a chance to progress. We didn’t progress though. 

The next match against Widzew Lodz was marked by a large number of drunken Polish fans. One of them latched on to me and pestered me for the French shirt I happened to be wearing. In between the pulls of my shirts he entertained us by reading through my programme. When he reached the section that detailed Widzew’s European history he dismissed all their opponents (Liverpool, Man United, Juventus) with a swish of his foot and a swoosh from his mouth, as if he were actually dropkicking their meaningless hides. Widzew scored some fantastic goal that evening as I stood there in my reproduction Widzew shirt, (yes I swapped my shirt with the persistent Pole.)

These matches made me realise that Bangor City were a proper football club with proper fans, just like Phil found on his visit to the Widzew match. The three matches also showed that my Roy of the Rovers view of Farrar Road was correct. I could see that it was still a club with a fantastic history.

Since the Widzew match I have so many memories that it would be tedious to list them all, I’ll just give you the edited highlights instead;  Jiws scoring from the halfway line with a volley, nearly beating Wrexham in the the Premier Cup semi final a decade after the Welsh Cup match, the four year run of Welsh cup finals, the last gasp draw versus Llangefni that highlighted the team spirit Nev had instilled, a friendly victory over Aris in 1998 that gave me hope of European success, getting abused as a reserve match linesman.

I found more than highlights at Farrar Road, I don’t want to get too sentimental but I found love at Farrar Road. I don’t mean that soppy kind of valentine card love, it’s the love of the fabric of society, a love for my fellow man, a love of being a part of social history. When I think of Farrar Road I don’t think of the decrepid fabric of the structures. I think of the conversations, the emotions, the singing, the goals but most of all I think of the happiness I felt when I was there.

Unfortunately there are some people that won’t allow sentiment to get in the way of making a big fat profit.

I’m not sure which piece of turf I own. I’m not sure if it was trodden upon by Paisley, Dalglish, Law, Best, Charlton or Fillol and I’m not sure whether Les, Sion, Brewie, Johnno or Nev ever trod upon this exact piece of turf either. I can’t say I care very much about any of that, I’ll just say that they all trod on my particular piece.

I may even go further and give my piece of turf a bit of historical significance. I may say that my piece was the piece that Craig Garside swivelled upon to score the league title winner against TNS in April. I may say that it was the piece from which Jimmy Carberry scored the all-important ninth goal against Haverfordwest in 1994 or I may say it was the piece of turf from which Ken Birch scored against Napoli. I may even say that it was the piece of turf that I was standing upon when I flagged a Deiniolen player offside as a hastily trained linesman. Thinking about it I’m going to say that it’s all of these at different times over the next few years.

Now all I have to do is remember to water and trim my piece of history.

The European Cup will be won by a team from the last 16.

Euro 2012 will be won by a country.

John Terry will still be an odious prick.

“Platini the curly nemesis” will find yet more ingenious ways to prevent me from watching my teams in Europe.

Some other stuff will happen as well.