Saturday spotlight – Newtown Wanderers relishing Mid Wales League debut

The club will mark its debut in the fourth tier of Welsh football with delayed celebrations as the Black and Ambers look back on a decade since their inception.

Established in 2010 by Sean and Jim McBride and Dave Aspinall with the support of the Elephant and Castle Hotel who shared the opinion that Powys' largest town had enough potential to have another competitive team.

At the time there were no other Newtown based amateur teams with Newtown Rangers folding several years earlier, following the likes of Mochdre, Newtown Northside and the factory clubs of the 1970s into the history books.

The club has spent the past decade in the Montgomeryshire League but seized the opportunity to join the MMP-NL Mid Wales League East following a pyramid restructure.

The club, like many others in Wales, have spent the past 15 months awaiting a return to the pitch.

Vice-chairman Dafydd Evans said: "The club has taken big strides in the last few seasons and seen many changes in personnel on and off the field. We have worked tirelessly in building a strong committee with volunteers who give up their time to support our club and supporting the manager in building a strong team on the pitch.

"By building a strong and stable club, this has enabled us to attract a higher quality of player.

"The 2019/20 season saw us sitting on the top of the Montgomeryshire football league second division with us in touching distance of winning the league. Unfortunately, the league finished prematurely, so we didn’t see the job through to the end.

"However we are an aspirational club and with the introduction of the new tier four division, we applied and were successfully promoted jumping a division.

"We know is a significant step up for the club, and will be a real challenge, but one we are really excited about."

Evans insisted the Trehafren Field club would not be making up the numbers in the forthcoming season.

"This presents a new opportunity for Newtown Wanderers to establish itself as more than a small amateur team," said Evans. "In our first season at this level we are looking to show that we aren’t here to just make up the numbers, but are capable of competing as well as sticking to our core values of being a community club."

The club has also begun a working relationship with Open Newtown to maintain their facilities.

"We have developed a very good relationship with them which is safeguarding our facilities with plans to develop them further in light of meeting any pitch criteria," added Evans.

Meanwhile Wanderers Manager Leon Williams said “This club has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and with our promotion to Tier 4 football, we now a platform to take this team into new highs.

"We are in this league to compete and understand the challenge that awaits us and are not intimidated by it.

"We’ve been working really hard the last few months and weeks to strengthen the squad and bring in some new blood, and have some good support from our sponsors as well as looking for more to strengthen the club further."