Welshpool Town: The amazing story of how Chris Kamara and Paul Merson turned out for Lillywhites

A MOTORBIKE sent from London to Telford to pick up a Spar Mid Wales League form to be returned back to the capital to then be signed by a former Arsenal legend before he made his debut in Welsh football.

Don’t lie, is that a sentence you thought you would ever read?

But while looking into the recent history of Welshpool Town which goes up and down more than your average rollercoaster, it is pretty much par for the course.

Welshpool Town is the gateway to Wales and a club, due to its location and the size of the town which could be a force to be reckoned with in Welsh football.

Welshpool, or Technogroup Welshpool as they were known for a brief period due to a sponsorship deal, were a pretty good force to be reckoned with when they finished 6th in the old League of Wales.

However after the club did not get a license as the league condensed down to become the Welsh Premier League, the Lilywhites were relegated.

A near 15 year stay in the top division had come to an end. Their stay in the second tier again lasted just 12 months.

Trouble on the field, a string of short term managers and an early points deduction was compounded with the dreaded ‘R’ word next to their name. The season finished, rock bottom, no points.

Now in the Spar Mid Wales, Welshpool were the big fish in the little pond and those at the club hoped of a possible revival. It never happened.

The Technogroup contract ended and Adam Knight, who had enjoyed success with the club’s reserve side stepped up.

But on the eve of the season, he resigned and the club were on shaky ground.

It needed a rescue job of huge magnitude to keep the side playing and they managed to get it.

And the story of how they went about getting a side on the field to start the campaign reads like a WhatApp group for a Sunday league team at 10pm on a Saturday evening.

David Jones, a former reserve player, along with Neil Breeze assembled a team for operation save Welshpool.

What followed in that season, despite heavy score lines, attracted some very much wanted attention.

Jones explains: ‘My old man came home from a meeting held by the now skeleton committee in August where they had decided they had no option but to fold. 

‘It seemed inconceivable to me that a town the size of Welshpool, and a club which had a couple of years previously had been in the Welsh Premier League would no longer have a side.

‘I was 26 and playing at Berriew at the time, however I had previously played for Welshpool Town Reserves in the Spar Mid Wales League. 

‘My dad had been involved with the club and my younger brother Jonathan had played for them in the Welsh Premier only a few years previous and I therefore had ties with the club.

‘As there was seemingly no one willing to do it and they were folding, after speaking to Neil Breeze who agreed to assist me, I decided to offer to be manager to keep the club going. 

‘My only promise was that I would get a side to keep the club going this season, and then moving forward I would start to play local youngsters again to try and get the people of the town back on side.

‘This was important because Welshpool Juniors had some good young sides coming through, but they were 3 or 4 years away from being old enough to play men’s football. 

‘It was obviously going to be a thankless task but so far as I was concerned it was better to keep the club going by whatever means in the Mid Wales League, than them folding and then having to reform and start again in the Montgomeryshire Amateur League in a few years time.’

If there was a job advert put out there at the time, it would have read, ‘manager required, no players, have to work with two hands tied behind your back’.

Jones and his newly gelled side of old university friends and local players set about completing the season.

‘Mission impossible then commenced – trying to get a side in about 10 days before the season started,’ explained Jones.

‘There were a number of problems, firstly the vast majority of players by now had already signed for other clubs.

“Secondly due to Welshpool Town playing in higher leagues and bringing in players from away, with very few local players playing in recent years there was a certain animosity towards the club and a lot of players at this point simply didn’t want to play for Welshpool Town and were happy at the various other local clubs. 

‘Between a combination of some of my old university friends, a few local lads who hadn’t signed for other clubs yet and friends of friends, we managed to get a side together for the first game at Montgomery. 

‘It obviously wasn’t going to be a successful side, but the point was we actually had a side. We lost 6-0 in that game, but just getting a side out was a victory in itself.

‘We battled on, getting our first point the game after with a 1-1 draw at Llansantffraid before getting our first win in September beating Dolgellau 3-1 at home.

“Although we of course lost the majority of games, we managed to be fairly competitive and didn’t get many heavy beatings until just before Christmas. 

‘In early December we lost 8-0 at Four Crosses where we played most of the game with 9 men after having two players sent off.

‘We then had those two players suspended, plus several others injured and unavailable over Christmas as we went into the now infamous Boxing Day game against Waterloo.

‘Again despite being literally at bare bones we stuck at it in the first half and were 3-0 down. 

“Matters got worse at the end of the first half when our stand in keeper (John Gough as two other keepers were already unavailable) got injured and had to come off, and as the only sub I had to go in goal – we all know what happened then. 

“I think I made one save – and they even scored the rebound from that as we ended up losing 10-1.’

It was the lowest point of the campaign. A kick in the teeth for all the hard work that had come before hand.

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Jones wasn’t giving up though. Not even when football fans’ favourite host Jeff Stelling stuck the boot in on Gillette Soccer Special.

Despite the results, a proud Jones contacted the show expecting his letter to be thrown onto the scrap heap.

But weeks later and armed with not one but two former players and now broadcasting household names, Welshpool prepared for the visit of the Sky cameras.

Jones added: ‘It was made worse when the result was read out by Jeff Stelling at the end of Soccer Saturday on Sky. Now not only was the score known locally but the nation knew the result. 

‘The next day my Facebook page was full of people’s videos of him reading the result out and making a bit of a joke of it. 

‘I cannot confirm for certain, but I’ve been told a Waterloo player informed Sky of the result – this ended up back firing somewhat.

‘A couple of days after I decided to email Sky, basically just outlining what had happened to the club and we were just trying to keep the club going and some positive exposure would be better than making light of our plight. 

‘I full expected this to be filed in the bin, however the day after I received a call from Johnny Phillips from Sky saying they had seen my email and wanted to come down and do a feature.

‘I thought it was a wind up at first, but I hadn’t told a soul about my email so it had to be true. 

‘Sure enough over the next few weeks it was organised and a few names including Dean Windass and Ian Rush were mentioned before it was confirmed Chris Kamara was coming to play against champions elect Rhayader Town on Saturday 28th January 2012. 

‘This was a massive boost which we needed at the time, and I have no doubt got us through the season. 

‘Sky were brilliant in every aspect and despite losing 6-1 a massive crowd came to support the lads and the club, town and league benefitted from a feature piece on Soccer Saturday the following weekend.’

Lost 4-1 Merse scored our goal & was the best player on the pitch, the opposition Newbridge were a good bunch of lads pic.twitter.com/7nFZ9xT4

— Chris Kamara (@chris_kammy) March 28, 2012

Sky Sports loved the story and loved the story of plucky Welshpool. They wanted more of the action. And the next part of the tale is even more bizarre than anything that has come previously.

‘Unbelievably Sky followed this up with a subsequent visit in March, when they sent both Kamara and Paul Merson against another of the title challengers at the time Newbridge on Wye.’

‘This was even more surreal than the first visit, and I had to keep Merson’s visit a complete secret as Sky didn’t want other broadcasters knowing about it. 

‘So much so that Sky sent a motorbike from London to my work in Telford to pick up the signing on form at the latest possible time, drove back to London to get Merson to sign it, and then bring it back to my work later that day.”

‘A much improved performance saw Merson equalise at 1-1 at one point, however in the second half tired legs saw Newbridge run out 4-1 winners in the end.

Again a massive crowd was there to see a former England international play for Welshpool, and the club, town and league again had another feature on Soccer Saturday that weekend. 

‘Again Sky were a credit with Merson, Jonny Phillips and co having a drink in the Angel after the game. I also subsequently ended up being interviewed for a chapter in Johnny Phillips book ‘Saturday Afternoon Fever. 

‘The whole sky thing made the club well known nationally seeing it was on both TV and in print.

“Even now I speak to some people and when I say I’m from Welshpool or manage a team in mid wales often sky and Welshpool are mentioned.”

Just been reminded that I played for Welshpool by this crowd here & they granted me & Merse the freedom of the town pic.twitter.com/Nx7o2khtWG

— Chris Kamara (@chris_kammy) July 6, 2016

The club finished bottom and ended up going down and then the following season, with a new young side Jones guided them to 13th in the table.

Jones will go down as being the manager in the club’s history with probably the most eventful tenure.

The ups and downs don’t end there. Despite his good work Jones left the club that summer and was replaced.

Jones has gone on to Berriew and has had a successful few years with the club.

Welshpool have seen a bit of revival of sorts in recent years in the Mid Wales League. They currently sit fifth in the division amongst the likes of big names Caersws and Llanidloes.

After a turbulent few years, the club is on a sound footing and are well placed for a return to the second tier in the coming years.

(Featured Image: ChrisKamara.com and Lewis Mitchell)