Ian Hughes: From the Seasiders to moving Stateside
Now based in the States, popular boss Ian Hughes has reflected on his time with Aberystwyth Town.
Hughes, who spent six years at Park Avenue in two varying roles, recalls his time with the club, as well as providing an insight to where he is now.
During his time with the Ceredigion based club, he took them from relegation candidates to challenging for the top six, as well as a number of Cup runs.
“I have some really good memories from my time at Aberystwyth,” said Hughes.
“I spent six great years there. It really is a family club and I still keep in touch with many people who are still involved.”
Hughes learnt his craft in management when he worked under both Alun Morgan and Welsh football legend Tommi Morgan.
Alun Morgan, now assistant at FA Cup giantkillers Marine, was manager of Aber for three years, where they achieved their highest placed finish, of fourth.
Aber then moved to Tomi Morgan with Hughes still in the background, after Alun had taken up the role at Llandudno, but tenure was a short one.
Tomi Morgan, the Cymru Premier’s oldest player, oversaw a 10th placed finish but then Aber turned to Ian Hughes to reignite their European hopes.
“As assistant I worked under two very good managers with differing styles in Alan Morgan & Tommi Morgan and learnt a lot from both which helped me when I took the step up.
“I value the three years I had as an assistant, it allowed me to understand the league and its players. I do believe it’s difficult to step in as a manager without having been part of the league in some way, either as a recent player or coach.
“From my time in the league, it was an experience that I look back fondly on.”
Following Morgan’s decision to leave Aberystwyth Town, the club were on the lookout for a new manager.
As a departing message to the club, he suggested to the Aberystwyth board, the man who had been working as an assistant to two managers for the last four years.
It resulted in a then 29-year-old Ian Hughes, holding reluctant discussions with chairman Tony Bates.
“At first I wasn’t sure however I had been assistant manager for the previous three seasons, we had just survived the previous season.
“I felt that having three years of experience in the league gave me a good opportunity to succeed and I already knew the players we had.
“Tommi had recruited well the previous season bringing in some experience. We needed to improve in wide areas. Both Craig Williams and Geoff Kellaway were both available.
“Looking back it was a brave move from the board to place their trust in a 29 year old who had only been assistant manager at Llangefni Town before joining Aberystwyth.
“I started coaching at the age of 14, so I did have 15 years of coaching experience behind me. Having experienced people from the area like Meirion Appleton around also helped if I needed any advice.”
In his first season as a manager, the fortunes of Aberystwyth had changed as he picked them up from a near relegation to a seventh-placed finish, alongside a Welsh Cup final.
Aberystwyth had missed out on a top six spot as a result of a three-point deduction, making qualifying for Europe a difficult task in the league.
However a 3-2 defeat to The New Saints at the Racecourse Ground in May, allowed Aber to qualify for Europe for the first time in a decade, with TNS already in the Champions League.
“Firstly that season it was disappointing not to play in the top six, we were deducted three points which was the reason why we didn’t qualify for the top half. Everyone at the club was devastated.
“We went on to win the bottom six as we should have as we were a top six team in all but name. I think qualifying for Europe was a fantastic way to end the season.
“The Welsh Cup final was a fantastic occasion and although we lost out on winning the cup, playing in Europe was just reward for everyone’s hard work.”
The reward for qualifying for Europe was a short strip to Derry City.
Aberystwyth had gone viral in the summer of their short-lived European adventure.
The Mid Wales club would be involved in European competitions, meanwhile English giants Manchester United wouldn’t, following a seventh placed finish in the Premier League that season.
Aberystwyth had egg on their face however as they suffered a 9-0 aggregate defeat to League of Ireland outfit Derry City.
“We knew little about Derry when we drew them in the qualifying round however we had them watched and knew it would be a tough game.
“I have been an advocate for summer football since we played against Derry as they were 18 games into their season.
“At the time we were only able to play three friendly games prior because it was out of season in Wales.
“For anyone who has been involved in the game would appreciate that match fitness is huge advantage. I heard Gavin Chesterfield say something similar this season, so this still at times seems to be a problem.”
His time at Aberystwyth would come to an end in 2016, citing work differences. Since his departure, Aberystwyth have fallen to the way side.
Other than the 2018 Welsh Cup final, Aber haven’t looked close to qualifying for Europe.
Instead, they have rotated between managers, with Gavin Allen, Matthew Bishop and Neville Powell all taking charge on more than one occasion.
“It was a tough decision, in my final season I was back living on Anglesey which is a 5 hour round trip to Aberystwyth. We needed to train more often – I looked at the league and identified that the teams who trained more often were in the top six and the teams who trained once maybe twice a week were in the bottom six.
“Aberystwyth had a great chance of training more often as they had just installed a new 3G pitch. I had spoken to the club a few times about the need to identify local people who could with guidance become the manager.
“With a local manager it would be much easier to practice more often and get Aberystwyth back into the top six once again.”
The Cymru Premier has had various guises and a number of changes to its format.
Ian Hughes was present when the league was reduced to 12-teams, which would see 32-game season, with league split into two conferences.
A criticism of it is that it can become repetitive and boring as some clubs can play against each other more than four times in a season.
However Hughes is a fan of the current format: “I like the 12 club concept, it’s a very competitive league. I would also say as a former manager because every game is so competitive it’s difficult at times to give youngsters an opportunity.
“In the first half of the season everyone was fighting for the top six. after the split teams are either challenging at the top of the league.
“We are all vying for European places and home advantage in the playoffs. You then have the teams at the bottom are trying to win to get into the European play-offs, but there are also some teams fighting relegation.
“With every game being so competitive I think teams are finding it more and more difficult to give younger players from their academies an opportunity. In a 16-18 team league you may have a couple of games with less riding on it, which is a great way to introduce new talent to the league.
“I used the league cup as an opportunity for playing younger players and some times I was criticised. I was fortunate at Aberystwyth we had some good young players like Rhydian Davies & Jack Rimmer who often played for us.”
Following a lengthy career in Wales, he opted to make the move to the United States of America.
He had held a role with the FAW Trust and was instructed of an opportunity which would take him abroad.
His official role is ‘VP of Player, Coach and Curriculum Development’ which allows him to work with both coaches and players.
Commenting on his decision to leave Wales, he said: “I’ve always wanted to work abroad and the opportunity came about so I took it.”
I look after all on field activity – writing our curriculum based on our game model and principles. I also oversee coach development and work with coaches supporting their on field development. We current have clubs in eight regions spread out across the country, from California on the west coast all the way to Massachusetts on the east coast – each region has a technical director who I work closely with to ensure all players and coaches are challenges and developed.
“My aim is to grow the quantity and quality of the club never ends & it’s important we keep up with modern trends and tweak our curriculum based on the evolving game.”
So could we ever see Hughes return to Wales any time soon, he’s remaining coy at the minute…
“Working back in Wales? I suppose you can never say never. However being in America continues to be a fantastic experience and I’m enjoying the work I’m doing out here and look forward to developing our coaches & players.”
