When Carmarthen were Cup kings: Remembering their back-to-back League Cups

When Carmarthen Town were sitting bottom at Christmas 2011, they looked out of sorts. Club chairman Jeff Thomas had no option but to replace manager Tomi Morgan, he did so by bringing Mark Aizlewood as his replacement.

The former Wales international was returning to the club having spent two terms as their assistant and inspired the greatest period of success in the club’s history. He managed to do so in a very short time.

In his first season, he kept them up, finishing in 11th place. It wouldn’t have mattered if they finished bottom as Neath were relegated after failing to gain a licence.

In the summer several new additions joined the club ahead of Aizlewood’s first full season in charge. Craig Hughes was amongst those signed, re-joining the Old Gold after a brief spell with Neath.

Hughes has glowing memories from his time working for the former Leeds defender: “Aizlewood as a coach was very thorough and very clever with how he coached and how he managed, I think everyone who’s worked for Aize would tell you the same.”

Liam Thomas was another man signed by the club in the summer, joining from Afan Lido.

Under Aizlewood and Neil Smothers, Thomas would be transformed from a winger into a goal-getter.

“Liam done really well when he came in, he was with me at Neath when he was younger, and I always rated him so I had a word with the coaching staff to bring him down.”

He bagged a brace against both Bryntyrion Athletic and Port Talbot to guide his new team into the semi-final, setting up a clash against local rivals Llanelli at Richmond Park.

Llanelli took an early lead thanks to an Antonio Corbisiero goal, but Carmarthen’s main man Liam Thomas was on hand 11 minutes later to cancel out the visitor’s goal. The comeback was complete in the 69th minute thanks to a Julian Alsop goal.

The reward was a trip to Latham Park where they would face The New Saints, who had won the Welsh Premier League the previous year and three of the last four league cups.

Hughes remembers just how good they were: “Back in the day TNS were unbelievable, to be honest, you’d have never thought we could beat them

“I’d imagine none of the boys could have thought we would beat them either.

“What we did know is that we would all give 110% and because it’s football if you get a little bit of luck anything can happen.”

From kick-off in the final, TNS dominated the early proceedings. On six minutes Steve Evans headed them into the lead. Craig Harrisons’ side looked like they would cruise to an easy victory.

The Old Gold were lucky not to fall two goals behind when Michael Wilde’s effort cannoned off the post. Carmarthen soon cashed in their luck, TNS failed to clear before Hughes fired at goal, his shot deflecting off Steve Evans and looping over Paul Harrison.

“I got a bit lucky with my goal. They tried to clear the ball but it bounced back to me, I got my shot off quickly and it flicked off their defender and over their keeper.”

The second half began much like the first, TNS dominant before retaking their lead. Sam Finley’s tame but deceiving strike from distance looked to be going wide of the post and was left Steve Cann in the Carmarthen goal. However, the ball swerved and struck the inside of the post, leaving the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

The Saints’ lead didn’t last long. 60 seconds after going behind, Carmarthen were back level. TNS once again failing to clear their line, the ball fell to Corey Thomas on the edge of the box. He struck the ball with power to make the score 2-2.

Seven minutes later, Thomas was on target again and Carmarthen took the lead for the first time in the game. It was the pick of the bunch, Liam Thomas redirected a cross into the path of Corey Thomas who smashed the ball with enough dip that it crashed into the top right corner, sparking ecstasy for the Carmarthen players.

There was one more twist in the tale however, Michael Wilde equalised for TNS on 84 minutes to send the game to extra time. Despite six goals in regular time no more were scored in the additional 30 and the game went to penalties.

Substitute Tim Hicks had the unthankful task of taking Carmarthen’s first penalty and was denied by Harrison. His blushes were spared however when Ryan Fraughan’s attempted the spectacular, sending the ball over the bar with a failed panenka.

The next three penalties were all slotted with composure, Liam and Corey Thomas on target for Carmarthen and Alex Darlington smashing his penalty into the bottom corner confidently.

Chris Seargeant didn’t display a similar composure. Just as his teammate Fraughan had done earlier he sent his penalty over the bar as he attempted to riffle the ball into the top right corner.

Carmarthen had the advantage and when Craig Hanford sent Harrison the wrong it was extended to 3-1 up. The TNS goalkeeper would then attempt to show his outfield teammates how a penalty should be taken.

Rather, it was Cann who would teach Harrison how a penalty should be saved, diving to his right to deny TNS’ number one. Against all the odds Carmarthen Town had won the League Cup at the expense of the professionals.

“At Carmarthen, we had a brilliant team spirit, and that really helped us a lot of us are still mates now and speak regularly.”

In the off-season, Carmarthen built upon their positive season adding several new names to their ranks.

“We had another great run after that season, Aize and Smodge (Smothers) assembled a great squad.”

Kyle Basset joined from Goytre United, Chris Thomas arrived from Bangor and Matthew Collins swapped Aberystwyth for the Old Gold.

Despite the new signings, it was a player who was already at the club that made the difference in the 2013/14 campaign.

Christian Doidge had joined from Barry Town the season prior and enjoyed a decent season in his first year of topflight football.

“I did the same thing with Doidgey as I did with Liam Thomas, I mentioned him to Carmarthen, and they took a risk on him.

“I asked Danny Leaver, who was at Cambrian and Clydach at the time, and asked him who was the best forward in the division below and he told me it was Doidge.

“I also called Gavin Chesterfield, his manager at Barry. We spoke in-depth about Doidgey and I explained that we were interested.”

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Carmarthen would enter the 2013/14 League cup at the third round having received a bye in round two. Their first opponents were Caersws who they dispatched 5-0. Liam Thomas and Christian Doidge both bagging a brace along with a strike from Corey Jenkins.

In the semi-finals, they faced Cambrian and Clydach and feel 2-0 down against the Welsh League Divison 1 side – now the Cymru South – thanks to two goals in two minutes.

Perhaps Mark Aizlewood gave his players one of his iconic halftime scoldings because after the break Carmarthen looked like an entirely different side.

“Aizlewood could lose the plot at times, screaming and shouting but it was always done in a clever way to get a reaction out of the boys.

“He was smart enough to know when to shout, when he did it was normally deserved and would normally make us perform better on the pitch.”

Thomas pulled one back five minutes in the second half to make the score 2-1. The Old Gold continued to push for an equaliser and just as time seemed to be running out Liam McCreesh fired them level on 82 minutes.

His goal crushed Cambrian allowing Liam Thomas to capatalise and net his second on 85 minutes, sending Carmarthen to a second successive final.

This time Aberystwyth’s Park Avenue played host to the final and Bala would be the opponents.

“Bala had a lot of great attacking players that we knew could hurt us. On the day they put Paul Fowler to man-mark Mark Jones out of the game.”

The decision to man-mark Mark Jones proved vital. Fowler was awarded Man of the Match by Sgorio as a rather uninspiring game lumbered to a 0-0 after 90 minutes.

The fans in attendance were treated to an additional 30 minutes in the cold Welsh winter weather where no goals were scored. Carmarthen Town would need penalties once again.

Bala won the toss and decided to go first. Ian Sheridan slotted his penalty past Cann before Ashley Morris denied Matty Collins from the spot to give Bala the early advantage.

Cann’s penalty shoot-out heroics from the previous season returned. South African saved three consecutive penalties from Conall Murtagh, Ryan Valentine and Dave Morley to put Town within touching distance of the cup.

Craig Hanford would once again have the task of scoring the winning penalty. He cleared the spot of any torn-up and place the ball down 12 yards from goal., took four steps back before sprinting at the ball and thrashing it into the bottom right corner, out of the reach of the keeper.

Carmarthen’s dreams had been realised, they were back-to-back League Cup winners and it was Hanford and Cann whose heroics in the shootout had secured both victories.

Craig Hughes, bantering his mate said: “The player you would never markdown for scoring a winning goal was Hanfs. He wasn’t known for his ability on the ball, for him to score two winning penalties was mad. I think he’s still going on about that now.”

(Featured Image: Lewis Mitchell)