When Doncaster Rovers secured a dramatic promotion to League One in April, via a late Teddy Sharman-Lowe penalty save and an injury-time Billy Sharp goal, I wasn’t in the Eco Power Stadium to see it. I wasn’t watching from home. Instead I was in Caernarfon’s main square, listening desperately to updates on BBC Radio 5Live, trying not to have a football-induced breakdown in between a castle and a farmers’ market.
It’s perhaps somewhat remiss to start a piece titled ‘How I watched football’ with mention of a game I didn’t see, but it is prescient. When I started these annual round-ups just over a decade ago the idea of not being at a game never even resonated with me – I might do it on a shoestring, but I’d do it. Now, the rising costs of everything means that even though I’m technically better off, the shoestrings have been pulled up along with the ladders. Once a Wales away regular, now I can barely justify the cost of watching Wales at home – seeing Doncaster Rovers, my stupid little hometown lower league team, has become a rare treat when it used to be so easy.
I’m presenting this not as a sob story, but as an explanation as to why the two teams to which you’ll most likely know me as a supporter of if you’ve followed these wrap-ups over the years, are so fleeting in their inclusion. I’d love to watch Doncaster Rovers more (not a phrase I’d have typed as recent as 18 months ago, when I was frankly glad of the exile), but I chose to work in the arts and the charity sector and for all the rewards that brings, disposable income is not one of them. So there are few pictures here from Rovers romp to the title, just a solitary shot from Wales’ rebirth under Craig Bellamy, and sadly no cause to delay this round-up until after Euro 2025 in Switzerland, desperate as I was to be there.
What you will find instead is a season largely spent locally, using football as an excuse (not that you should ever need one) to explore North Wales. Fourteen of the fixtures depicted here were reached via hefty multi-mile treks on foot, over the mountains of Eryri, round the coast of Ynys Môn, through the Carneddau and the forests and hills of the Conwy valley; each one a joy as a result, regardless of what the game offered up.
In my forced absence from most things red and white hoops, the team I watched most was Penmaenmawr Phoenix and with good reason; unbeaten league champions, winning two further cups along the way, they were an absolute joy; their 7-0 demolition of Llandudno Amateurs in November the most complete team performance I witnessed. Other highlights included unexpectedly fervent support (flares included) at fifth-tier Deiniolen, some proper FA Cup fever scarf-twirling at Hull City and a Goodison Park matchday with Rovers, and a wild rain-drenched night at Stadion GKS Katowice.
If I wanted to be twee I’d wrap this intro up by telling you that getting to take in a game with a backdrop of snow capped Eryri mountains at Mynydd Llandygai more than made up for having to watch Rovers’ title celebrations, and the scenes for Wales’ games in Dublin and Brussels, from afar. But I’d be lying. It didn’t. Nor did getting to see Phoenix win a cup in the company of my dad and my nephew. But they were both incredibly nice things that I’m grateful to have experienced, and so long as football keeps offering these mental escapes from the hefty realities of life in the mid 2020s, then yeah, go on, sign me up for another season of all this.
by Glen Wilson
Below is a photograph from every match I attended this season. All photos were taken using an iPhone.
Match 1 | July
Caernarfon Town 2-0 Crusaders
UEFA Conference League, 1st qualifying round, Nantporth
Match 2 | July
Cemaes Bay 3-2 Bow Street
FAW Welsh Cup 1st qualifying round, School Lane
Match 3 | August
Gresford Athletic 1-4 Airbus UK Broughton
Nathaniel MG Cup 2nd round, The Rock
Match 4 | August
Glan Conwy 1-6 Penmaenmawr Phoenix
North Wales Coast East League Premier Division, Cae Ffwt
Match 5 | August
Llandudno 1-1 Colwyn Bay
Cymru North, Maesdu Park
Match 6 | August
Mochdre Sports 2-1 Llandudno Junction
North Wales Coast East League Premier Division, Swan Road
Match 7 | August
Bro Cernyw 0-3 Llandudno Amateurs
FAW Welsh Cup 2nd qualifying round, Cae Ysgol
Match 8 | August
Everton 3-0 Doncaster Rovers
EFL League Cup 2nd round, Goodison Park
Match 9 | August
Port Vale 2-3 Doncaster Rovers
EFL League Two, Vale Park
Match 10 | September
Porthmadog 0-5 Holyhead Hotspur
FAW Trophy 2nd round, Y Traeth
Match 11 | September
GKS Katowice 2-2 Widzew Łódź
Ekstraklasa, Stadion Miejski
Match 12 | September
Piast Gliwice 1-1 Puszcza Niepołomice
Ekstraklasa, Stadion Miejski w Gliwicach im. Piotra Wieczorka
Match 13 | September
Penmaenmawr Phoenix 1-2 Llanuwchllyn
FAW Welsh Cup 1st round, Cae Sling
Match 14 | October
Deiniolen 1-1 Holyhead Town
North Wales Coast West League Division One, Y Bwthyn
Match 15 | October
Conwy Borough 1-3 Porthmadog
Ardal North West, Y Morfa
Match 16 | October
Llanrwst United 2-1 Cerrigydrusion
FAW Welsh Cup 2nd round, Gwydyr Park
Match 17 | October
Slovakia 2-1 Cymru
Women’s Euro 2025 play-off semi-final 1st leg, Národné Tréningové Centrum Poprad
Match 18 | November
Penmaenmawr Phoenix 7-0 Llandudno Amateurs
North Wales Coast East League Premier Division, Cae Sling
Match 19 | November
Llandudno Amateurs 0-3 Penmaenmawr Phoenix
North Wales Coast East League Cookson Cup quarter final, Maesdu Park
Match 20 | November
Holyhead Hotspur 0-0 Trearddur Bay (5-4 on penalties)
FAW Welsh Cup 3rd round, The New Oval
Match 21 | November
Cymru 4-1 Iceland
UEFA Nations League B, Cardiff City Stadium
Match 22 | November
Colwyn Bay 6-0 Gresford Athletic
Cymru North, Llanelian Road
Match 23 | December
Denbigh Town 7-1 Llanuwchllyn
FAW Welsh Cup 4th round, Central Park
Match 24 | December
NFA 2-4 Y Rhyl 1879
Ardal North West, Ffordd Derwen
Match 25 | December
Airbus UK Broughton 3-2 Buckley Town
Cymru North, The Airfield
Match 26 | January
Colwyn Bay 5-0 Mold Alexandra
Cymru North, Llanelian Road
Match 27 | January
Conwy Borough 2-4 Trearddur Bay
Ardal North West, Y Morfa
Match 28 | January
Hull City 1-1 Doncaster Rovers (4-5 on penalties)
FA Cup 3rd round, MKM Stadium
Match 29 | January
Bethesda Athletic 1-2 Llanrwst United
FAW Trophy 4th round, Parc Meurig
Match 30 | January
Mold Alexandra 4-1 Llay Welfare
Cymru North, Alyn Park
Match 31 | February
Pentraeth 2-3 Penrhyndeudraeth
North Wales Coast League West Premier Division, Bryniau
Match 32 | February
Doncaster Rovers 0-2 Crystal Palace
FA Cup 4th round, Eco Power Stadium
Match 33 | February
Penrhyn Bay 2-0 Llysfaen
North Wales Coast East League REM Jones Cup quarter final, Llandrillo College
Match 34 | February
Accrington Stanley 1-2 Doncaster Rovers
EFL League Two, The Crown Ground
Match 35 | March
Mynydd Llandygai 3-0 Bontnewydd
North Wales Coast West League Premier Division, Penrhiw
Match 36 | March
Colwyn Bay 3-1 Caersws
Cymru North, Llanelian Road
Match 37 | March
Nefyn United 2-1 Boded
North Wales Coast West League Premier Division, Cae’r Delyn
Match 38 | March
Mossley 0-1 Wythenshawe
Northern Premier League Division One West, Seel Park
Match 39 | March
Llandudno Amateurs 1-5 Penmaenmawr Phoenix
North Wales Coast East League Premier Division, Maesdu Park
Match 40 | April
Colwyn Bay 3-0 Llandudno
Cymru North, Llanelian Road
Match 41 | April
Salford City 1-1 Doncaster Rovers
EFL League Two, Peninsula Stadium
Match 42 | April
Tranmere Rovers 0-3 Doncaster Rovers
EFL League Two, Prenton Park
Match 43 | April
Caernarfon Town 5-2 Barry Town United
Cymru Premier European Play-Off, The Oval
Match 44 | May
Aberffraw 0-5 Bethesda Athletic
North Wales Coast West League Premier Division, Cae Cynlas
Match 45 | May
Bow 1-2 Penmaenmawr Phoenix
North Wales Coast East League Premier Division, Bastion Gardens
Match 46 | May
Llanfairfechan Town 1-2 Penmaenmawr Phoenix
North Wales Coast FA Intermediate Cup final, Y Morfa (Conwy Borough)
Match 47 | May
Cerrigydrudion 2-2 Penmaenmawr Phoenix
North Wales Coast East League Premier Division, Cae Ty Nant
Further photographs from each of the games featured in this blog can be found on the popular STAND Instagram account
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Bloody hell!
Match 17. Poprad. Bloody Poprad!
In all my years not once did I ever imagine someone other than I would ever visit Poprad…
In my case it was, of course, a very long time ago. Czechoslovakia, as it then was, was still Communist. The Czech army, rifles and machine guns at the ready, were not pointing them at us, the weird folk in clothes that were staggeringly colourful to every other person within 200 miles. No. The guns were all pointed outwards, at the crowd of locals, gathered outside the perimeter fence to goggle at these utterly weird westerners.
Poprad. A hole. A complete and utter hole. The place where several scenes that could have been written by John le Carre played out in front of my eyes. Poprad….
But the vast quantities of metallic statues of Lenin were all very nice….
BobG
Enjoyable and interesting as ever