Mold Alexandra F.C.
| Full name | Mold Alexandra Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1929 | ||
| Ground | Alyn Park | ||
| Chairman | Barry Couchman | ||
| Manager | Sean Rogers | ||
| League | Welsh National League Premier Division | ||
| 2011-12 | Welsh National League Premier Division, 4th (from 16) | ||
| Website | Club home page | ||
| |||
Coordinates: 53°10′22″N 3°08′36″W / 53.172796°N 3.143388°W
Mold Alexandra F.C. is a football club based in Mold in Wales. A founder member of the League of Wales, the club are now playing in the Welsh National League Premier Division, the third tier of Welsh football.
History
Mold Alexandra Football Club was formed in 1929, growing out of the Mission Church team of the 1920s. The club was founded as rivals to Mold Town and the story goes that the club’s rare suffix was chosen at the inaugural meeting when someone picked up a copy of the Alexandra Hymn Book. After a brief pre-war stay in the West Cheshire League, Alex returned to the Wrexham Area League in the 1940s, when the Alyn Park ground apparently had covered accommodation for 300-400 spectators. The club remained in the WAL for some forty-five years, winning the League Cup in 1950.
It was not until the 1980s, however, that the club started winning major trophies on a regular basis. Then, during a successful 1985-86 season, Mold Alexandra won the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) championship, the League Cup, the North East Wales Cup and the North Wales Coast Cup. The league title was retained in 1986-87, along with the North East Wales Cup. In 1989 they battled through to the semi-finals of the Welsh Intermediate Cup (losing to Aberystwyth Town) and their successes during the decade were enough for them to be invited into the newly formed Cymru Alliance in 1990 and thence the League of Wales in 1992.
Mold survived in the national competition for three years before being relegated on the last day of the 1994-95 season. The inaugural League of Wales season was not without its problems for the club, although they enjoyed several good results once the first traumatic months of the season were out of the way. Following relegation from the national league, Alex survived a further three years in the Cymru Alliance before dropping back into the Welsh National League in the summer of 1998.
Facing relegation as the bottom club in the Cymru Alliance at the end of the 1997-98 season, Alex first explored the idea of a merger with Mostyn F.C.. Eventually they rejected this idea and opted for relegation, expecting to be put back in the Wrexham Area League. However, with Chirk also relegated (third from bottom) and filling that spot, they were told that they should drop into the Welsh Alliance. Mold appealed to the FAW but in an unsatisfactory episode the vote went against them.
It was then that the club took a brave decision. Refusing to take up their place in the geographically spread Welsh Alliance, they chose to field one team in 1998-99, in the middle (First) division of the Wrexham Area League (level 4 in the pyramid), the place previously filled by their reserve side. To rub salt in the wounds, the FAW then ejected Alex from the 1998-99 Welsh Cup, after the first round draw had been made, because their level 4 status made them ineligible. The enforced exile at level 4 lasted just one season, as the Alex clinched promotion back to the Premier Division with a game to spare.
Thus Mold Alexandra were back where they believed they should have been twelve months earlier, rebuilding at level 3 in the pyramid. Following three successful seasons back in the Welsh National League, Alex won the championship of the Premier Division in the 2002-03 season, losing just one of their twenty eight league fixtures, and were promoted back to the Cymru Alliance. However, the club were relegated back to the Welsh National League in 2006-07.
In the summer of 2003 it was announced that their ground at Alyn Park, which has been rented from local company Synthite for a peppercorn rent for over 50 years. is to be redeveloped for housing. Synthite are proposing to buy a new site for the club which will be leased to the Alex for 25 years, and which will allow the club to build a stadium meeting the highest League of Wales standards.
The Club did not hesitate to offer the position to ex Wrexham and Chester City professional Jon Cross who was already involved as a player and a coach at Alyn Park. However, at the halfway stage of the 2003/04 season, the Committee replaced Cross with ex-boss Dave Williams with player Gary Emberton acting as assistant, and the club successfully secured their position in the second tier of Welsh senior football. In the summer of 2004 ex Alex player and Flint Town United manager Terry Wheeler was appointed as first team manager but Wheeler only lasted in the Alyn Park hot seat until the autumn. Again Dave John took over for a short while until ex Wrexham professional Tony Merola was appointed manager in early 2005, initially until the end of the season.
At the beginning of the 2005/2006 Merola was appointed as permanent manager and in the first season back in the Welsh National League Mold finished in ninth position. The following season Mold finished third and missed out on promotion after losing a vital game at Cefn United which could have sealed the second place required.
Due to work commitments, Merola resigned as manager before a Welsh Cup second round tie at Caersws on October 6, 2007, which was lost 9-0. Merola's assistant, Danny Seamarks, accepted the role of caretaker manager and soon this became permanent with club coach Andy Crabtree stepping up to assist Seamarks. The duo led Mold to the League Cup final but the club lost to Brymbo 3-2 finishing the game with nine men after Craig Roberts and Gary Burns where sent-off. After the home of champions Brymbo failed a ground inspection by the Cymru Alliance management Mold were invited to take promotion after finishing second. This was confirmed at the Cymru Alliance AGM held at Llandudno in June.
Mold Alexandra won the Welsh National League's Presidents Cup on 9 August 2008 beating Brymbo 5-1 at Brymbo, the scorers for Mold where Gary Burns (15), Owain Roberts (20), Darren Pritchard (65), Wayne Craig (86) and Dave Bryan (89) and for the record Brymbo's came from Shaun Edwards (27).
In their first season back in the Cymru Alliance the club finished in a creditable 10th position with all of the squad from their previous year's successful campaign staying together. At the start of this season (2009–10) Mold had started to assemble a stronger squad with the realisation that due to the restructuring of the Welsh Pyramid system, as many as 10 teams could be relegated. Meaning that a place in the top 7 would secure a place in the Cymru Alliance. Currently after a third of the season Mold Alex are in an encouraging 5th Place.However in 2009-2010 the club was relegated back to the Welsh National League this despite not finishing in the relegation zone, relegation was due to the re-organisation of the top tier, during the season Mold lost the talented Gary Burns to a terrible injury, Gary Burns was playing in central defence against Berriew and had his leg broken in 7 places following a terrible sliding tackle that appeared to be a player going for a player rather than the ball he was taken to Shrewsbury Hospital where he had 3 operations to get his leg sorted out, a further operation took place in March 2011.
Mold Alexandra lost their programme team of both Gary Burns (Senior) and Howard Smith, between these two the club programme won many awards with Howards production and photograph's and Gary's match reports and photo's a gap that Mold have yet to fill, Mold tried in vain to keep both but Howard opted to leave and work commitments forced Gary to leave.
Following relegation from the Cymru Alliance League at the end of the '09/'10 season, the 2010/11 season started badly with the club languishing next to bottom of the Welsh National League Premier Division in January. A change of Manager, with the appointment of Dave Abraham, saw a change of fortune on the pitch and the season finished with Mold comfortable in mid table.
The club continue to play at Alyn Park the home of Mold Alex since 1929 and over recent years the ground has held the Mold bonfire display,fairground,stunt show and circus. T
Honours
- Welsh National League
- Champions 1985-86, 1986–87, 2002–03
- League Cup Winners 1950, 1986
- League Cup Runners Up 2008
- Presidents Cup Winners 2008
- North East Wales Cup
- Winners 1986, 1987
- North Wales Coast Cup
- Winners 1986
North Wales Junior Cup Winners 1930
Records
- Biggest League of Wales win: 5-0 v. Llansantffraid in 1994.
- Biggest League of Wales defeat: 7-1 v. Bangor City in 1992.
External links
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||