The New Saints F.C.


The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, also known as The New Saints or TNS, is a professional football club representing Oswestry in Shropshire, England; and Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain in Powys, Wales — the two places are apart. They play in the Cymru Premier, where they have won a record thirteen titles – including eight seasons in a row between 2012 and 2019.
Founded in 1959 as Llansantffraid F.C., from 1997 to 2006, the club was known as Total Network Solutions F.C. after its sponsor. In 2003, it merged with Oswestry Town F.C. and three years later it adopted its current name.
Their youngest ever player was Jeff Matthew Harris, who made his debut at the age of 12 years and 124 days.
TNS play at Park Hall in Oswestry after moving there in 2007 from the Recreation Ground in Llansantffraid. Park Hall accommodates 2,034 spectators of which 1,000 are seated and there are plans to upgrade the ground to 3,000 capacity in the future.

History

Llansantffraid F.C.

The club was formed as Llansantffraid F.C. to represent the tiny border village of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain in 1959, and played at the Recreation Ground.
They first tasted competitive football in the Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, winning the championship seven times. At the end of the 1989–90 season they were elected to the Central Wales League but their stay was brief, winning promotion to the Cymru Alliance as runners-up on their first attempt. Llansantffraid's meteoric rise continued and in 1992–93 they gained promotion to the League of Wales, now the Cymru Premier, as champions and won the Welsh Intermediate Cup.

Total Network Solutions

In 1996, Llansantffraid won the Welsh Cup and qualified for the first time for the European Cup Winners' Cup. At this time a local computer company, Total Network Solutions of Oswestry, arranged a £250,000 sponsorship deal which involved incorporating the company name into the club name. As Total Network Solutions Llansantffraid F.C. they met the Polish cup winners Ruch Chorzów and earned a 1–1 draw at home before losing 5–0 in Poland. Since then they have qualified for European competition several times. The club's European home games are generally played at either Newtown's or Wrexham's stadium as their old Recreation Ground was far below UEFA's standards.
In 1997 the club's name was changed to Total Network Solutions F.C., being the first instance in the United Kingdom of a football club renaming itself after its sponsor's name only. Following the financial meltdown of Barry Town in the summer of 2003, TNS became the only Cymru Premier club which had a full-time playing staff. In the summer of 2005, however, Llanelli AFC also announced plans to go full-time.

Merger with Oswestry Town

In the summer of 2003, the shareholders of Oswestry Town met to approve a merger with TNS, although not all the shareholders knew of the meeting. The financially weaker club was a close neighbour to TNS, and also played in the League of Wales despite being based across the border in Shropshire. The Football Association of Wales ratified the merger on 14 August 2003 as did UEFA eventually, despite its initial objection to a merger of two clubs with different governing bodies.
The 2003–04 season was trophyless for TNS as they finished runners-up in the League of Wales to Rhyl and were beaten finalists in the Welsh Cup, also to Rhyl. The 2004–05 season proved much more successful, as TNS won a League and Cup double.
During the 2005–06 off-season, after newly crowned Champions League winners Liverpool were initially denied a place in the next season's competition, TNS offered to play a one-legged tie against the Reds for TNS's place in the first qualifying round. After UEFA reached a compromise by which Liverpool were placed in the first qualifying round of the competition, TNS and Liverpool ended up drawn against one another anyway. Liverpool won the first leg at Anfield 3–0 thanks to a Steven Gerrard hat-trick. In the second leg, played at Wrexham, Gerrard added two goals after coming on as a substitute to Djibril Cissé's opening tally for another 3–0 Liverpool victory. Although defeated, TNS drew praise, most notably for the young Northern Irish goalkeeper Gerard Doherty, of whom Rafael Benítez said, "The goalkeeper saved a lot of goals and for me he was the best player in the two games".

The New Saints F.C.

In early 2006 the club's sponsor, Total Network Solutions, was taken over by British Telecom, as a result of which the sponsorship arrangement lapsed at the end of the 2005–06 season and it became necessary to find a new name for the club. After a trawl for new naming ideas, including an attempt to sell the naming rights on eBay, the name "The New Saints" was agreed upon as appropriate to the history of both of the originally merged clubs: Llansantffraid was always known as "The Saints"; Oswestry had strong connections with Saint Oswald; while the club's name was already abbreviated to "TNS". A new club badge was also developed at the same time, featuring a dragon to represent Llansantffraid and a lion representing Oswestry.
On 10 February 2010, the BBC reported that the New Saints had applied to play home games at Chester City's Deva Stadium in 2010–11, after having been turned down for a grant to help fund the construction of a new 1,000-seat stand at Park Hall. At the time, the mooted move was complicated by Chester City's governance issues. Deva Stadium's pitch and stands lie in Wales, but outbuildings on the site that housed the club offices are in England, and Chester City were under the jurisdiction of the English Football Association. Chester City were liquidated a month later by HMRC; in any event, the New Saints were granted a domestic licence by the FAW in April 2010 and remained at Park Hall for 2010–11 season. The New Saints were crowned 2009–10 Welsh Premier League Champions.
The New Saints entered the Champions League in 2010–11. They were drawn against League of Ireland Premier Division Champions Bohemians in the Second Qualifying Round. They lost the first leg 1–0 at Dalymount Park in Dublin on 13 July 2010. However they won the second leg at Park Hall 4–0 and won the tie 4–1 on aggregate, the first ever tie won by the club since their European debut in 1996. Bohemians manager Pat Fenlon later labelled his team's performance as 'disgraceful' and said 'the players let the club, league and country down'. The result was labelled by others as the worst result in Bohemians' 40-year European history. The Saints advanced to play Belgian Pro League Champions and European Giants R.S.C. Anderlecht. The Saints were beaten 3–1 in the home leg played in Wrexham and 3–0 in the away game at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Brussels. The Saints then played CSKA Sofia in the Europa League playoff round but were beaten 5–2 on aggregate. As league runners up during the 2010–11 season the Saints entered the Europa League qualifying rounds in 2011. They beat Belfast club Cliftonville 2–1 on aggregate in the First Round but were eliminated by Danish club FC Midtjylland 8–3 on aggregate in the following round.
On 30 December 2016, The New Saints defeated Cefn Druids 2–0 in the Cymru Premier. This extended their winning run to 27 matches, surpassing the previous record of 26 set by Ajax in the 1970s for the most consecutive club victories by a top-flight team.

Cultural references

"Dancing in the Streets"

On the Sky Sports football show Soccer Saturday, TNS's name was gently mocked by the programme's main presenter, Jeff Stelling. At the end of the day's classified check, if TNS have won at home, Stelling invariably used his catchphrase "They'll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight!", since updated to "dancing in the streets of the New Saints". Stelling's joke was also occasionally aimed at fellow Welsh side, Airbus UK in 2005–06. Stelling's joke may ultimately derive from the accidental 'they'll be dancing in the streets of Raith', claimed to have been said by football commentator Sam Leitch in the 1960s during a match played by the Kirkcaldy-based Raith Rovers, though the phrase is better known as a stock phrase of rugby commentator Bill McLaren, often stating "they'll be dancing in the streets of..." and inserting in the name of the winning team.

Other

TNS are mentioned in the song "This One's for Now" by the band Half Man Half Biscuit on the album Urge for Offal.

Futsal

The club's Futsal side has also seen success, having been winners of the inaugural FAW Futsal Cup in 2011 and reaching the final in 2012.

Current squad

Out on loan

League history

SeasonLeagueFinal position
1959–60Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League3rd
1960–61Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League9th
1961–62Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League6th
1962–63Montgomeryshire Amateur Football LeagueRunners-Up
1963–64Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League7th
1964–65Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League3rd
1965–66Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League4th
1966–67Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League5th
1967–68Montgomeryshire Amateur Football Leagueunknown
1968–69Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League1st – Champions
1969–70Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League. Division 11st – Champions
1970–71Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 21st – Champions
1971–72Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 12nd – Runners-Up
1972–73Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 12nd – Runners-Up
1973–74Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 12nd – Runners-Up
1974–75Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 12nd – Runners-Up
1975–76Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 17th
1976–77Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 16th
1977–78Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 19th
1978–79Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 111th
1979–80Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 25th
1980–81Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 21st
1981–82Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 15th
1982–83Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 11st – Champions
1983–84Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 13rd
1984–85Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 110th
1985–86Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 16th
1986–87Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 11st – Champions
1987–88Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 15th
1988–89Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 15th
1989–90Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, Division 18th
1990–91Central Wales League2nd – Runners-Up
1991–92Cymru Alliance2nd – Runners-Up
1992–93Cymru Alliance1st – Champions
1993–94League of Wales18th
1994–95League of Wales9th
1995–96League of Wales12th
1996–97League of Wales6th
1997–98League of Wales14th
1998–99League of Wales8th
1999–2000League of Wales1st – Champions
2000–01League of Wales8th
2001–02League of Wales2nd – Runners-Up
2002–03Welsh Premier League2nd – Runners-Up
2003–04Welsh Premier League2nd – Runners-Up
2004–05Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2005–06Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2006–07Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2007–08Welsh Premier League2nd – Runners-Up
2008–09Welsh Premier League3rd
2009–10Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2010–11Welsh Premier League2nd – Runners-Up
2011–12Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2012–13Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2013–14Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2014–15Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2015–16Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2016–17Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2017–18Welsh Premier League1st – Champions
2018–19Welsh Premier League1st – Champions

;Notes

History in European competition

As of 16 July 2018

Overall

Matches

;Notes