Carlisle might be as close to Scotland as Shrewsbury is to Wales, but we’ve never the won the Scottish FA Cup whereas the Shrews have lifted the Welsh FA Cup on six occasions. The competition itself having been won a total of 21 times by 10 different English clubs, with Shrewsbury the leaders on those six, while Chester and Wellington Town are in joint runners-up spot on three. I found myself asking who Wellington Town where as well by the way, apparently they were renamed as Telford United in 1969, although their founding name of Parish Church Institute, that they had for seven years, seems better to me.
It was even more of an unknown team these days though that first struck gold for England, and that was then Oswestry White Stars (who ended up becoming Oswestry Town) in the 1883-84 final when they beat Druids 1-0 in a replay in the sixth season of the competition. Neither club now existing though as Oswestry were part of the Total Network Solutions (The New Saints these days) merger in 2003, while Druids went through a couple of mergers of their own before a final one with Cefn Albion FC in 1992 saw them become the club some of you may of heard of today, that being Cefn Druids.
It’s mainly clubs that are near to the Welsh border of course that have represented England the most in the competition, but there were a few from a good distance away that also took part, including Kidderminster Harriers, South Liverpool, Stourbridge and Worcester, while my extensive Google research suggests that Hednesford (Town) is about 45 miles from the Welsh border. Although the fact that they are nicknamed the Pitmen maybe makes it fair that they played in a Welsh competition, and even lost 1-0 to Cardiff City in the 1991-92 final.
It’s not the Bluebirds or Swansea who lead the way, as you might have thought, on total competition victories however as it’s Wrexham with 23, one ahead of Cardiff with the Swans lagging behind on just 10. Wrexham infact having been in the final a remarkable 45 times between 1877-78 and 1994-95, with Aberdare Athletic being the club you have to feel sorry for as they lost four finals out of four. The good news for me though is one of my old favourites, the works team of the Lovell’s sweet factory based in Newport, Lovell’s Athletic FC did manage to pick up a final victory when they beat Shrewsbury 3-0 in the 1947-48 campaign.
It was in 1992 though that the cracks began to appear in the competition for not only the English sides taking part, but also for the Welsh clubs competing in the English leagues, as in that year the League of Wales was formed. That problem might have pleased some clubs though to be honest, I mean would you have fancied doing the programme or a matchday poster for the 1988-89 third round tie between Kidderminster Harriers and Clwb Pel Droed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Football Club. Oh, and yes, I did cut and paste that.
English clubs that had been invited to participate in the competition had never been able to qualify for what in those days was the European Cup Winners’ Cup, with the place in Europe going to the best placed Welsh club in the event of an English winner. That problem ended totally though from the 1995-96 season onwards when English clubs were completely excluded from the competition, while the six Welsh exiles in the English pyramid also got the bullet at the time, those being Cardiff, Colwyn Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Swansea and Wrexham.
Merthyr, Newport and Wrexham did come back in when invited in 2011-12, although their return only lasted one season when UEFA reiterated what they had previously said in 1995, in that the six exiles could only qualify for the Europa League by winning an English competition. Without English clubs and the exiles the Welsh FA Cup of course continues and it was won last season by Prestatyn Town when they beat Bangor City 3-1 after extra-time in the final. The goals to make it 1-0 and 3-1 for the Seasiders being scored by a former Carlisle striker, in Jason Price.