According to local souces, football was played in Barry on an organised basis well before the turn of the century. However, the present Barry Town A.F.C was not formed until 1912, and won the English Southern League Welsh section in 1921. The club spent seventy years in the Southern League, but on their resignation in 1982, they had little to show in terms of honours, their highest other placing being 4th in 1929-30.
On leaving the Southern League, Barry returned to the Welsh League dominating the decade. The club won five consecutive championships between 1982-3 and 1986-7, and a sixth followed in 1988-9, the club finishing runners-up to Ebbw Vale in the intervening year.
For a brief period, the club returned to the English pyramid system, including spending a year groundsharing with Worcester City, before joining the Abacus League first division in 1993 (the second level of the Welsh pyramid system). That year saw Barry on their first clean-sweep of domestic silverware - winning the league, the Welsh Cup, the league cup and the FAW Trophy. The more tangible prizes for this success were entry into the European Cup Winners' Cup and promtion to the National League of Wales.
However, Barry's first major trophy was won 39 years previously, when a Charlie Dyke goal gave Barry a 4-3 victory over Chester City in the Welsh Cup final (replay) in 1955.
Entering the 1994 Welsh Cup final as massive underdogs against a Cardiff City side enjoying their best spell for more than a decade, Barry took the lead in the 38th minute through David D'Auria, with David Hough's 61st minute goal putting the game beyond doubt.
Unfortunately, though, Barry's first entry into Europe showed up the club's lack of preparation and experience in European football, and the club found itself on the wrong end of a 7-0 aggregate scoreline against Zalgiris Vilnius of Lithuania, formerly a club in the Supreme Soviet league.
That defeat, followed by a poor domestic season, led to structural changes in the club, and the announcement in the Summer of 1995 that they would become the first club in the National League of Wales to operate on a full-time basis.
This was made possible due to a unique partnership between the local Vale of Glamorgan Council, local business funding and the club, all of whom were convinced that the club's ambitions to compete against Europe's best football teams could become a reality.
The rewards for Barry's actions came quickly, and, under the stewardship of Paul and David Giles, the club won their first National League of Wales title in 1995-96. Unfortunately, the away goals rule put paid to Barry's hopes of winning the Gilbert League Cup while they lost out to Llansantffraid in the Welsh Cup final.
Football was put into perspective, though, with the sad death of two members of the club. Chairman, Neil O'Halloran, the driving force behind the club for many years, sadly never saw the success which he engineered, dying on September 30, 1995. The club was hit by tragedy again in the following April, when Matthew Holtam, a player in his first year at the club, died on the return from a match.
Despite the success of the 1995-96 season, changes were made at Jenner Park, with the experienced Gary Barnett taking over as manager. Meanwhile, a second stand was built at Jenner Park to enable the club to stage the forthcoming UEFA Cup matches in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The qualifying round pitted Barry with Dinaburg of Latvia, and despite a goalless draw at Jenner Park, goals from Craig Evans and Chris Pike ensured that Barry stayed in the competition. They then went on to knock out Budapest Vasutas of Hungary, coming back from a 3-1 defeat in the first leg, to win on penalties at Jenner Park.
Barry then went on to play Scottish club, Aberdeen, but despite a wonderful goal from assistant-manager, Richard Jones, Barry lost 3-1 in Scotland, and even though the club scored first in the return leg, Barry drew the home tie and lost out 6-4 on aggregate.
Despite that disappointment, Barry went on to win all three domestic competitions, winning the league with six matches to play, defeating Cwmbran Town in the Welsh Cup final and Bangor City in the Gilbert League Cup.
The 1997-98 season continued that vein of form, with the club going through the entire season undefeated in the National League of Wales. Barry also held onto their Gilbert League Cup trophy. However, there was also a quarter-final defeat at the hands of Merthyr Tydfil in the inaugural F.A.W Invitation Cup, and a semi-final defeat against Connah's Quay Nomads in the Welsh Cup. In the European Cup, Barry were defeated by Dinamo Kiev of the Ukraine, who went on to knock-out Barcelona, Newcastle and PSV Eindhoven, before losing to eventual finalists, Juventus.
With the 1998-99 season still a few months off, Barry have already set about rebuilding the squad, with recent signings including Ben Burrows from Manchester City and the experienced Paul Mitchell from Torquay United. The club are again looking forward to the challenge of representing Wales in Europe, and hope to repeat the successes of previous years, while learning from mistakes.
Links to other sites on the Web
This page written and maintained by the Yellow Dragon, 1998
Get your own Free Home Page