CARNO Football Club owes its existence to a car crash in the summer of 1960.

The village had previously never had its own football club but following a car crash which left Bernard Evans, Meirion Rowlands and Edward Jones in hospital the friends talked about their shared dream to establish a club.

The club won its first game 5-2 at Llandinam in the Montgomeryshire League and have remained part of the Mid Wales footballing landscape ever since.

Indeed the first silverware was not long in coming with the club crowned league champions in 1967.

However the club spent the next decade bouncing between the first and second division before announcing their arrival in Montgomeryshire football by winning the county cup in 1982.

The following season the club joined the Mid Wales League for the first time but their stay in senior football proved brief and were relegated to the Montgomeryshire League in 1985.

Carno ended second in consecutive seasons in 1987 and 1988 to complete their return to the Mid Wales League.

However with the landscape of Welsh football changing the club seized the opportunity to become founder members of the Cymru Alliance in 1990.

The club enjoyed its highest ever status in the second tier of Welsh football until a last placed finish in 1996 saw them relegated.

Once again the village club bounced back to thrive in the Mid Wales League and won the title in 2000.

However the club opted against seeking promotion and have since been Mid Wales League ever presents.

Fortunes have been mixed with the club ending runners-up in 2002 only to end bottom of the table in 2006 and second from bottom in 2007.

The Montgomeryshire Cup was won for a second time in 2008 to galvanise the club.

The fightback began the following season with the club enjoyed improved league finishes, while never failing to end in the top four from 2014 to 2017.

The crowning glory arrived with the Montgomeryshire Cup won in 2014 and the Central Wales Cup for the first time in 2016 under the management of Chris Davies who stepped down last season as the club's most successful manager in their history.

Following the brief tenure of Gwynfor Edwards the club has put its faith in ex-Maesyrhandir chief Gary Jones to continue the work at Ty Brith.

Jones has steadied the ship with the aim of ending the season on a high.

A club spokesman said: "We would like to thank Gary Jones as he came to the club at a very difficult time and has gone straight to work bringing in a number of new faces.

"He is also a great help away from match days. His enthusiasm and his work ethic has really given everyone at the club a lift."

The club will look to maintain its policy of giving youth a chance.

"We’ve always tried to give young local players a chance at a level in which they may have found difficult to find elsewhere.

"It’s worked quite well in the past and we have brought a number of players in from other club's reserve teams that have gone onto do well either for ourselves or elsewhere."

Off the pitch the club is indebted to chairman Gareth Griffiths and the work of Chris Davies and assistant Jonathan Evans who brought the good times back to Ty Brith.

"Gareth has worked hard behind the scenes over the years, especially raising funds to keep the club going while Phil Richards has looked after the pitch and been an ever present on the sidelines.

"Of course everyone at the club is grateful to Chris who played a big role in getting the club to where it is at today and continues to work behind the scenes.

"The club is also grateful to Walter Davies who is now 92 years old and continues to do odd jobs and most recently painted the stand in the summer.

"We would also like to thank our small but faithful followers."

The ever more stringent criteria will once again see the club look to rise to the challenge with the Greens having applied for promotion to the new third tier.

The club spokesman added: "Over the last five years there’s been a lot of work done to the ground and we’ve just got a few more seats to add to the stand now to meet the ever changing criteria."



We’d also like to thank all the current players, previous players, sponsors and anyone that has helped the club over the years and are always open to new faces.