Tredegar Town

Formed: 1968 (as Rhyd Boys Club)

Ground: Tredegar Leisure Complex, Tredegar

Manager: Gareth Harbord

by Jordan Forster

Like many clubs across Wales, Tredegar Town’s existence is in no small part due to local volunteers with the humble ambition of providing a recreational outlet in a local community.

In 1968 the late Bethel brothers (Cliff and Dai) formed a junior football club in the Sirhowy Valley town Tredegar to provide association football for the local boys who preferred the round to the oval ball. Rhyd Boys Club - as it was known then - remained largely a junior club, developing several players that represented Wales at school and boys club levels, for 15 years when the club was re-branded Tredegar Town and began playing senior football in the North Gwent League in 1983.

When the League of Wales and the national pyramid was formed in 1992, Tredegar Town were allocated a place in the Gwent County League and the next decade would prove to be the most successful in the club’s history.

There were two Gwent County lower division titles in the early to mid 1990s before the division one title was won and promotion to the Welsh League secured at the end of the 1997/98 season.

Town were not finished there. Their debut Welsh League campaign in 1998/99 brought another promotion as Tredegar finished second behind Caerleon in division three and earned successive promotions. In the same campaign, Tredegar had their best ever Welsh Cup run, reaching the third round where they were eliminated by Llanelli AFC.

Tredegar’s first stay in tier 3 lasted 11 years and they were just three points away from promotion to Welsh League division one in 2004/5, which remains the club’s highest ever league finish. Slow decline did set in after this narrow miss and Town returned to division three of the Welsh League in 2010 where they have remained stable and competitive since until the re-structure of the FAW leagues for the forthcoming season.

Last season Tredegar finished 10th on the points per game basis used by the FAW following the curtailment of the 2019/20 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.