AFC Porth

Ground - Dinas Park

Founded - 1950

Nickname - The Black Dragons

by Richard Taylor

The Rhondda valley town of Porth has contributed a rich legacy to the tapestry of footballing history in South Wales.

In one of its many past guises, AFC Porth has long been a stalwart on the Welsh domestic scene and dominated many of the competitions in which it featured for several years.

Recent times have been less forgiving for the Black Dragons but with the newly appointed Kevin Richards in the dugout the club will be looking for a turnaround in fortunes.

Richards brings an impressive array of accolades having featured in European competition as a player for Inter Cardiff and Ton Pentre before transitioning to management and winning five Welsh League Division One titles in the process with the latter.

Richards joins an illustrious list on the managerial roll call, following in the footsteps of such names as former Taffs Well supremo Adrian Needs and ex Cardiff City captain Scott Young under whose stewardship the club last enjoyed a spell of success in Division One a decade ago.

The club itself is in its second stint in its history with the name of AFC Porth. The club formed in 1950 as an amalgam of local teams, first competing under the name of Beatus United after a local packaging factory.

More than three decades later the club was re-named AFC Porth to establish a wider identity to the town in which it competed.

As AFC Porth, the club flourished and embarked on an impressive rise through the South Wales Amateur League and into the Welsh League, winning the second division at the first time of asking in 1991/92 losing only one game in the process.

A second successive title followed in the newly formed Welsh League Division Two, this time registering only defeats, before the club finished an impressive third in Division One behind Barry Town and Aberaman Athletic.

The next rebrand took shape in the 1996/97 season when the Black Dragons became AFC Rhondda in the hope that a broader appeal would be forged in the valley communities. The club had, however, already experienced the peak of its successes in the system and would soon fall on harder times.

The new name lasted less than a decade with the reversion to AFC Porth being agreed in 2004.