AFAN LIDO HISTORY

Shortly after the opening of the Lido Sports Centre in Aberavon, current Director of Football Phil Robinson, part of the Centre’s management team, saw the need to organise the many who came to the centre regularly in order to play football.  In June 1967, he formed them into a club that gained admittance into the local Port Talbot and District League for season 1967-68.  This club was AFAN LIDO FC.

A move upwards came in 1971-72 when the club was accepted into the Welsh Football League.  Two seasons later, we earned promotion into the First Division (now Second Division) and after another two - year spell, gained promotion to the Premier Division (now the First Division and the second tier in the Welsh system).  After finishing third in our first season at this level, there followed a barren spell that saw our club drop back a division until we bounced back in 1984-85.  By this time the league had been reorganized and a higher National Division formed, to which we gained promotion 1989-90 after finishing third.  The two previous seasons had actually seen us win the Premier Division championship but we failed to reach the ground criteria set by the League.

The formation of the League of Wales provided the next step for the club, our application to join was successful, we were invited to become founder members for the inaugural 1992-93 season.  A healthy mid-table position was achieved in this first season, finishing 12th overall.  However, success in the League Cup, beating Caersws on penalties provided a superb end to the season. 

This was not the club’s first major cup success however; in 1986-87 we had won the Welsh Intermediate Cup beating Taffs Well 1-0 in a replay at Briton Ferry.  Our cup exploits continued in 1993-94.  In a thrilling final at Aberystwyth we beat a rampant Bangor City side that had just clinched the League title.  The narrow 1-0 win was enough to make people take notice and help fans forget a disappointing League campaign.  Our club transformed matters, and narrowly avoided relegation, finishing 16th. 

At the start of the 1994-95 season however, things changed at our club.  A stronger defence was in place with a decidedly scrooge-like attitude to giving goals away, only 36 were conceded all season.  A consistency matched only by the eventual champions saw us finish in second place and earn an UEFA Cup spot.

From the inception of the League of Wales, Europe was only a dream and its realisation was a just reward for the hard work put in by a tightly knit management committee.  Defeat in the UEFA Cup at the hands of RAF Riga of Latvia was a bitter pill to swallow, a 2-1 defeat at home gave us a mountain to climb away but we battled hard and deserved our nil-nil draw.  We were one of the first League of Wales sides to avoid defeat on foreign soil.

Sadly we failed to build on this performance and we were relegated at the end of the 1994-95 season. 

Our first season back in the Welsh league saw us consolidate and we eventually finished in sixth position having earlier been in a position to challenge for the league.  Following Mark Robinson’s appointment as General Manager and David Dale as Chairman, we won promotion back to the league of Wales at the end of the 1997-98 season.

A number of ground improvements had taken place, including a 400 seater stand and a new clubhouse.  Consolidation was again the aim and we finished in 14^th place in our first season back in the league of Wales.  A satisfactory position considering the age and experience in the side.  In season 1999-2000 we firmly established ourselves as members of Wales’ Premier League, finishing tenth, we narrowly missed qualification for the lucrative BBC/FAW Premier Cup, and lost in the semi-final of the Welsh Cup 4-2 after extra time, against Bangor City, our best ever run in the competition.

In season 2000-2001 hopes were high of a top eight finish and we were disappointed to finish 11^th and once again fail to qualify for the Premier Cup.

Season 2001-2002 saw a winning start with a 2-1 home win against Rhyl followed by a 0-0 draw at Rhayader. However the heaviest defeat of the season was a midweek game at Caersws when we went down 6-0.

From November 3^rd  we won 9 consecutive home matches before a 0-0 draw with Flexsys Cefn Druids ended that run on March 30th.  Away from home we lost 9 consecutive matches from October 27^th, that game at Caersws, until a 3-0 success at Oswestry on March 16^th.  A strong finish in the league saw us going to Flexsys Cefn Druids on the last day of the season needing to win and hope that Caersws would lose at Connah’s Quay to allow us to finish in fourth place and once again compete in Europe.  However it wasn’t to be, we did our bit with a 2-1 win but unfortunately for us Caersws also won 2-1 and finished fourth by virtue of having a better goal difference. 

However the target of qualifying for the FAW Premier cup was achieved with the club boasting an unbeaten home record since November 3^rd 2001 while our last away defeat was on March 2^nd at Connah’s Quay, since then a ten match unbeaten run, 8 wins and 2 draws saw us race up the table and qualify for that coveted FAW Premier cup spot. Further progress was made by topping the group and qualifying for the knockout stages and being drawn home to Wrexham. Although we have played the English league clubs at home in the past this was our first home competitive fixture against one of them. Wrexham fielded a full first team and ran out 4-0 winners before a decent sized crowd.   

In 2003-04 we are again in the FAW Premier cup after finishing in 7^th place in the league. We were drawn against Connah’s Quay, Rhyl and Newport County. Despite an encouraging start 0-0 at Rhyl and 2-2 at Connah’s Quay we failed to pick up any further points and finished bottom of the group.

Our league form also disappointed, we finished in 14^th place with only 32 points from 32 matches. A number of injuries didn’t help but our failure in front of goal proved costly. Only 31 goals were scored in the 32 matches. We failed to qualify for the Premier cup but we did reach the quarter finals of the Welsh cup before losing to the eventual winners Rhyl.  

2004-05 was again a huge disappointment, an opening day 2-1 loss at TNS was, despite the result encouraging, the winning goal being scored 5 minutes from time.  Sadly we conceded late goals in several games which cost us, as draws were turned into defeats thereby losing valuable points.  Our best results of the season were two wins against newly promoted Airbus UK, a 4-1 away win followed by a 4-0 home win.  Unfortunately in the 4-0 win we played Leigh Shrimpton who was serving a ban picked up while playing for another side.  We were unaware of this as the football authorities hadn’t informed us and it was to cost us dearly.  We were found guilty of playing an ineligible player and were deducted 3 points which proved crucial as it left us bottom of the league with a couple of matches left.  We were unable to recover these points on the field and an appeal against the loss of points fell on deaf ears.  We will now play in the Welsh League for the first time since 1997-98.  Our cup form was a lot better, success over Caldicot, Airbus UK and Barry Town saw us reach the quarter final of the Welsh cup before bowing out at TNS. The second successive season we lost to the eventual cup winners.