Happy 40th birthday Lee Dixon – this is your footballing life!

They say life begins at 40…..

Well if that’s the case for Lee Dixon, then the rest of his life could be one hell of a success story as he has already packed a plethora of achievements into his first 40 years – certainly in a local football sense.

Although currently ‘retired’ from the beautiful game, there will always be room for a man with his impressive CV to return.

Lee hails from good footballing stock as his dad Don was manager of Bangor City Reserves for many years and brother Paul has also played the game at a decent standard.

As a player, Lee operated all the way up to Welsh Premier League level, while as a manager he won the Cymru Alliance with Llangefni Town, plus the Welsh Alliance title, FAW Trophy and NWCFA Challenge Cup, among other trophies, while in charge of Caernarfon Town.

In his playing days, Lee was a rock-solid defender who represented Glantraeth, Cemaes Bay, Bangor City, Llangefni Town, Conwy United, Holyhead Hotspur and Bethesda Athletic.

Always involved at a high level of football, the player affectionately known as “Dicko” picked up numerous winners’ medals with the aforementioned clubs.

In all, he featured in 31 Welsh Premier matches, seven as a sub (all with Bangor City), while he made 12 starts apiece for Conwy and Llangefni Town, during the Anglesey club’s one and only top-flight season in 2007-08.

The 2009-10 season saw Lee appointed manager at Llangefni with academy director Ian Hughes as assistant and the pair did a magnificent job to lead Town to the Cymru Alliance championship.

Cefni were denied promotion to the reorganised Welsh Premier for failure to gain a Domestic Licence – good enough two years earlier, but not this time.

Lee stood down in November 2010 and re-emerged at Caernarfon Town at the start of the 2012-13 season.

The Canaries had been success-starved for many years, but Dicko launched the club’s march back to the top of the Welsh game.

By the end of his first season at the helm, he had led the Cofis to the treble of Welsh Alliance Division One title, FAW Trophy and Cookson Cup.

Not surprisingly, he was named Welsh Alliance League Manager of the Season.

In 2013-14, Town finished third in the Cymru Alliance, but under Lee added two more trophies to the cabinet in the shape of the League Cup and NWCFA Challenge Cup, which they lifted after beating Welsh Premier arch-rivals Bangor City on their own patch in the final on penalty kicks. Dicko was also crowned Huws Gray Alliance Manager of the Season.

Lee remains the last manager to lift the coast cup as the competition discontinued at the end of 2013-14.

In 2014/15, Caernarfon finished runners-up in the Cymru Alliance and Lee decided to call it a day as manager.

He had won five trophies in three seasons, spearheaded the club’s journey back to glory which now sees them dazzling in the Welsh Premier, and enjoyed a magnificent record of 85 victories in 121 games in charge of the team.

For the past four years, Lee has put all his focus on family and work commitments, but still when a big job on the North Wales football scene is up for grabs, his name is one of the first bandied around.

Will he return to football management one day? Who knows, but regardless of what he decides to do, he will go down in history as one of North Wales’ finest managers of the modern era.

Today Lee Dixon celebrates his 40th birthday.

Grassroots North Wales wishes him all the best and thanks him for all of his invaluable support – both professional and personal – over the years. Top man.