Having made more than 500 appearances and with some major honours under his belt at Llanrug United, Eifion Williams was a natural choice to take over as first-team manager at Eithin Duon last summer.
Unfortunately, due to Covid the club is yet to play a competitive game this season, but hopefully that will not have dampened the celebrations too much on Eifion’s 35th birthday today.
The long-serving Williams was appointed manager in June 2020.
The much-respected defender is into his 17th campaign at Eithin Duon, having stepped up from the club’s juniors into the first team squad in August 2004.
Eifion has made 534 appearances for the firsts and scored 17 goals.
When he took over as boss last year, replacing Mark Jat, Eifion moved swiftly to appoint his management team, former manager and midfield great David Noel Williams and ex-reserves boss Phil Lynes coming on board.
In an illustrious playing career, perhaps the greatest moment for Eifion to date came in 2013-14, when he captained United to a 3-2 FAW Trophy final victory over Chirk AAA at Rhyl.
Kevin Lloyd scored twice and David Noel Williams was also on target in what was the then Welsh Alliance club’s biggest-ever win.
The success did not stop there, as in 2014-15 Eifion led Llanrug to Cookson Cup joy, the Caernarfon area side defeating Welsh Alliance champions, FAW Trophy and Barritt Cup treble winners Holywell Town in the final.
Then in 2016-17, Llanrug scooped the Barritt Cup, defeating Glantraeth on penalties in the showpiece game.
That match saw Eifion forced off injured in the 31st minute, but he was still part of a tremendous triumph.
For his first season as manager, Eifion will lead Llanrug in the tier 4 North Wales Coast West Premier Division. We are into January now and still no sign of any football starting below tier 2.
It remains to be seen when Eifion will make his debut as United boss, but whenever that happens he will be a proud man and the team will have a determined, loyal and dependable character at the helm.
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