Mary Bailey is one of the finest defenders competing in North and Mid Wales

Mary Bailey has established herself as one of the finest defenders in the North Wales Women’s Football League over the past couple of seasons.

Born on May 31, 1998, the Llanfair United captain celebrated her 23rd birthday yesterday.

A tall and commanding figure at the back, she joined Llanfair in the 2014-15 season and has made in the region of 100 appearances for the team.

Mary began her career with junior side Llanymynech Lemurs and first trained with Llanfair at the age of 15.

One of her fondest memories with United is winning the 2018 Central Wales Cup, beating Aberystwyth Town 3-2 in the final, Mary Griffiths (2, 1 pen) and Sarah Ellis with the goals.

Her biggest highlights, however, came in 2018-19 when she captained Llanfair as they lifted the North East Wales FA Cup and North Wales Women’s Football League Cup.

In the same season, they finished joint Division One champions with Bethel.

The 2019-20 season was shortened drastically due to Covid-19, but winning all five of their league games was enough to secure Llanfair the Division One title outright.

Mary has been captain of Llanfair for the past two seasons.

She sees her playing strengths as meeting the ball, blocking, motivating and supporting her team-mates.

The defender feels she could be better at keeping composed under pressure and admits she can be over-critical of her performances.

Having been joint Manager’s Player of the Year with Chloe Brown in 2018-19, it is fair to say the past two seasons (before 2020-21 was wiped out by coronavirus) have been the most successful of her career.

Hailing from Meifod near Welshpool, Mary got engaged to Callum Mytton on her birthday last year.

She is an extremely friendly and helpful character who is a natural leader and a highly accomplished player.

Belated happy birthday for yesterday Mary.