Happy birthday – Dani Barnfield loves a Dream and she’s already achieved quite a few on the football field!
Happy birthday/Penblwydd hapus to Danielle Alice Barnfield – 23 today.
The captain of CPDM Bangor 1876 has already enjoyed many magical moments in her relatively short football career, but now she is chasing more honours with the current North Wales Women’s League leaders.
Grassroots North Wales ran a special birthday article about Dani on this date last year, so in website tradition, 12 months on, we now feature 10 top highlights from her football life.
1 Quadruple-winning captain
In 2013-14, a 15-year-old Dani captained Caernarfon Under-16 Girls to a tremendous quadruple of FAW Welsh Cup, North Wales League title, League Cup and Darwin Cup.
2 National and regional selection
During her successful spell with Caernarfon Under-16’s, Dani was selected for a Wales national training camp, represented the NWCFA League at junior level and played for the regional development team (North Wales).
3 Early success with Caernarfon Town Ladies
Aged 17, midfielder Dani was part of the Caernarfon Town senior squad which lifted the 2015-16 Betty Pickering Cup.
4 Winning the double with Caernarfon Town Ladies
In 2016-17, Dani was a key member of the Canaries ladies team which won the North Wales Women’s League title and Betty Pickering Cup.
She scored nine goals in all competitions that season for the hugely-talented Cofis group.
5 Playing in the Welsh Premier
Dani represented Caernarfon Town in the top-flight Welsh Premier in 2017-18 and for a short time the following season before the club resigned.
6 Hat-trick for Mountain Rangers
In 2019-20, Dani signed for Mountain Rangers, who played in Division Two of the North Wales Women’s League.
Away to Penrhyn Bay on October 6, 2019, Dani scored a hat-trick in Rangers’ 5-3 win at Penrhyn Bay. This was possibly her first senior hat-trick (unconfirmed).
Rangers hardly kicked a ball from then on, due to waterlogged pitches and Covid-19 cutting the season short in March 2020. Dani scored 5 goals in total that season.
7 Signing for Bangor 1876
Dani signed for newly-formed CPDM Bangor 1876 in summer 2021 and was appointed first-team captain. On her debut, she led the team to a 6-2 victory at NFA in the North Wales Women’s League. They are currently top of the table.
8 Hat-trick in second competitive game for 1876
In a 12-0 win over Llanystumdwy in their second league match, captain Dani netted a hat-trick.
9 Where it started….
Danielle’s skills first developed as a youngster attending ‘Kick It’ sessions after school in Y Felinheli.
10 Living the Dream (this isn’t about football, but it’s still about Dani)
Dani is a self-confessed major fan of Dream white chocolate bars.
The Dream bars were launched in 2002, when a little Dani was four, but since they didn’t prove to be popular enough in the UK, they were pulled from stores.
After a decade, Cadbury’s officially brought Dream back to the UK in 2020 – but they were only sold in B & M.