Happy 40th birthday to an Ynys Môn football legend

One of the greatest goalkeepers to emerge from the Isle of Anglesey celebrates his 40th birthday today.

Holyhead man Paul Pritchard has played for numerous top North Wales clubs in a career which has earned him many winners’ medals.

His latest successes have come over the past two seasons with Trearddur Bay, where he has won back-to-back league titles in the North Wales Coast West Premier and Division One.

Paul has just passed the 50 appearances mark for the Beach Boys, but his career has involved in excess of 600 competitive games.

Born on May 26, 1984, Paul began his career at Holyhead Hotspur before going on to join Bangor City, where he featured in a 2001-02 NWCFA Challenge Cup win, but was also Glantraeth’s keeper when they knocked the Citizens out of the Welsh Cup on penalties in 2003-04. Also in the Cymru Alliance giant-killers’ line up that day was a certain Les Davies, who was soon on his way to Farrar Road.

Paul has made more than 100 Welsh Premier League appearances, .debuting for Caernarfon Town in 2004.

He went on to give WPL service to Connah’s Quay Nomads and Rhyl FC, where he was in the Lilywhites’ Champions League squad for two ties against Serbian giants Partizan Belgrade in 2009/10. Paul came on as an 86th minute replacement for Lee Kendall in the second leg at the Stadion FK Partizan.

Pritch has also kept goal for numerous Tier 2 sides, including Hotspur, Porthmadog, Glantraeth, Llangefni Town and Llanfairpwll, the latter three when they competed in the Cymru Alliance.

A former Wales Under-18 international, he has represented Anglesey in the Island Games and earned a late call-up to the Welsh Semi-Professional squad in May 2008, featuring briefly in the Four Nations Tournament against Gibraltar at Rhyl.

Outside of the Welsh pyramid, he has turned out for Warrington Town in the Northern Premier League.

Perhaps his greatest moment in football came in 2019, when he captained Ynys Môn to a gold medal in the Inter-Games, a one-off tournament held on Anglesey separate to the main Island Games in Gibraltar, which was not suitable to stage a football competition as it only had one ground.

Paul saved a penalty in the final which saw Môn beat Guernsey 2-1 at the New Stadium, Holyhead.

Keeping out spot-kicks has been a speciality throughout the agile keeper’s career.

For the 2019/20 season, Paul joined Porthmadog before the campaign was curtailed early due to Covid.

With 2020-21 cancelled because of the pandemic, in 2021-22, he was back at Holyhead Hotspur, but left in the January to rejoin Porthmadog, who were promoted from the Tier 3 Ardal North West League at the end of the season, Paul being part of the team which won the Ardal Northern Play-Off Final 5-0 against Caersws.

Paul returned to Hotspur for the 2022-23 season but departed to join Trearddur Bay – his 11th club – in October 2022.

A popular figure from an island which has produced such fine goalkeepers as Wayne Hennessy, Tony Roberts and Alex Lynch, we are sure we join many in wishing this great servant to North Wales football a happy 40th today.

All the best Paul.