Happy birthday to a great defender with almost 200 Cymru Premier appearances under his belt
Happy birthday to Llandudno FC star Anthony Stephens.
Born in Liverpool on January 21, 1994, the top-class centre back has represented numerous North Wales clubs in his senior career dating back to 2010.
Beginning at Wrexham AFC, Anthony has gone on to serve Prestatyn Town, Colwyn Bay, Bala Town, Bangor City, Flint Town United and present side Llandudno.
Between 2010-15, Anthony made nine first team appearances for Wrexham.
Having worked his way through the schoolboy ranks at Colliers Park, he was offered a scholarship in 2010 and then a professional deal in 2012.
In the 2012-13 season he had a loan spell at Prestatyn Town, where he was part of the history-making team which won the Welsh Cup for the one and only time in the club’s existence.
Before leaving the Racecourse in 2015, he had productive loan stints at both Prestatyn and Colwyn Bay, then of the Conference North.
The 2015-16 campaign saw Anthony begin another successful chapter of his career at Welsh Premier League club Bala Town.
He made 135 WPL appearances for the Lakesiders over two spells between 2015-16 and 2021-22, scoring six goals.
The defender also featured in eight Europa League ties for the Maes Tegid outfit, coming up against FC Differdange 03 (Luxembourg), AIK (Sweden), FC Vaduz (Switzerland), Valletta (Malta) and Standard Liege (Belgium).
And in 2016-17, Anthony matched his feat at Prestatyn when he was a member of the first-ever Bala Town team to lift the Welsh Cup, defeating The New Saints 2-1 in the final.
In 2018-19, Anthony signed for Bangor City, who had dropped into the Cymru North, but returned to Bala in February 2019.
Anthony left Maes Tegid for a second time and joined Flint Town United in 2022-23. The team lost its Cymru Premier status that season, but the defender remained with the club on its return to the Cymru North.
In all, he has made 185 appearances in the Cymru Premier., netting 10 goals.
This season saw Llandudno become Anthony’s seventh club.
He is part of a Seasiders outfit currently on a fine run in Cymru North and recently he made headlines when as cousin to brothers Adam and Callum, the Stephens trio all featured on the scoresheet in Llandudno’s 4-0 win over Guilsfield.
It is believed to be the first time three members of the same family have scored for one team in the same match (confirmation being researched).