Prestatyn Town retain Gareth “Perry” Thomas as manager

Gareth “Perry” Thomas will remain Prestatyn Town manager for the 2025-26 season.

The Seasiders made the announcement this evening.

Thomas took over as Town boss in mid-November with the club next-to-bottom of the JD Cymru North.

Despite some good performances, Prestatyn were only able to win two of their remaining 17 league games and ended up relegated to tier 3.

Nonetheless, with his experience and past successes, the Bastion Gardens club will keep faith with the man who led CPD Y Rhyl 1879 in their first four years.

Town won their appeal to maintain Tier 2 status and qualify for Tier 3 this week and with improvements ongoing at the ground the future outlook is optimistic.

Thomas has enjoyed triumphs as a Tier 2 and Tier 3 manager before, including at the latter level leading Conwy Borough to a treble in 2017-18.

The 52-year-old has a strong background in football playing and management across the North Wales pyramid.

As a player, he spent most of his career with Halkyn United, but also had short spells with both Flint Town United and Connah’s Quay Nomads in the League of Wales.

He helped Halkyn move through the leagues right up to the Cymru Alliance under the management of George Thelwell, to whom he eventually became assistant. When Thelwell left the club, Thomas took over.

Thomas then had stints as manager with Mynydd Isa, Buckley Town, FC Nomads and Denbigh Town, whom he steered to the Word Cup Final in 2016, beating three Welsh Premier clubs en route to losing to mighty TNS in the showpiece game.

In 2015/16, he led Denbigh Town to what was then the highest league position in their history – third in the tier 2 Cymru Alliance. Eddie Maurice-Jones’ team of 2017-18 finished second in the CAL.

Then in 2017-18, Thomas took charge at Conwy Borough and guided the club to a magnificent treble in his first season of Welsh Alliance League title, FAW Trophy and Cookson Cup.

He left Conwy the following season and had focused largely on junior football before taking over at CPD Y Rhyl 1879, a phoenix club formed in 2020 following the demise of Rhyl FC.

In his first season with the Lilywhites, the team won the tier 4 double of North Wales Coast East Premier Division title and Cookson Cup.

Under Thomas, 1879 began the 2024-25 season impressively in the league, but the club decided to go in a different direction and appointed Paul Moore, who went on to win the Ardal North West title with the Lilywhites.

Gareth Thomas has faced a lot of challenges as a manager and often been a success. His next task is to get Prestatyn back to Tier 2.