Penblwydd hapus Aled Rowlands – a Bangor City star who can look back on a great career

It’s a big happy birthday to Aled Rowlands – and the former Bangor City star recently celebrated another important anniversary.

Last month marked 25 years since Aled was a standout performer for the Citizens in their 1-0 Welsh Cup Final victory over Cwmbran Town.

May 7, 2000, was the date when a Paul Roberts goal was enough to defeat The Crows at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham.

Left-back Aled was interviewed on TV after the match and praised for his performance – one of many outstanding games he had in the famous all-blue strip.

Born on June 9, 1978, Valley-based Rowlands was a Manchester City player between 1995-98, a period which saw the club relegated from the Premier League and spend two seasons in Division One before dropping into Division Two.

Aled did not make a first-team appearance for City and joined League of Ireland club Sligo Rovers in 1998.

Bangor City came calling in 1999/2000 and the left-footer, who could excel in defence or midfield, soon became a key player at Farrar Road.

As already mentioned, he was part of that special day in Wrexham when the Citizens lifted the Welsh Cup for a fifth time in the club’s history.

Aled went on to represent City six times in European competition, performing in home and away legs against Sweden’s Halmstads (2000/01 UEFA Cup), Sartid Smederevo of Yugoslavia (2002/03 UEFA) and Gloria Bistrita from Romania (2003/04 Inter-Toto).

He spent five seasons at Bangor, making 133 League of Wales appearances for the club (15 as substitute) and netting five goals. Although highly regarded at Farrar Road, his time there could have been even more productive but for bad luck with injuries.

In 2004/05, Rowlands joined Porthmadog, where he spent three more LoW seasons, playing in another 49 games to make his overall top-flight stats 182 matches (28 as sub) and five goals.

After ending his stint in the Welsh Premier, he later represented Llanfairpwll.

Aled has enjoyed a number of representative honours throughout his career, which almost included a full set of Welsh caps.

He played Schoolboy, Under 15, Under 16, Under 18 and Under 21 – a total of 23 appearances.

Aled earned five Wales U21 caps and also won the Northern Ireland Milk Cup with the U18s.

In 1999, Rowlands was a member of Ynys Mon’s International Island Games winning squad in Gotland.

He scored in a 3-1 semi-final victory over the Isle of Wight before featuring in Anglesey’s 1-0 success against the Isle of Man in the showpiece game. It remains the only occasion that Mon has won the main tournament.

A player who will always be remembered as a marauding left-sided specialist with great ball skills. Take a bow Aled Rowlands – a penblwydd hapus!