SPECIAL FEATURE: Llandyrnog United Football Club celebrates its Golden Jubilee season
This is a very special season for one Vale of Clwyd football club which has played at every tier of the Welsh pyramid except the elite top-flight.
Formed as a winter league club in 1975, Llandyrnog United are in their 50th campaign and recently came close to marking the occasion with a prestigious prize.
Unfortunately, the Cae Nant side were narrowly beaten by CPD Mountain Rangers in the NWCFA Junior Challenge Cup Final, but certainly covered themselves in credit after playing a large chunk of the game at Conwy Borough’s Y Morfa ground with 10 men.
Relegated to Tier 5 last season, Dyrny have also performed well in the North Wales Coast East League Division One this term, finishing third and just missing out on promotion.
Looking back over a half century of seasons, Llandyrnog United can certainly feel proud of their achievements.
Competing against renowned nearby football towns Denbigh and Ruthin for the best local talent, United once spent five seasons in the Tier 2 Cymru Alliance League and produced some superb Welsh Cup results over the years.
It has also helped the club that they have since 1927 competed in the Llandyrnog and District Village Clubs Summer Football League, where many a fine local star has emerged.
Llandyrnog have won the most championship titles in the league’s 99-year history – 18.
LLANDYRNOG UNITED – THE HISTORY IN THE CLUB’S OWN WORDS
Llandyrnog United was formed in 1975 during a meeting of a few villagers in the local pub, The Golden Lion.
It is due to this fact that a Golden Lion is displayed on the official club badge.
Their first season was played in Clwyd League Division 4 and they gained promotion at the first attempt.
Llandyrnog remained in league Divisions 2/3 until the end of 1978/79 which saw them promoted as runners up.
The club spent over a decade in Division 1 until 1990/91, when they gained promotion to the Premier Division.
Only one season was spent in this division as Llandyrnog were crowned champions at their first attempt and promoted to the Stena Sealink Welsh Alliance under manager Russ Pierce..
After eight seasons in this league Llandyrnog were unfortunately relegated at the end of 1999-2000 back to the Clwyd League Premier Division where they stayed until 2002/03 until manager John James was appointed and the club gained promotion to the Welsh Alliance. They finished runners-up in the Clwyd Premier, but with champions Rhyl Thirds unable to go up, Llandyrnog were elevated instead.
In 2003-04 it was more of the same. Rhyl FC Reserves won the Welsh Alliance, but with their firsts in the Welsh Premier it was against the rules for there only to be one level between top-flight clubs and their reserves. Therefore, Dyrny were promoted to the Cymru Alliance as Welsh Alliance runners-up.
Llandyrnog’s best-ever league finish was sixth place in the 2004-05 Cymru Alliance
After five seasons in the Cymru Alliance, finishing a magnificent sixth in that first 2004-05 campaign, United were relegated back to the Welsh Alliance at the end of 2008-09.
They were placed in the new Welsh Alliance Division Two in 2010-11, were crowned champions of 2012-13 under the returning Russ Pierce, and campaigned in Division One for another seven seasons until 2019-20.
In the Welsh pyramid restructure of 2021-22, Llandyrnog were placed in the tier 4 North Wales Coast East Premier, where they participated for four seasons before dropping into tier 5 Division One for the 2025-26 campaign.
Under Sion Morris, finishing third in the league and reaching the Junior Cup final has created much optimism for the future.
SPECIAL BIRTHDAY EVENT
The club will host a special fun day on June 6 to mark the 50th anniversary celebrations.
The day will include a kids tournament, Past v Present challenge match, inflatables and games all on the Cae Nant ground.
HONOURS
1975/76 Clwyd League Division 4 winners
1978/79 Clwyd League Division 2 runners up
1987-88 Clwyd League Division 2 champions
1989-90 Clwyd Cup winners
1989/90 NWCFA Junior Challenge Cup runners up
1990/91 Clwyd League Division One runners-up
1990-91 Clwyd Cup runners-up
1991/92 Clwyd Premier Division Winners
1991/92 Clwyd Premier Cup winners
1991/92 Clwyd President’s Cup runners-up
1995/96 Barritt Cup runners up
2002/03 Mackenzie Jones Clwyd League Premier Division runners up
2002/03 Mackenzie Jones League Cup winners
2003/04 Welsh Alliance League runners up
2012/13 Welsh Alliance League Division 2 champions
2025/26 NWCFA Junior Challenge Cup runners-up
MEET THE MANAGERS
Russ Pierce 1989-90 – 1995-96; 2011-12 to December 2013 (double title-winning manager)
I joined Dyrny in the 1989/90 season I put a squad together mainly of summer league players and players who played for me in the Rhyl and District Sunday League for the Railways Denbigh.
The first season we finished mid table in the league, but had 2 great cup runs. The North Wales Junior Cup saw us reach the final where we lost to a very good Connah’s Quay Albion side at Flint, during the run we played against some notable Anglesey sides and beat Bodedern in a great semi final at Llanfairfechan.
For the final we had a couple of injuries and it was just a game too far for us. The next week we lifted our first trophy in the Clwyd Cup beating Rhuddlan comfortably.
Our second season saw us competing with Trefnant for the Clwyd League Division One title, unfortunately they beat us into second place as well as beating us in the final of the Clwyd Cup, we also lost to St Asaph in the semi final of the Presidents Cup. Although we did mange promotion to the Premier Division.
The next season was to prove to be our most successful during my first tenure; we won the 1991-92 league and cup double. We pipped Connah’s Quay Albion on the last day of the season in the league, we also beat them at their ground earlier on to give ourselves a chance of lifting the league title. In the cup we beat St Asaph in the final of the Premier Cup and also lost to them in the President’s Cup final following a replay. Through this we managed promotion into the Welsh Alliance for the first time.
Without winning any trophies we managed to secure mid-table over the next few years losing in a few semi finals and eventually reaching the Barritt Cup final losing to Halkyn 1-0, our squad for the final was decimated with injuries and the lads performed extremely well.
During my first tenure I was extremely thankful for the support I received from the club especially Noel Jones, Dewi Lewis, Kevin Davies, John Bo, Tony Burge and Albee Roberts. On the playing side I was lucky to have some really good players, too many to mention but some went on to higher standards and had good careers in local football.
We had some great games along the way beating teams from leagues above us but I think my favourite was narrowly losing 2-1 to Llansanffraid in the Welsh Cup who went on to lift the trophy.
We had good support and built a really good community spirit and made some lifelong friends along the way.
My second tenure started in the 2011/12 season finishing mid table but I felt we had a good squad of players. The second season we managed to win the league with our best performance beating Llanfair PG at their place which enabled us to pip them to the title.
I have some great memories of managing at Dyrny and we had some success along the way
Sion Morris – current manager
This is my second spell as manager of Llandyrnog.
The first I felt we were plagued by injuries and it felt like we’d gain a player back and then lose 2 players in the same game so I’ve always felt like I had some unfinished business with the club.
After seeing everything that happened last season, I wanted to put my name in the ring to see if I could at least stabilise things and get the club back to where it should be.
For me, every successful club has a good backing behind the scenes and I have to give credit to the committee, everything we’ve said we need, gets done with no bother, the ground’s had a good tidy up and it’s great to see so many sponsor boards around the place.
On the pitch, we didn’t finish up quite where I’d like us to be as a few poor draws meant we ended up third in Division One. I was proud to reach the Junior Cup final where we could not have done any more as a team on the night, but it was a huge task after going down to 10 men in the first half, and we just narrowly missed out to Mountain Rangers.
John James 2002-2009
I went with my eldest son, Shon, to a football meeting at Llandyrnog. A group of village youngsters were running the club, raising money, doing the administration, ground maintenance, and team selection, which was very challenging for teenagers.
The result of the meeting was that I was made manager. What had I let myself in for?
Luckily, there were some good village lads like Arwel Hughes, Russ Moorcroft, Adam Lloyd, Dan Roberts, Tudur Morris, Gary Evans, and by adding a few to them we had the basis of a good side.
In the first 2002-03 season, we played in the Clwyd League and at the end of the season we won the League Cup and got promoted to the Welsh Alliance.
We strengthened the team considerably for the Welsh Alliance and, although we lost two of the first three games, we started getting consistent results. At the end of the season, we finished ahead of Prestatyn Town and Bodedern and were runners-up to Rhyl Reserves, and were offered promotion to the Cymru Alliance.
The club were given three weeks to meet the criteria needed to play in the league and, thanks to the work of Gary Lewis (chairman), the committee, players, parents, and most of the village, we produced a stand for 50 people, fenced the pitch, built new dugouts, and carried out a general spring clean.
On the night of our club dinner three weeks later, we were accepted into the Cymru Alliance League.
We played Llanfairpwll at home in our first game and started with a 2–0 victory, and actually won five of the first six games to give us a comfortable start.
Two games in the next few months stayed in the memory. We played Holywell away on a Friday night in October and, with two of the lads caught in traffic coming back from college in Liverpool and a couple injured, we were slightly unbalanced. Within half an hour, we were 4–0 down. The lads got two goals back, but Holywell got another to make it 5–2.
At half-time, the two students—Gareth Martin and Neil Hughes—came on and we gradually got on top. We began scoring goals and went on to win the game 7–5 in the end! The Holywell manager was not pleased!
Another memory was beating Bala on Boxing Day 2004 in front of a crowd of nearly 600 fans. We collected enough money that day, including admission, raffles, and refreshments, to keep us going until the end of the season.
At half-time it was scoreless, and with us kicking up the slope in the second half we really upped our game and scored four goals to win 4–1—the goals by Ian Evans, Neil Hughes, Dan Roberts, and Anthony Marshall. Overall, we finished 6th that season, our best position during the five years in the Cymru Alliance League.
As time went on, we lost players—some to League of Wales sides: Gethin Lloyd, Ceri James, and Stuart Vernon to Welshpool, and Jon Slater to Caersws—and others to stronger, financially secure Cymru Alliance sides.
Another highlight was doing well in the youth cups. At one time, the club had a strong presence of youngsters within the first team, along with Pim McNally, who ran the reserve side. We won the North Wales Youth Cup, beating Llanfairpwll at Llandudno 3–1.
We reached the semi-final of the Welsh Youth Cup, defeating three League of Wales academy sides but losing to Aberystwyth 2–0.
The other semi-finalists were Cardiff City and Swansea Town, so we were in some good company!
Teams come and go, but clubs stay, and I am extremely proud of my small period with the club during its 50 years and wish every success to the club for the next 50 years.
LLANDYRNOG UNITED – LEAGUE HISTORY
1974-75 to 1991-92: Clwyd Football League
1992-93 to 1999-2000: Welsh Alliance League
2000-01 to 2002-03: Clwyd Football League
2003-04: Welsh Alliance League
2004-05 to 2008-09: Cymru Alliance League
2009-10 to 2019-20: Welsh Alliance League
2021-22 to present: North Wales Coast East League