North Wales football great retires aged 42 – 25 years after League of Wales debut

Craig Roberts in past action for Menai Bridge Tigers

Twenty-five years after making his League of Wales debut for Bangor City at the age of 17, the evergreen Craig Roberts has decided to hang up his boots.

Just a month away from his 43rd birthday, Roberts has brought an end to a remarkable career that has seen him represent clubs including Bangor, Glantraeth, Caernarfon Town, Bethesda Athletic, Porthmadog, Llangefni Town and, his final stop, Menai Bridge Tigers.

Since joining the Tigers in 2020, “Skin” has been a key member of the squad on and off the pitch. In 129 appearances, he scored 32 goals, provided 24 assists and his experience has been invaluable.

Born on July 13, 1983. Craig was a product of the much-celebrated Maes-y-Bryn Juniors. He went on to represent Beaumaris Town before joining the famous Bangor City.

He took his bow for the Citizens in the starting line-up for an FAW Premier Cup group match against Carmarthen Town on January 30, 2001. The game finished 1-1.

On February 10, 2001, Craig came on as an extra time substitute in a Welsh Cup tie against Newtown and scored in a 3-2 victory for Meirion Appleton’s side.

Craig’s first League of Wales appearance came a week later, when he started in a 3-1 triumph over Afan Lido.

In that 2000-01 season, he made nine starts and eight substitute appearances for the Citizens in the LoW.

First-team outings were less frequent over the next two seasons under Peter Davenport, but Craig did register an LoW goal in a 5-2 win at Llanelli.

He also found the net in a 5-0 Welsh Cup semi-final victory over Cefn Druids at Rhyl in 2001-02. Craig came on as a substitute in the final against Barry Town, but City were beaten 4-1.

In all, he made 30 LoW appearances for the Farrar Road club.

Craig moved to Anglesey-based Glantraeth and in 2004/05 scored in a famous 2-0 Welsh Cup success over League of Wales club Cefn Druids.

In 2005/06 things got much better for Craig and a Glantraeth team which won the Cymru Alliance title and League Cup double (pictured above).

A spell with Caernarfon Town followed before in 2007-08 and 2008-09 Craig was a member of the Bethesda Athletic team which scooped back-to-back Welsh Alliance League titles.

In the second of those campaigns, Pesda set a record for the most goals scored in a Welsh Alliance season and Skin himself netted 12.

Craig signed for Porthmadog in 2010-11 and was at Y Traeth for three seasons, the best of which for him was 2011-12, when he made 32 starts and scored 12 times.

At Llangefni Town

After a second stint with Glantraeth, Craig joined Llangefni Town in 2016-17. He helped Cefni win a record fifth Welsh Alliance crown in 2017-18, securing them promotion to the tier two Cymru North.

Menai Bridge Tigers became Craig’s latest club six years ago, but due to Covid-19 no competitive football took place below tier 1 in 2020-21.

However, he went on to deliver five great seasons’ service to the Tigers , including winning promotion to Tier 3 Ardal North West as North Wales Coast Premier Division runners-up in 2023-24.