History of Garden Village Football Club
11 Aug 2009

Garden Village A.F.C. was founded in 1922 and started playing football at Swansea League level before joining the Carmarthenshire League mid-way through the 20th century. After a number of league and cup successes over the years, Village gained promotion into the Welsh Football League at the end of the 1998/99 season after finishing second in the Premier Division of the Carmarthenshire League, and successfully beating Neath League team Cwmamman United in the Welsh League promotion play-off for west Wales.

In only their first season of Welsh League football, they secured promotion by finishing third in Division 3 behind Garw and Ely Rangers - one point ahead of fourth-placed AFC Llwydcoed - and also fared well in the Welsh Cup; a run that saw them dispose of Pontyclun and Ely before being knocked out by then League of Wales side Inter Cardiff 5-0 at Cardiff Athletics Stadium.

The Second Division proved to be a much tougher test for Village but they managed to finish a respectable eighth in their first season. They did, however, manage to secure promotion at the second attempt when they won the Second Division championship at the end of 2001/02 with a 3-2 win in their final game of the season at relegated Chepstow Town.

Village had just one short spell in the top flight of Welsh League football before they were relegated at the first attempt. After an excellent run of form towards the end of the season, which almost kept them up, other teams hit similar form and Village narrowly missed out on survival, finishing two points adrift of Ely Rangers.

They’ve recorded top-10 finishes in their time back in Division 2 under the leadership of long serving manager Bob Lloyd. In the summer of 2008, Bob decided to resign from his position of first team manager and the club made the decision to recruit the new management team internally. Ceri Griffiths, Paul Lewis and Gerry Neal who the previous season had tasted success in lifting the Welsh League Resrve Division West title became the new management team and enjoyed a great first season in charge.

Not only did the first team get promoted to Division 1 for only the second time in their history by finishing third behind West End & Ely Rangers, they also set a new club record for the amount of points achieved in the Welsh League.

The club’s Stafford Common ground is greatly admired by visiting teams and their supporters and has been credited as having a exceptional playing surface. The ground is always improving – in 2006 the club opened its new changing room facility at the end of the main pitch while a new bar and suite area was added to the current club house in the summer of 2008. Last season the club completed the next phase of the off field developments by building a new 75 seater stand as well as rebuilding the covered standing area that had been damaged by a storm.