Club History
05 Sep 2010

Technogroup Welshpool FC has had a colourful history with many highs and a few (fairly spectacular) lows. The club were founded in 1878 and their first ever match was a bore draw at home to Newtown Reserves – though they did go one better in the return, winning 1-0.
Between foundation and 1921 the club changed names and leagues many times, even playing across the border in Shropshire for a number of years, before returning to join the Welsh Pyramid. It was during this period that they began to play at their current home of Maesydre, in 1895.
The 1950s and 60s were something of a golden age for the club. This era saw the club lift the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) title on four occasions before they relocated to the Central Wales League, where the success continued with seven league championships to write home about. Added to this, the club also brought the Central Wales Cup back to Maesydre no fewer than five times.
There was plenty to smile about in the 70s and 80s for the club as well. These two decades saw the Welshpool Town winning the Welsh Amateur Cup four times, the last time in 1984.
The 1991-92 season brought much controversy. The club won the Cymru Alliance League by 12 points before they were docked a massive 66 points for fielding a player who was suspended in England. The club didn’t wallow in its own misfortune for long and were runners up in the league the following year, as well as winners of the League Cup – beating League Champions Rhyl in the final.
Over the next three seasons, Welshpool were runners up twice. On the second occasion, they missed out on the title on goal difference to Oswestry Town. The difference was just one single goal. However, Oswestry were denied promotion to the League of Wales on ground criteria and the Lilywhites were promoted to the top tier in their stead.
The stay was short lived and within two seasons, Welshpool Town were back in the Cymru Alliance.
The club appointed Russell Cadwallader in 1998 and this brought instant success. In his first season in the hot seat, Cadwallader lifted the League Cup, Central Wales Cup and the Montgomeryshire Cup, as well as achieving a fourth place finish in the league.
2001 saw more success, with Cadwallader’s side finishing third in the league, yet lifting the League Cup and reaching the last sixteen in the Welsh Cup.
The dream of Welsh Premier football was finally realised again in 2002 when the club won the league and the Central Wales Cup. Off the field, the club restructured into a Limited Company, lead by Managing Director Steve Hughes, and improvements were made to the Maesydre ground.
The club finished in the relegation zone in its first season back but Neath AFC’s failure to meet ground criteria saved the boys from Maesydre.
Russell Cadwallader was sacked in 2004 and replaced by Tommi Morgan. This heralded possibly the club’s most successful season. Under Morgan the club achieved its highest ever league positions, 6th then 4th the following season. The latter was controversial because the club feel they were unfairly denied European Qualification as second place Llanelli failed to meet UEFA criteria, yet were still awarded a place.
This period also saw a Welsh Cup Semi Final defeat on penalties as well as defeat to Cardiff City in the Premier Cup by a solitary Joe Ledley (now of Celtic) goal.
After this the club entered into an agreement with long term sponsor Jim Jones of Technocover and Jones of Oswestry for the club to bear the name of his company in exchange for significant financial backing. Henceforth the club has been known as Technogroup Welshpool.
A poor start to 2008 saw Tommi replaced by former Chester Assistant Huw Griffiths and ex Newtown boss Roger Preece. A resurgent second half of the season saw the club just miss out on a top half finish.
2009-10 was a season of struggle for the club. September saw the Lilywhites relegated to the Cymru Alliance without kicking a ball on ground criteria and the club had three assistant managers during this time. However, Technogroup Welshpool did finish clear winners of their League Cup group, only to be drawn away to fellow group winners Port Talbot in the Quarter Finals. An injury ravaged side, which saw midfielder George Hughes playing in goal bravely went down 3-1.
The club finished in a position that ordinarily would have meant Premier football next year, but the restructure saw them drop down a tier.
Huw Griffiths and Terry Ingram departed for Cefn Druids in the summer to be replaced by former Guilsfield boss, Graham Evans and Benji Evans.
Off the field the club saw a wholesale restructure with a supporter lead committee taking over the reigns from the old plc. On the pitch, the rebuilding job for Graham and Benji was monumental, with only two players left at the club who had previously made first team appearances.