The New Saints make history and everyone’s a winner

Having already made Welsh footballing history by becoming the first club from the national league to progress beyond the qualifying rounds of a UEFA competition, in Florence we confirmed the accolade by making our debut in the league phase of the Conference League.

Of course, it’s massive for The New Saints, but it’s also important that we step back and see the big picture.

It’s not just TNS that benefits from the publicity that gracing a bigger stage has produced, but the ripple effect also puts the JD Cymru Premier – and Welsh football as a whole – into the spotlight as well.

 

Adam Wilson also makes some history of his own

It’s been a good few days for Adam Wilson, as not only did he get a call-up for the Kenya national squad, but he also wrote his way into the history books himself.

With The New Saints getting the game underway in Florence, it was Wilson who played the ball back in response to the referee’s initial whistle, which means that he becomes the Welsh league player to touch the ball competitively beyond the UEFA qualifying rounds.

 

Did you hear the one about the six Welshmen?

No, it’s not a joke, but a serious statement, because in the starting XI we had six Welsh-born players on the pitch.

Jack Bodenham, Sion Bradley, Danny Davies, Connor Roberts, Leo Smith and Dan Williams were all in from the off.

In addition, Ash Baker and Tom Jones were on the bench.

As well as representing the club and the league, we are also extremely honoured to fly the flag for the country.

 

Flying the flag for Wales

Talking of which, the flag that we (club media) carry with us to games has certainly become famous in its own right in the last few months. It’s been in the lead image for numerous written publications and in Budapest it even made national television, as Sion Bradley and Leo Smith posed with it for club video footage.

On the pitch in Florence, it again caught the eye of the televised media. As the players came out for their pre-match walk on the pitch, we gave the flag to the Welsh players and let the onlooking media do the rest. Which they did.

 

One down, five to go

Following the game, although it was a 2-0 defeat, Craig Harrison went on record to say that he was ‘proud’ of the players. And rightly so.

Up until the 65th minute, they kept a dominant Fiorentina at bay, as fans of The New Saints began to believe.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be, but again it’s important to look at the big picture.

We have lost to the ‘pot one’ team in our group, which if you want to look at it in a positive light, it means that we’ve got the hardest game out of the way.

In the quest to progress even further in the competition, there are five more fixtures to go.

Five European cup finals, if you like.

 

Lead image courtesy of UEFA.