Clint Jones

Saltney Town

In this blog, we decided to interview the third-tier club Saltney Town, one of the Flintshire-based clubs that compete within the Welsh football pyramid, to see how the club is performing during their 2023-24 season.

Club Information

Introduction

Saltney Town Football Club is a North Welsh club situated in the Flintshire border town of Saltney in the far east of the county. As part of the larger Deeside conurbation, Saltney is just 2.5 miles from the centre of Chester, with excellent public transport connections to the English city, making it an ideal commuter town for both Chester and the nearby industrial parks (as well as for Airbus’ Broughton facilities which is just a short trip down the A5104). The town has a population of approximately 5,5k people and uniquely straddles the Welsh-English border with Higher Saltney being located within England and the border running down the middle of Boundary Lane. As its name suggests, Saltney was built on the former salt marshes of the River Dee / Afon Dyfrdwy, which flows to the north of the town, and was once a local centre for shipbuilding, chain making, and the manufacturing of anchors.

Football has been played in Saltney since the 1900s although Saltney Town was founded as recently as 2010 by two locals who wanted to bring their community together through football. The Bordermen initially played in the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) system before switching to the Ardal North West League when the Welsh football pyramid was reorganised in 2020 to become founding members of the third-tier league. For more information on the history of the club, see our Flintshire Club Profile on Saltney Town HERE.

Saltney Town play their home games at the Saltney Community Centre on Sandy Lane, now known by its sponsored name of the Dragon Steel Stadium, which they have played at since their foundation. Most recently, the ground has experienced substantial improvements in keeping with the requirements for playing tier 3 football at the ground as well as adding further security measures to ensure it can be used safely by the club and the community after experiencing heartbreaking bouts of vandalism inflicted upon the ground. Currently, as part of their continuous ground improvements, the club are actively seeking sponsorships to enable them to purchase a new, reliable mower to successfully maintain the six pitches used by the club and community. If you would like to donate some money to Saltney’s new grass mower, the link can be found below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/saltney-town-fc-fit-for-the-future-fundraiser

Saltney Town currently plays in the Ardal North West League, a third-tier regional league in the Welsh football pyramid which theoretically covers the northwestern region of Wales, although realistically covers the whole of the North Wales coastline. Since their switch to the Ardal NW in 2020, Saltney Town have been ever-present in the league with the 2023-24 season being their fourth consecutive season (albeit the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to COVID). They finished in eighth position in the 2021-22 season and last season concluded their schedule in tenth position in the league.

Location of Saltney Town’s ground in Flintshire.

Recent Form

DateCompetitionOpposition (h/a)Result
11th NovArdal NWY Rhyl 1879 (a)2-2
4th NovArdal NWSt. Asaph City (a)1-5
28th OctFAW TrophyWelshpool Town (a)2-2
[4-3p]
14th OctArdal NWLlangefni Town (h)1-1
7th OctArdal NWPwllheli (h)1-3
The last five matches of Saltney Town (as of 12th November 2023)

At the time of writing, Saltney Town were situated in 14th position in the sixteen-team Ardal North West League. From their twelve league games played, they had achieved just one win, three draws, and eight defeats to accumulate six points in their league campaign.

The 2023-24 Ardal North West table (as of 12th November 2023).
[IMAGE: Non-League Matters]

After much turmoil and change in personnel during the summer months at numerous levels of the club, it’s no surprise that last season’s tenth-placed side is competing in the bottom half of the table. As mentioned previously, the club has only accumulated six points from a possible thirty-six that were available, with Saltney situated one point behind thirteenth-placed side Y Felinheli and two points ahead of Bethesda Athletic a place below them. They initially started their league campaign brightly in early August with a 2-2 away draw against relegated side Conwy Borough in their opening game before achieving their first (and only to date) win of the league schedule with a 3-0 home victory over Hawarden Rangers the following Wednesday. The goals came from Sam Reynolds, Sean Williams, and Riley Hayden. Sadly, since the first couple of league fixtures, the club has only achieved a further two points from their next ten matches – a 1-1 home draw against Llangefni Town in mid-October, and an impressive battling 2-2 away result at league leaders Y Rhyl 1879 in early November. JJ King scored a brace for the visitors, who had led twice in the game, but conceded in the second minute of injury time to share the spoils.

Despite their league fortunes, Saltney Town have started well in the FAW Trophy (the national cup competition available for all clubs from Tier 3 and below). After receiving a bye in the first and second rounds, they faced Ardal NE side Welshpool Town in the third round. The cup tie produced a thrilling 2-2 draw after 90 minutes, with Saltney fighting back from being 0-2 down through George Davies and Lewis Bevan strikes and thus progressed to a penalty shootout where the Bordermen just overcame their hosts to win 4-3 on spotkicks. They are scheduled to face fellow Ardal NW side Llay Welfare in the fourth round of the competition.

Questions to Saltney Town

Q. Firstly, how do you think this season has gone for Saltney Town in the Ardal North West League so far?

It’s been a tough start to the season following a near-complete squad rebuild. We’ve backed youth and it’s starting to pay off. The average age of the squad is 19.8 years old, so it gives you an idea of what we are doing. Sir Alex Ferguson often talked about building a club and not a team, and that is what we are about! It’s been tough but the lads have improved every week. We are close to starting to realise our potential.

Q. What has been the best performance or result from the club so far this season?

A very timely question… Obviously, yesterday’s result [Saturday 11th November] was the best performance by a mile [earning a 2-2 away draw against the league leaders Y Rhyl 1879]. It’s been coming. With the exception of St Asaph City last week [where they lost 1-5] (and Llanneffyd away [losing 1-6 in mid-August] also but for different reasons), every side we’ve played will say we could have got something out of each game. The lads staying together through such a tough run earned them that result yesterday. The togetherness and willingness to put themselves on the line was there for all to see. We were unlucky not to get the three points in the end.

Q. Who do you think have been the standout players so far, and is there anyone who you think the readers should keep an eye on this season?

Midfielder JJ King is our stand-out player. What a talent this young man is! His performances have already caught the eye of a few people and his goal yesterday was the icing on the cake of what he can do. He is really thriving with his opportunity to play first-team football at this level and will be playing in a far higher league in the near future. A great example of what giving these lads a chance can achieve.

Q. What are the club’s aims for this season, and likewise, what are the long-term aims for the club?

This season the goal is stability and to build a new foundation on which to build this side. We’ve given youth a chance and seen what happens when the likes of Alex Swindell [goalkeeper now with Mold Alexandra] and [forward] Sam Reynolds do when they come of age. We come to benefit from that longer term. We will no doubt lose some players to the higher-level clubs but that is where we are at. To see players progress and thrive is what we are about. However, we need to also look at our own ambitions. With the ground improvements and vision of the club, we have to aim to reach Tier 2 in the next five years. If we get the foundations right now, we can then continue to build and hopefully progress through the system. All in all, our main aim is to make the town proud.

Q. Saltney Town has a successful youth setup which you are benefitting from this season, and the club is an active part of the local community – how important is it for Saltney Town to be a main community hub for the border town?

Massively important! We now have over 150 children in the setup and we are one of the most diverse clubs in Flintshire. This year we also started our girls setup which has been a great success. We also have big plans to make the club the social hub for the area. We aim to develop the site, with the support of the FAW and local associations, to facilitate all ages from U6 to Senior for both Men’s and Woman’s teams. The perimeter fence was the first stepping stone in our latest drive to develop and improve the site. With multiple new pitches also being developed, the site will continue to deliver a community club the town of Saltney and surrounding areas can be proud of.

Q. Saltney’s geographical location is pretty unique for Welsh football – what advantages (and disadvantages) does the club have being so near to the Welsh-English border?

The advantages have to be closeness to the larger cities. It can help us attract players to the club but also lose them over the border. We can encounter challenges such as travel time for players to away games as we are the furthest team east in the Ardal NW league [teams are spread out throughout North Wales]. In addition, we obviously come into some friendly banter from other sides about the perception we are ‘English’, but we are very proud to be part of Wales and the FAW system.

The location of the 16 clubs in North Wales competing in the 2023-24 Ardal NW league.

Q. Finally, if someone was thinking of coming to Saltney to watch or follow the team for the first time, what do you think is the club’s greatest asset to encourage them to return?

The club always offers a warm welcome and all club officials are very friendly. On the pitch, you will never witness a dull game. It is always eventful with a chance to watch some of the best-emerging talents in the local game.

A massive thank you to the Ardal North West side Saltney Town for answering our questions on their 2023-24 season so far and their future goals. We wish them all the very best of luck for the rest of the season and for the seasons ahead! Remember you can find their social media accounts and their sponsorship page (should you wish to donate to the club) in the links towards the top of the blogpage.

If you have any comments, suggestions, reactions, or even your own answers to the above questions, please write them in the comments box below. Likewise, you can either email us at the94thmin@gmail.com or send a message at @The94thMin on Twitter/X.

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