Welsh football team named worst in UK ends 74-year wait for trophy
The club has enjoyed a meteoric rise since being the subject of a Specsavers campaign
Cwm Albion were once named as the worst football club in the UK
(Image: PA )
A football team once dubbed the worst in the UK has won its first trophy in 74 years.
Cwm Albion rose to prominence by losing all their games and racking up an astonishingly bad -191 goal difference in the Swansea Senior League Division 4 just two seasons ago.
However, the team has since enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes, culminating in winning the Maes-Y-Gollen Cup last weekend in what was their first final since 1999.
Albion saw off Talycoppa AFC in a tense 2-1 victory, with goals coming from Richard Davies and Gary Halligan, who struck either side of Lee Jones' equaliser.
The result caps a hugely impressive rise for the club, who once drafted in former Premier League manager Harry Redknapp in December 2023 in a bid to turn around their staggeringly bad run of form.
Redknapp was on hand to offer support and face-to-face training as part of a campaign by Specsavers to find a team in need of help.
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Now the club are toasting one of their finest moments of their 113-year history.
Harry Redknapp talking to Cwm Albion skipper Colin Gill
(Image: Mark Lewis )
Manager Dan Gill said: 'It's a fantastic result, I can't quite believe it. To think where we were a couple of seasons ago – winning zero games, getting battered every week, finishing bottom of the table by a country mile – to now being in the top half of the table and winning the cup… we're just unrecognisable.
'I'm so proud of the team and the club, at the very start of our last season we were at our lowest point that I can remember. Then the Specsavers Best Worst Team campaign gave us that push that we needed, helped us get more players wanting to join, and we're winning more, scoring more and conceding less.'
Cwm Albion have ended their 74-year wait for a trophy
(Image: PA )
Last week, the reserve team also made it through to the final of the Swansea Reserve Cup, with Colin Gill, Dan's father among those in the starting line-up.
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Colin said: 'It's a huge achievement and the turnaround has been massive. We couldn't get a full team on the pitch two seasons ago, and now we're reaching finals and winning trophies.
'We've certainly been enjoying the celebrations. It's great to see so much hard work pay off. We have other clubs coming over to us after games asking how we managed to keep the club going when we were conceding ten goals a game – it's such a huge moment to get to this point.'
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