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Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Promoted Merthyr to compete in National League North
They are the football club proud to come from the south Wales valleys – but have been told they will be a 'northern' team next season. There were huge celebrations when community-owned Merthyr Town won the Southern Premier League South title. But it has been confirmed they will now play in the National League North next term – with 300-mile away trips to Darlington and South Shields among their away days in a regionalised division. In front of more than 3,000 fans at Penydarren Park last month, the part-time outfit sealed promotion to English football's sixth tier, their highest level in 30 years. The Martyrs had played in the Western and Southern Leagues since being reformed after Merthyr Tydfil's liquidation in 2010. And the club had been aware the potential make-up of the teams next season at sixth tier level – and the large contingent of teams from the south of England - could see them having to plan to head north. Three south of England sides, Dagenham & Redbridge, Ebbsfleet and Maidenhead, dropping out of the fifth-tier National League would have given organisers a headache in how to split clubs. The National League confirmed its allocations for the 2025-26 season on Thursday, although says those are subject to appeal. A Football Association spokesperson said: "We make every effort each season to allocate National League System [NLS] clubs to the most geographically suitable league possible. "The clubs are allocated to a league based on the step in the NLS that they will be playing in, and their location in the country. These allocations are subject to appeals. "Geographical suitability continues to play an important part in NLS allocations, and we always try to balance this against the number of teams in each division to ensure sporting integrity is maintained." 'Merthyr can go as far as people want' Merthyr Town owners vote against Cymru Premier move Merthyr are not alone in the anomaly: Oxford City, Hereford United and Bedford Town have also been placed in National League North, whose other new clubs include Robbie Savage's Macclesfield Town. The game at Hereford's Edgar Street will be Merthyr's shortest away day, with a 43-mile, one-way trip taking around an hour. But it will take fans – and players – as much as 12 hours on the road in a round-trip for their game at South Shields. At the time of their promotion, chairman Les Barlow said their placing would make "no difference" as they revelled in a season in which they enjoyed a 32-game unbeaten run. Merthyr won the Welsh Cup in 1987 and went on to upset Italian giants Atalanta in the following season's European Cup Winners' Cup. Last season, they turned down a lucrative offer from the Football Association of Wales to join the Welsh league system, a decision manager Paul Michael says was vindicated by their promotion.
BBC News
23-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Merthyr can go as far as people want'
Manager Paul Michael says Merthyr Town are ready to compete at a higher level next season as the Martyrs build towards achieving their long-term dream of reaching the English Football League (EFL).Merthyr will play in the sixth tier of the English pyramid – either the National League North of South – in 2025-26 having clinched the Southern Premier League South title on success comes just three months after the fan-owned club turned down a lucrative offer to join Wales' Cymru believes promotion will make Merthyr's "supporters and owners feel vindicated" following the decision to remain in the English non-league system."It was no slur on the Welsh domestic game, it's just that you have the hope - how high can we go in this pyramid?" Michael said. "You have the hope and the dream that one day you could be in the Football League or even higher and, once you make the decision to switch, you can never reverse it. I think that's the main factor that was on the owners' minds."More than 3,000 fans were at Penydarren Park to see Merthyr seal promotion with a 3-0 victory over Hungerford have lost only four of their 41 league games this season, registering 27 wins and scoring 105 says Merthyr "have the support base" to make further progress. "I looked at the average attendances at the bottom of League Two and some clubs are getting just over 2,000 - Newport County's average is 4,000," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast."I honestly think a club in the [Welsh] valleys could bring that kind of crowd in, so who knows? But we need investment and we need sponsorship to continue. We are fan-owned and we don't have an investor pumping in millions to take us [forward] like Wrexham have had over the last few years."We can go as far as people in the community want us to go I guess, by getting behind us."As Merthyr wait to discover which division they will go into next season, Michael says his side can expect significant challenges in either National League North or he added: "We have a fantastic group of players and hopefully, next season, we don't think we are going to be daunted by the challenge."We are looking forward to going and having a go at the next tier up."Merthyr battled back to regain their Southern League status following liquidation in Merthyr Tydfil FC they competed in the fifth tier of the English system as recently as the 1990s, but their only spell as a Football League club came prior to World War Two.
