Micky's Pembrokeshire League History . . . from PembrokeshireSport.co.uk

The Pembrokeshire League
Season 1973-74

Structure - Three leagues comprising of First (12 teams), Second (13 teams), and Third (13 teams) divisions.

First Division: Fishguard Sports, Carew, St Clears, Hakin United, Haverfordwest County, Solva, Goodwick United, Monkton Swifts, Narberth, RAFA Sports, Kilgetty (P) Pendine P & EE (P) – note Hakin United II had finished runners-up in division 2 the previous year but could not be promoted.

Second Division: Milford United (R), Merlins Bridge (R), Hakin United II, Pembroke Boro, Clarbeston Road, Carew II, Fishguard Sports II, Angle, Narberth II, Milford Athletic, Pennar Robins, New Hedges (P), Manorbier United (P) .

Third Division: Monkton Swifts II (R), St Clears II (R), Hubberston Youth Club, Goodwick United II, MHPC, Haverfordwest County II, Solva II, Kilgetty II, CEGB Pembroke, Johnston, Milford Athletic II, New Hedges II, Neyland Youth Club and St Ishmaels.

Withdrew before the season commenced - Haverfordwest County II.

Teams withdrawing during season - RAFA Sports (Division 1 after five games), Manorbier United (Division 2 after four games) and Angle (Division 2 before the season commenced).

Division 1

The first fixture of the season brought together last year’s defending champions Fishguard Sports who travelled to last year’s runners-up Carew. The game ended in a 2-2 draw with Peter Hall and Graham Jenkins netting for the homesters with two Eddie Merry goals replying for the visitors. Both sides were then beaten by St Clears over the next two weeks, Carew 3-1 away and Fishguard Sports 4-2 at home, Phil Rugg and Ray Williams sharing the goals for the Saints. Thus by the end of October there were no unbeaten teams in the league with the top four looking as follows, with St Clears having lost 3-0 to Hakin United in the first game of the season whilst Hakin had lost 3-2 away at Kilgetty.

The table did not include results against RAFA Sports who withdrew from the league after a 10-2 defeat to Carew on 6/10/73.

In November Hakin United suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Carew though followed this up the week after with a 4-2 home victory against Fishguard Sports. Derek Owens, Roy Dawes, Eddie Collins and Mike Jones were the home scorers with Gethin Griffiths and Joe Payne netting for the Sports.

In mid December St Clears suffered a rare 2-1 defeat at Kilgetty where Richard Gray and Norman James were on the score sheet for the homesters and at the end of December the table looked as follows, with only the top four being realistically in with a chance of the title:

Hakin United’s title ambitions were dealt a blow the first week into the new year when they lost 2-0 at home to Kilgetty with Richard Gray scoring both for the visitors who were making a habit of upsetting the top teams. The new year also saw a dramatic loss of form for St Clears who dropped six points in a four game spell that virtually ruled them out of the championship race. This included a 3-1 home defeat to championship rivals Hakin United.   By the middle of March the top four was as follows:- Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Hakin United 18 13 2 3 54 16 38 28 2 Carew 16 12 3 1 73 18 55 27 3 St Clears 19 11 4 4 41 29 12 26 4 Fishguard Sports 13 9 2 2 51 21 30 20

On 23/3/74 Hakin United’s championship hopes faded with a 2-0 away defeat to Fishguard Sports where Gethin Griffiths and Ken Harries were on the score sheet. They also lost the week after away to Carew where two Dave Merriman goals and one from Graham Jenkins cancelled out a strike from John Dawes.

Both Hakin United and St Clears had finished their programme by the end of March and all that remained was to see whether Fishguard Sports could win their games in hand to overtake Carew. The crucial game came at St Mary’s on 20/4/74 when the Sports beat Carew 3-1. Carew won their last game of the season 5-4 away at Narberth leaving Fishguard needing two wins in their last two games to win the title. This they duly did with a 4-3 away win at Monkton Swifts and the on 25/5/74 they defeated Pendine 6-2 at home to clinch the title.

Fishguard’s success was down to winning their last 11 games and despite picking up only two out of the first six points in the season, this excellent run enabled them to once again pip arch rivals Carew.

At the other end of the table it took Haverfordwest County until their last game to record their only victory and this was a 1-0 success against Monkton Swifts. The Town had already been relegated by this point.

Notable goal scoring performance was the six scored by Barry Smith of Solva in his team’s 11-1 demolition of Pendine, although Carew had hit Haverfordwest County for 16 in December though no goal scorers were available in the local press.

Final table Division 1

Leading goalscorers - Some of the leading scorers during the season were Ken Harries & Eddie Merry (Fishguard Sports), Graham Jenkins & David Sefton (Carew), Richard Gray (Kilgetty), Gareth Parry (Narberth), and Phil Rugg and Ray Williams (St Clears).

Lower Leagues:

Division 2 looked as if it was going to be a very tight league with no teams boasting an unbeaten record by 6/10/73. By the end of December Merlins Bridge, relegated from division one in the previous year, looked well on course for a prompt return to the top division, and although Milford Athletic stood in second place at Christmas they had played more games than all of their rivals.

The Bridge’s only defeat had come at home 4-1 against the Athletic where 2 goals apiece for Les Mathias and Mike Inker had seen the Milford side home. Denzil John replied for the Bridge.

They had however recorded crucial back to back wins over the eventual runners up Pembroke Boro. A 4-2 home win on 10/11/73 (Alan Pearce, Dave Edwards, Simon James, Tally John/ Dekker Thomas and Peter Walters) was followed up the week after by 2-0 away success. This was followed up with another back to back success against Hakin United II where a 6-1 home success (which included a Trevor James hat-trick), was followed up by an even more impressive 8-1 away win.

The Bridge went on to clinch the title with two games to go with a 4-2 success away at Carew, although having won the championship they lost their last two games. One of these was against the Athletic 2-1 to give their opponents a much needed boost in the battle for second place. However a 1-1 draw by Athletic against bottom placed Narberth II in their penultimate game and a 2-1 defeat to Fishguard Sports II handed the initiative to Pembroke Boro who took full advantage and they clinched the runners-up spot with a 3-0 success over Clarbeston Road with one game to go.

The Bridge’s success was down to a 15 game unbeaten run, and having gone top on 29/09/73, after a 5-0 home success against Pennar Robins, they remained there for the rest of the season.

In Division 3 Solva II and Hubberston set the early pace with the latter having the last unbeaten record in the division up until the end of November when they lost against local riva ls MHPC 2-1.

Solva’s lead at the top had been improved on the last Saturday in December when they had beaten Hubberston 6-2, although one of their three defeats had been back in October away to Monkton Swifts II. They lost 3-2 when two Richard Evans goals and one from Steve Williams cancelled out strikes from Adrian Richards and Islwyn Phillips.

At Christmas the top five were as follows:-

Up until the end of March these five sides only suffered two further defeats between them and these were in games against each other; Solva beating MHPC 2-1, and the latter side beating the Swifts 1-0. Thus going into April it was all up for grabs.

The Petroleum’s hopes were extinguished following a 4-1 defeat to the Youth Club, and St Ishmaels 5 draws in the season also saw their glimmering hopes fade. A 1-1 draw in early May between the Youth club and the Swifts put Solva II in the driving seat and they clinched the title with a 2-1 victory over Monkton on May 18, which also gave them 100 goals for the season.

Hubberston then won their last game of the season 3-1 away at St Clears II, leaving Monkton having to beat 4th placed St Ishmaels in their last game to take the runners up spot. This they did with a convincing 4-1 home victory.

TABLE 2

Divisional Cups

The Division 2 Cup final saw league runners up Pembroke Boro take on 3rd placed Milford Athletic. The Boro on their way to the final had accounted for league champions Merlins Bridge 1-0, though in the final they lost to 3-1 to the Athletic after the first game ended 3-3. The first game was a classic with the Boro leading 3 times, thanks to goals from Terry Scutt, Bobby Bell and Derek Thomas, though each time being pegged back by a resilient Athletic who scorers were Freddie Garton (2) and Terry Davies. In the replay Derek Thomas was again on target for the Boro but goals from Ray Aldred, Les Mathias and Billy West saw the Athletic home.

The 3^rd Division Cup saw league champions Solva II complete the double thanks to a narrow 1-0 victory over league runners-up Monkton Swifts II. Barry Smith scored the all important goal. Earlier in the competition they had also overcome Hubberston Youth club with a similar score line, Tim Green this time netting the all important goal.

Roll of Honour

Division 1 Champions – Fishguard Sports
Division 1 runners-up – Carew
Relegated from Division 1 – Haverfordwest County
Division 2 Champions – Merlins Bridge
Division 2 runners-up – Pembroke Boro
Relegated from Division 2 –
Division 3 Champions – Solva II
Division 3 runners-up – Monkton Swifts II
Senior Cup winners – Carew
Senior Cup runners up – Fishguard Sports
2nd Division Cup winners – Milford Athletic
2nd Division Cup runners up – Pembroke Boro
3rd Division Cup winners – Solva II
3rd Division Cup runners up – Monkton Swifts IIs

Result Grids