By Webmaster/Rheolwr y Wefan
September 11 2002

League of Wales secretary, John Deakin has voiced his approval for a Summer League after a largely disappointing set of results for welsh clubs in Europe this summer. EURO PERFORMANCE NOT GOOD ENOUGH

By John Deakin

Driving back from Newtown the other week after watching Total Network Solutions being beaten 7-2 by Polish side, Amica Wronki in the UEFA Cup, I pondered how on earth do you put a “positive spin” on a 12-2 aggregate defeat? Of course it’s impossible, even Alistair Campbell would struggle with that one. People said to me at Newtown “what an entertaining game it was”, entertaining or not I was depressed and continue to be so. It’s all right to entertain but what we need to do is win.

My UEFA Cup frustrations have been somewhat tempered by the efforts of Bangor City, who did so well to defeat FK Sartid in their first leg match at Wrexham, only to fail so narrowly to capitalise on it in the away leg in Yugoslavia. After watching three of the four League of Wales sides who played in the UEFA Competitions this summer, the thing that struck me about Bangor was their organisation, which is doubtless due to the expertise and experience of manager Peter Davenport who himself had performed at the highest levels. It’s that sort of talent that the League of Wales needs, because organisation and preparation is the key to European success.

Barry Town have a good European record by League of Wales standards, but were themselves dumped out of the UEFA Champions League at the first hurdle by Skonto Riga. This is perhaps not surprising as Skonto were the highest seeded side in the first preliminary stage of the competition, and also had the benefit of having played sixteen League matches before their European encounter. Given that, The “Dragons” friendly matches against Millwall and Havant & Waterlooville were hardly adequate preparation for such an important encounter. Preparation is indeed the key, and it’s my opinion that we will never progress in European Competitions, unless we endeavour to level the playing field a little.

I have hammered on the drum about summer football for years and will continue to do so. There’s strong opposition to change from some influential people, but we should be watching the situation in the Republic of Ireland with interest. In fact, I intend to travel to the Republic in the near future to talk to all concerned regarding its progress, because contrary to some recent opinions expressed in Wales, it seems to be working for them.

I also recently heard it said, by a person whose opinions I usually respect, that European football isn’t the be all and end all. I have to disagree whole-heartedly, European football is the fundamental principle on which the League of Wales was founded and it should be the goal of all eighteen Clubs to endeavour to gain one of the coveted four places each season. But that’s not the end of it, once clubs qualify they’ve got to make the most of their opportunity and keep the knockers at bay, because at the moment they are just cannon fodder as our performances are just not good enough.

Taken from LoW Times