COLWYN BAY FC CLUB HISTORY

A team representing Colwyn Bay played its first match in January 1881 and competed in the North Wales Coast Football League from 1901 until that competition folded in 1921 when the majority of clubs joined the Welsh National League.

The Bay enjoyed some success in this, winning the League Cup in 1928 and finishing as league runners -up in both 1928 and 1930 – which was to prove the last season for the competition. In July of that year, a meeting was held at the Albion Hotel in Chester with a view to setting up the Cheshire Football Combination in which clubs from Cheshire and North Wales would compete – the eventual title of the competition was the North Wales Football Combination. The Bay became founder members, playing in English football for the first time, and celebrated by taking the title at the end of the 1930/31 season.

The club then joined the Birmingham and District League with the like of Worcester City, Cradely Heath, Wrexham Reserves and Kidderminster Harriers. Unfortunately this gave them transport difficulties and results tailed off. Unable to halt a slide down the table, which saw them finish bottom in 1935/36 and 1936/37 season's, it was perhaps not surprising that they resigned from the league to join the Welsh League (North) in 1937.

After the second World War the club rejoined the competition and proved to be highly successful, starting off with a runner's up spot at the end of the season and ending by taking the league title in 1983 and 1984. Bay also finished as runners up in 1964 and amongst their cup success were wins in the Alves Cup in 1964 and the Cookson Cup in 1974, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1984, the Barrit Cup in 1980 and 1984 as well as the North Wales Coast Challenge Cup in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1992 and 1996 and 1998.

In 1984, the club crossed the border with election to the Bass North West Counties League. It was also at this time that the Bay left their Eirias Park ground for their present Llanelian Road base.
During their first season in the new league, the club was promoted from the Third Division and following the reorganization of the leagues in 1987 the club was promoted to the First Division. The Bay, under manager Bry Jones, gained further success, finishing fourth in the league and reaching the final of the Raab Karcher League Cup Final where they lost to Warrington Town at Gigg Lane, Bury.

The club also reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in their history that season, losing 1-0 away to Northwich Victoria. The following season the Seagulls again reached the final of the Raab Karcher Cup and gained revenge on Warrington Town winning 3-0, again at Bury. In 1990/91 the club finished runners up in the league to Knowsley, but due to the demise of South Liverpool a vacancy was created in the Northern Premier League, and despite a strong challenge from North Shields to fill the vacancy, the club was duly elected to the Northern Premier League.

The 1991/92 campaign started with the club on the crest of a wave, topping the table and enjoying an FA Cup run which saw them fall to Morecambe in the final qualifying round. However, in 1991 news broke that the Football Association of Wales, in readiness for a creation of a new League of Wales, would withdraw a sanction for all non league clubs currently playing in England. The FA of Wales was challenged by the clubs and an appeal was heard. This appeal was set up by the FAW and consisted of members selected by the FAW. The appeal was turned down.

To the credit of the players and management, off the field activities did not affect those on the pitch and the club went on to secure a league and cup double as well as the North Wales Coast Challenge Cup. The Welsh Cup semi-final was also reached including a 3-1 win over Wrexham; only days after the Football League side had beaten Arsenal in the FA Cup.

At the end of a highly successful first season in the Northern Premier League, the club also had a big decision to make and gave it's supportersw a choice. Either join the new League of Wales or go in to exile whilst the club continued its battle with the Welsh FA for the right to play in the English pyramid. Financially the club's choice was not easy, but was supported by the local council, townspeople and supporters alike. The fight was eventually finalized during April 1995 in the High Court in London and the Bay won thwe case against the Welsh FA.

At the end of the 2000/01 season, manager Bryn Jones stepped down as manager after eighteen years at the helm to be replaced by long serving centre half, Colin Caton as player/manager. In his first season at the helm, the Bay maintained their Premier League status, but the following season 2002/03, the Bay were relegated for the first time in their history and Colin Caton stepped down as manager.The club was now struggling financially and had lost its sense of direction.

A new group of directors took over running the club part way through 2004. A new clubhouse was opened at the ground in Easter 2005. The club appointed Peter Davenport as manager for the 2006/7 season but he left half way through the season to be replaced by ex Witton Albion manager Gary Finlay. A strong end of season saw the club in to the play off's where they were eventually defeated 3-2 by Cammell Laird to an injury time winner.

At the end of the season a new board was appointed with the ambition of reaching Conference level football within 5 years, developing the stadium and a community affairs programme.

The 2007/08 season was spent in the newly formed Unibond First Division North and regrettably the team could not re-produce the form of the previous end of season run and finished outside the play off's. As a result a new manager was appointed in former Crewe player Steve Pope alongside the vastly experienced Paul Ogden as his assistant.

After a disappointing start to the 2008/09 season, Steve Pope stood down as manager after only four league games. Two weeks later Neil Young was appointed as the new manager, assisted by the former Tranmere Rovers and Nottingham Forest player, Gary Jones. The team went on a winning streak that saw them rise from 17th to 3rd place, securing two successive Unibond 'Club of the Month' awards for February and March along the way. The team eventually secured play off position finishing in 4th position, almost unthinkable before Young's appointment. This was the clubs highest league placing for many yaers. Unfortunately, a run of injuries and a recall for influential on-loan midfielder Ashton Taylor back to Tranmere dented the club's play - off hopes and after a brave effort were eventually beaten away at Newcastle Blue Star on penalties. A cruel twist being that eventual play-off winners, Newcastle BS soon after folded, denying the Bay and other teams in the UN1 who made the play-off's a place in the Unibond Premier League.

For the start of the 2009/10 season manager Neil Young made a number of signings in order to strengthen the side with the hope that the club could go one better this time around. Off the field, the club has managed to secure the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the club's history with the Co-Operative Food Group. With a planned increase in community based initiatives, the launch of the Elite Performance Centre for the best young players in the area and with efforts continuing on improving ground facilities, the club can look forward to a bright future.

The season started brightly for Colwyn Bay as they held the top spot for most of the season, but it was always a false position as the chasing pack had several games in hand over Colwyn Bay and with each game played, the gap continued to shrink. Colwyn Bay actually finished the season in 4th place and a massive 25 points behind the eventual winners, FC Halifax and 21 points behind 2nd place Lancaster City. This was enough to secure Colwyn Bay a 2nd successive season in the play-off's and this time they would make full use of them as they travelled to Curzon Ashton where the Bay came from behind to win 2-1, then travelled to the Giant Axe where, in monsoon conditions won the match, and promotion with a late penalty strike from Ian Sheridan.

Manager Neil Young decided to leave Colwyn Bay to join re-formed Chester at the end of the season and club captain and ex – Tranmere Rovers defender Dave Challinor was installed as player/manager.

Challinor immediately brought in Colin Woodthorpe as his assistant.
Challinor's confidence in his decision making, coupled with an eye for spotting players with the required attributes saw his young side get his first season in charge off to a flyer as they went straight to the top of the table. Such was the success of this team, Colwyn Bay were very rarely outside of the play-off places and finished second in the league behind the much fancied FC Halifax. After a comfortable win against North Ferriby, Colwyn Nbay went on to win 1-0 against FC United of Manchester to win promotion to the Blue Square Conference North.
Challinor and Woodthorpe dropped a bombshell by moving on in October 2011 to take over at AFC Fylde and striker Jon Newby agreed to step up to take over as player/manager.

He won the league's 'Manager of the Month' award within three months of taking over and successfully kept the team in the Conference North with a 12th place finish in their first season.

The following season however, was a struggle on a tight budget and Newby was sacked in January 2013 after some disappointing results and replaced by former goalkeeper Lee Williams. After failing to win a point in four successive games, he was replaced by ex Chelsea and Leicester City defender, Frank Sinclair.

He engineered a tremendous finish to the season as the team won six games in the space of 15 days to secure their Conference North status.
Last year the Seagulls finished 12th after being in contention for the play-off's at one stage.

Sinclair was in charge for 23 months, but resigned in January 2015 after a poor run of results. His assistant Gus Williams took over until the end of the season when the Seagulls were relegated on goal difference to end four seasons in the Conference North
.
Williams then stood down with assistant and former Burnley winger Ash Hoskin taking over.