Barry Town United has a vacancy for the role of Commercial Manager
As Commercial Manager of Barry Town United AFC, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the club’s commercial operations, growth and overall success.
You will need to be responsible for overseeing the commercial aspects of the club with a focus on developing a commercial strategy, increasing sponsorship agreements, develop the club’s marketing and brand strategy, along with identifying new commercial and partnership opportunities.
Barry Town United is delighted to announce that NAPA Auto Parts will continue as one of our key club sponsors for the 2024/25 season.
Formerly known as LDS Motors, NAPA Auto Parts has been an integral part of Barry Town for over a decade. Deeply embedded in our local community, they are a global leader in automotive parts.
Chairman Mark Barrett commented: “We are extremely pleased to welcome NAPA Auto Parts to the club for another season. Their contribution and support to the club over the last ten years under the LDS brand has made a significant impact both on our club and the local community. We look forward to further developing our relationship with the parent brand Napa and rolling out new exciting initiatives in the future.”
Adam McNaney – UK Group Marketing Manager – NAPA Auto Parts commented – “ We recognise the community feel Barry Town United has created in the local area and servicing the local market is what NAPA Auto Parts values at its core. We feel this is a great partner to have on board and look forward to building this partnership in the future.“
Barry Town United is delighted to welcome winger Rhys Schwank to the club. Town’s new number 11 becomes our fifth summer signing ahead of the 2024/25 Cymru Premier Season.
Youngster Rhys joins the club from Abergavenny Town and has worked under Stephen Jenkins previously at Cardiff City.
Rhys is a naturally gifted quick player, whose sharpness and speed makes him a danger out wide.
Rhys grabbed 12 goals in 26 games for Abergavenny last season and has been on the clubs radar since for some time.
Barry Town United is delighted to welcome new midfielder Eliot Richards to the club
The Town’s new number 8 becomes the 4th summer signing ahead of the upcoming 2024/25 Cymru Premier Season.
32 year old Eliot joins the club from Pen-y-Bont and brings much experience to the squad as he boasts Bristol Rovers, Hereford, Barnet, Merthyr Town and Pontypridd United amongst his former clubs.
The former Wales U21 International will bring a wealth of experience to the Town, and Eliot is looking forward to the challenge as well as working with Stephen Jenkins once again.
24 year old Liam becomes our second summer signing ahead of the 2024/25 Cymru Premier Season.
Barry Town United are delighted to welcome Goalkeeper Liam Armstrong to the club. 24 year old Liam becomes our second summer signing ahead of the 24/25 Cymru Premier Season.
Our new number 25 will be an exciting addition to the Town’s squad having played professionally at Bristol Rovers
Liam also enjoyed a respectable career at Gloucester City with loans at Swindon Supermarine, Bristol Cleeves and most recently Corsham Town where Liam won the Hellenic League Challenge Cup.
Liam has previously worked with goalkeeper coach Matthew James and is excited for the new challenge the Town can offer him.
29 year old Josh becomes our first summer signing ahead of the 2024/25 Cymru Premier Season.
Barry Town United are delighted to welcome Central Defender Josh Yorwerth to the club. 29 year old Josh becomes our first summer signing ahead of the 24/25 Cymru Premier Season.
The former Wales U21s International will add much experience to the Town’s squad having played professionally at Ipswich, Crawley and Peterborough United.
Josh spent last season at Penybont and Merthyr Town. The Bridgend born centre-back and Town’s new number 6 began his career at Cardiff City and can be described as a gifted player.
All at the club are excited to see what Josh can achieve in a Barry Town shirt.
It’s 25 years since the Town defeated Wrexham at the Racecourse to lift the 1998-99 FAW Premier Cup title
The FAW Premier Cup started life in the 1997-98 season as the FAW Invitation Cup as a way of bringing in the English Football League clubs into domestic competition for the first time since their entry into the Welsh Cup was removed.
In 1997-98, the format included Cardiff City, Swansea City, Wrexham, Merthyr Tydfil, and four Welsh Premier (now Cymru Premier) sides Barry Town, Bangor City, Conwy United and Newtown. The inaugural winners of the competition were Wrexham.
For the 1998-99 season, the Premier Cup saw three groups of four clubs, with the best place teams from the group stages going through to the knock-out stages.
The Group Stage
Barry Town was placed in arguably the toughest group, Group B, alongside Swansea City, reigning champions Wrexham, and Caernarfon Town.
Kick-starting the tournament at the end of August, just weeks after playing Kyiv in the Champions League at Jenner Park, our first opponents were the reigning champions, Wrexham.
Already 2-1 up through Richard Jones and a Wrexham own goal, Darren Davies scored a terrific goal to put the Town 3-1 up, the tie eventually finishing 3-2 in our favour. We were off to a great start against the one Football League side who took the competition seriously.
There was a break in Premier Cup activity until the autumn, when the group stages took centre stage during November and December.
For the Town, we drew 1-1 with Swansea City at the Vetch, a fabulous 2-0 win over Swansea at Jenner Park with goals from Eifion Williams and Richard Jones (by penalty), a 1-0 loss to Wrexham at the Racecourse, followed by a 1-0 win over the Cofis at the Oval through a goal by Lee Barrow.
The Group B stage was completed, with us in top spot, with a 3-1 Jenner Park victory over Caernarfon following a hat-trick by Eifion Williams over his old club.
Quarter Finals
The Quarter Finals took place during February/March 1999 with Inter Cable-Tel beating Cwmbran Town, Wrexham beating Newtown, and Cardiff City beating Swansea City 3-2.
We took on Merthyr Tydfil at Jenner Park on 16 March 1999, with Richard Jones sliding home what would be the winning goal on the half hour mark.
The Semi Finals
The semi finals were two-legged affairs during April and May 1999, but the biggest news for Barry Town at that point was the sale of Eifion Williams to Torquay United in March.
As it happened, we cruised past our opponents, Inter Cable Tel 5-1 on aggregate, while Wrexham knocked out Cardiff City 4-3 on aggregate (beating City 3-1 at the Racecourse, but City winning 2-1 at Ninian Park). So it would be a Wrexham vs. Barry Town FAW Premier Cup Final at the Racecourse on 23 May 1999.
The Final
Justin Perry opened the scoring for us on 57 minutes, with a headed goal, before Karl Connolly converted a highly contentious penalty decision 15 minutes later. With the clock winding down to potential Extra-Time a rare Barry Town corner, only the second of the entire match, taken by Danny Carter, was met by the head of a climbing Lee Barrow.
Barry Town had beaten Wrexham in Wrexham to lift the FAW Premier Cup. The season ended with the Town completing a Treble of Welsh Premier League champions, League Cup winners and Premier Cup winners. Marvellous!
Following 8 very successful years with Barry Town, Chris Hugh will depart the club
Chris, a pivotal signing in the summer of 2016, made 218 appearances, scored 14 goals, lifted 4 trophies, secured 2 promotions and qualified for European football on two occasions.
Chris also enjoyed a successful Futsal career, where he captained the Wales national side – scoring the winning goal for Wales in a 3-2 away win over Sweden in Visby in 2017.
Of course, Chris also frequently represented his club at Wales ‘C’ level, and was first selected for Wales ‘C’ duty in March 2018 – in a match against England at Jenner Park.
His competitive debut for Barry was in the 2-0 league win over Undy Athletic on 18th August 2016 at Jenner Park. Winning promotion to the Cymru Premier for 2017-18, Chris featured in our first league win over The New Saints in over 18 years.
Our 1-0 victory on 4 November 2017 was a long time coming, following our previous victory in Llansantffraid over the then named Total Network Solutions way back in August 1999.
Indeed, Hugh’s eight away matches at Park Hall include our two victories, and the three 2-2 draws.
Chris has been an ever present player at Left Back during his time, scoring some wonderful goals. Not only an exceptional footballer but a fantastic person who is idolised at our club.
Seen by many as the best left back at the club since Gary Lloyd, it’s a pleasure to call him one of our own.
Thanks for everything Chris, we have been blessed to have you at our club for so long.
A presentation will be made to Chris at tonight’s awards evening; you can purchase tickets here for an opportunity to say goodbye.
Watch: Chris Hugh with the assist for Kayne McLaggon’s goal as we topped the table in December 2018.
