Welsh clubs breaking new ground after stirring European triumphs

Something is happening in Welsh football. The domestic league has long been seen as something of a wilderness by some but, slowly, things are changing. Last week, the country’s top two sides, The New Saints and Connah’s Quay Nomads, punched well above their weight and made headlines with shock victories in Europe.

TNS beat the Kosovan champions, Feronikeli, in their Champions League qualifier and will face Copenhagen in the second round, with the first leg at home on Tuesday. Nomads defeated Kilmarnock, the third-best team in Scotland last season, to reach the same round of the Europa League qualifiers. Add to this the remarkable story of Cardiff Met University reaching the Europa League qualifiers and a pattern of success starts to emerge.

The rewards for these European adventures are enormous. TNS have earned at least £800,000, more than their annual playing budget, and stand to make a further £432,000 if they can beat Copenhagen. Connah’s Quay, who have nine full-time players, have banked £647,000.

These figures are momentous for the Nomads in particular and make last week’s 3-2 aggregate win over Kilmarnock all the more important. “Tactically, we dominated the game,” the Nomads manager, Andy Morrison, says. “I’m not going to talk about figures, but without a shadow of a doubt Kilmarnock’s budget would have been 20 times what ours is. What we did was quite remarkable.”

Nomads now face Partizan Belgrade, managed by the former Aston Villa striker Savo Milosevic, with the first leg in Rhyl on Thursday. The Welsh side have reached this stage once before, in 2016-17, where they also faced Serbian opposition.

“We went to Vojvodina and when we arrived at our dressing room, there were eight 6ft 3in guards with guns standing outside, just staring the lads down as we walked in,” says Morrison. “Our lads just laughed at them – we’ve got tough boys from Manchester, Liverpool, they don’t give a hoot. It will not faze us in Belgrade. Heaven help them if Partizan try to intimidate us; the lads will just stick their chests out.”

It is easy to scoff at Morrison’s swagger, but it is persuasive and that spirit and leadership helped drag Manchester City back into the Premier League from Division Two around the turn of the millennium. Morrison, once named by Joe Royle as the catalyst for that resurgence, would later be voted one of City’s greatest captains.

The Nomads’ captain, 37-year‑old George Horan, is also a centre‑back, part-time, as well as being an electrical engineer. The forward Nathan Woolfe works behind a bar, while others work as waiters or in mobile-phone sales and had to go straight to work last Friday after a night celebrating the Kilmarnock victory.

“The part-time players are still very professional,” says Morrison. “But it can have an effect on recovery after the games. And if we have a midweek game and they turn up after a shift, that can be an issue. But they are very mentally strong.”

TNS have a different set-up, including a full-time playing staff and a recently appointed head of recruitment who has brought in signings from Aberdeen and Swansea. The financial gulf between TNS and the rest of the Welsh Premier League can be seen by their manager, Scott Ruscoe, being sent to Kosovo to scout Feronikeli, whereas the Nomads’ scouting for the Partizan tie consists of the Welsh Football Association emailing Morrison a few videos of their opponents’ recent matches.

The quality and depth of TNS’s squad is a curse and a blessing for the rest of the Welsh Premier League. The self-perpetuating cycle of domestic titles (last season was TNS’s eighth on the bounce) and Champions League qualification leads to a huge imbalance but their wins in Europe do boost Wales’s Uefa coefficient, through which Wales retain four spots for European qualification. This is turn makes the league more attractive for coaches and players.

Ruscoe insists that the improvement in Wales stems from the managers, many of whom have completed the Uefa Pro Licence needed to manage in Europe. “Welsh football has had its detractors but people are starting to think we must be doing something right,” he says. “Because of that route to Europe, players are starting to find it attractive. Keeping those European places for the Welsh Premier League is vital.”

Domestically, Wales has a long way to go to reduce the gulf between TNS and the rest. Suggestions (made by TNS) such as reducing the number of teams from 12 to eight or introducing a Welsh Premier League quota for the national side have been mooted. But in continental competition, Connah’s Quay Nomads and TNS are flying. The Welsh are coming and Europe could yet be caught unawares.