MAKING DREAMS BECOME REALITY

City reached October ‘93 having already been defeated three times in 8 league outings, which was hardly Championship-winning form. However, mid-October saw the start of a fantastic run by City which saw just 3 more defeats in 27 league matches. By the start of May, City were snapping at the heels of Inter Cardiff at the top of the table. With just three league games remaining, City suffered a major setback on May 10th, when they lost 1-0 away at Flint Town United, leaving the club with an almost impossible task in their next game. City would have to beat LoW strugglers Haverfordwest County by at least nine clear goals in their last game at Farrar Road in order to catch up with Inter’s impressive goal difference. With Inter’s season finished, victory by this huge margin would leave City needing just one more point from their final game of the season at Porthmadog to secure their first-ever LoW title.

At the kick-off, not even the most optimistic City fan really believed it was possible. However, in front of a packed Farrar Road, City went into the half-time interval leading Haverfordwest by 5-0, and there was a buzz around the terraces………could City really do it? Twenty minutes into the second half, with the score still at 5-0, the dream slowly began to drift away. Then, in a devastating final twenty minutes, City scored three more times, and with the final whistle looming, fans favourite Jimmy "Thunderfoot" Carberry lined up from over 25 yards out and hit one of the most incredible goals ever seen at Farrar Road. The stadium erupted as all eleven City players dived on top of each other in celebration. Three days later, two goals by Mark Rutter and Lee Noble gave City victory at Porthmadog, and in front of a crowd of 3500 - over 3000 of them from Bangor - Player/Manager Nigel Adkins hoisted the LoW trophy aloft. One of the most memorable sights for many a City fan was the 30-mile journey back to Bangor after the match, with a convoy of vehicles stretching as far as the eye could see tooting their horns and flashing their lights in celebration.

The only sour note to the proceedings was that following the Haverfordwest County game, Inter Cardiff (and Cardiff City) supremo Rik Wright, perhaps in a fit of sour grapes, lodged a formal protest to the Welsh FA accusing County of fielding a weakened team against City. This was somewhat ironic taking into account that Inter had already themselves thrashed County by a similar scoreline earlier in the season. In an incident that many City fans saw as grossly unfair, Haverfordwest were consequently fined by the Welsh FA, and shortly afterwards, the club, already facing a number of difficulties, had to withdraw from the League back down to the lower division.