TOO LITTLE TIME FOR CITY TO PREPARE

Qualifying Round

First Leg

Bangor City 0-2 FC Haka

Bangor qualified for the Cup Winners Cup after a penalty shootout victory over Connahs Quay Nomads in the Welsh Cup Final. However, since the Cup Final victory both manager Graeme Sharp and assistant, John Hulse, had left the club to be replaced by former Altrincham manager, John King. King faced the impossible task of having to virtually replace and whip into shape a full squad in the few weeks available leading up to the first leg on August 13th, as Danny McGoona and Mark Allen were the only players remaining from the previous season. King recruited Nigerian international forward, Sammy Ayorinde and Welsh Under-21 international, Paul Roberts. Chris Sharratt also returned to the club. Bangor’s opponents, FC Haka, included a number of Finnish internationals in their squad, and also had two lethal Russians, Ivanov and Popovitch – both players on the fringes of their national squad. Marlon Harewood, on loan from Nottingham Forest, was also in the team. City also faced the huge disadvantage of the first leg being the team’s first-ever competitive game together, as the start of the new League of Wales season was still a week away. Haka, on the other hand, were firing on all cylinders as they were three-quarters of the way through their own season, battling it out with HJK Helsinki for the Finnish League title. Harewood frightened City as early as the first minute when his shot hit the side netting, although Ayorinde settled a few nerves when he forced the Haka ‘keeper to make a fine save. City had spent the whole of the first half trying to find their feet when Jari Niemi scored five minutes before the break. Poor defending led to the Finns’ second goal after Janne Salli drove home on the hour mark. Harewood continued to look dangerous until he was substituted as did Popovitch, and Haka could have added more goals in the second half as Bangor never managed to get out of first gear for the whole of the match.

FC Haka 1-0 Bangor City

Bangor arrived at the Tehtaan Kenta stadium in Haka’s home town of Valkeakoski for the second leg on August 27th with even more problems. Paul Roberts’ shock decision to join Porthmadog had left John King desperately short of strikers, and the situation worsened after Gareth Williams and Mike McLoughlin picked up injuries during the morning training session and were ruled out of the match. In spite of these problems, City put on a much better performance than in the first leg. In spite of constant pressure by the Finns in the early stages, the previously shaky City defence held its ground. As Bangor settled in, the lack of an obvious City strikeforce became increasingly less evident as the Blues mounted a series of attacks. Jamie Taylor brought out the best in the Haka ‘keeper, then Noel Horner had a header blocked off the line from a Darren Hilditch corner. However, it was Haka who broke the deadlock on 28 minutes when Ruttanen found space to tap home from an Ivanov corner. Haka’s classy Russian duo, Ivanov and Popovich showed their talent, and it was their midfield dominance which eventually led to Haka taking control of the game. However, in the second half, City continued to fight, and Sammy Ayorinde may have felt himself very unfortunate, when on 69 minutes he was harshly adjudged to have been offside after finishing well. There were no further goals, so City bowed out at the first hurdle. The general consensus of opinion, especially after the second leg performance, was that if King could have had more time to prepare for the European campaign, City could have taken care of Haka quite comfortably to land themselves a plum tie against Greek club Panionios in the next round. King resigned from his managerial position three weeks later, allegedly due to boardroom irregularities.