HIGH HOPES DASHED BY THREE-FOREIGNER RULE

Preliminary Round

First Leg

Bangor City 1-2 IA Arkranes

Player-manager, Nigel Adkins’ League of Wales Champions faced Icelandic Champions, IA Akranes in their third venture into European competition, and first as representatives of the new League of Wales. Bangor were seriously hampered by UEFA’s three foreigner rule, which meant that Adkins had to juggle his predominately English players. Welsh ancestry was conveniently found for tricky winger, Lee Noble and classy centre half, Mark Rutter. Debuts were made by close-season signings, Mark Lloyd-Williams from Porthmadog, and ex-Wrexham duo Kevin Jones and Phil Middleton. Akranes for their part fielded six full Icelandic internationals, including former Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday star, Siggi Jonnson, at a time when Icelandic football was on the upsurge. They also fielded three strong Yugoslavs. Bangor went into the game on August 9th without having played a competitive match in three months, but almost went ahead early on when a well-struck Mark Rutter free-kick was tipped over by the visiting goalkeeper. Lee Noble constantly caused the Icelandic defence problems down the left-hand side, and at one stage it took a crude tackle from Miljhovic to stop him, which earned the Yugoslav a booking. Frank Mottram headed narrowly over after a well-worked corner, and soon afterwards tough tackling by Arkranes saw another booking, this time for Adolfsson. Akranes were marshalled by playmaker Jonsson, whose class in the midfield created chances for the away side. Akranes made the breakthrough on 42 minutes after poor defending allowed Reynisson through to beat Nigel Adkins. Jonnson scored only minutes after the half-time interval to double the Icelandic lead but six minutes later, Frank Mottram kept City in the game and became the first Bangor player to score in Europe for nine years after heading home a Steve Humphreys cross. City continued to chase the game but resilient defending by Arkranes stopped them for getting a vital equaliser.

IA Arkranes 2-0 Bangor City

City travelled to Iceland safe in the knowledge that they had not been outclassed by Akranes in the first leg, and a good performance could see Bangor proceed into the next round. City arrived at the tiny Akranesvollur Stadium via a chartered flight to Reykjavik followed by a coach trip along the rugged volcanic coast. Just three minutes into play Steve Humphreys almost gave City a dream start that would have put the Blues right back into the picture, but his shot curled inches over the bar. It proved to be a costly miss. City’s hopes were dashed after Arkranes took full advantage of the League of Wales club’s makeshift defence, and goals by Ingolfsson on 8 minutes and Thordasson on 21 put any hopes of victory beyond City’s reach. To make matters worse, Lee Noble was sent off following two bookable offences. There was genuine disappointment in the City camp after the match. It was felt that the three foreigners rule had cost City dear. It must be remembered that the first leg was Bangor’s first competitive game in three months.