A DAUNTING TASK FOR CITY’S RAW RECRUITS

Preliminary Round

First Leg

Bangor City 0-4 Widzew Lodz

After retaining the League of Wales Championship, Bangor faced a daunting tie against European veterans, Wizdew Lodz. The Polish side had enjoyed considerable success in previous campaigns, which included victories over Juventus, Liverpool and Manchester United. City named ex-Wigan fullback Jimmy Carberry, centre half Harry Wiggins and former Everton midfielder, Kevin Langley as their three foreigners. The goalkeeper’s jersey was worn by Welsh Semi-Professional international Mark Deegan, a close season signing from Oxford United. Former Stockport County centre-forward, Bobby Colville returned to the club to replace Mark Lloyd-Williams who had joined Stockport in a £10,000 transfer. Bangor were outplayed and outclassed by a gifted Widzew, who included six of the Polish side who went on earn a draw with France three weeks later. With the match played on August 8th, City once again had the disadvantage of not having played a competitive game for three months prior to the encounter. The Poles’ power, pace and ability was too much for Bangor, and the Blues were far too nervous to create any real threat. City’s few chances fell to Kevin Langley, whose fierce shot hit the Widzew bar, and to Alun Evans who broke through only to find his goalbound effort superbly saved by Polish international keeper, Josef Wosniak. The tie was effectively over after 51 minutes when Koniarek scored the first of his two goals, and City had salt rubbed in their wounds when he scored his second with a close-range header a minute from full-time. On a lighter note, a fantastic atmosphere was created on Bangor High Street after the match, when scores of Widzew and City supporters joined each other to drink the contents of every pub dry, and to sing and dance until the early hours of the morning.

Second Leg

Bangor travelled to Poland two weeks later with only pride at stake. With Mark Deegan having left City to join Unibond League club Barrow, City’s problems deepened as Nigel Adkins had to name himself in the squad, and in doing so taking up one of the permitted foreigners slots. However, the small number of City fans who made the long journey to Lodz described a tremendous performance on August 22nd. Bangor utilised a five-man defence, with local youngster Michael Innes having the game of his life in goal. A battling performance saw City deny the Poles a sniff at goal until six minutes from time when superior fitness and a strike from substitute Bogdan Pikuta ended City’s hopes of glory. Bangor had been unlucky earlier on when an Arwel Jones header was disallowed by the referee with the scores still level, and Frankie Mottram came desperately close to snatching an equaliser in the closing moments of a thrilling match. City received a standing ovation from the Polish crowd as they left the field, and the League of Wales won itself a lot of new fans and respect on the day.