Dial M for Merthyr

When our town of Merthyr Tydfil hosted a march in support of Welsh independence on September 8 this year, more than five thousand people turned up to champion the movement. So when Merthyr Town posted their support of the event on social media, many welcomed seeing a Welsh working class institution advocating the idea of Wales being free from the shackles of Westminster rule. Prominent stars from Welsh sport gave also showed their solidarity to the cause, including former Welsh international and widely considered to be one of the finest goalkeepers of his era, Neville Southall, who told the gathered crowd at Penderyn Square to loud cheers: “Wales is the greatest country in the world, but it’s no good having a dragon if the dragon cannot roar”. However, The Martyr’s support was shortlived, their fear of alienating a minority of British nationalist supporters saw them delete their post and retract all solidarity just four days later as they issued a statement distancing themsel

  I’ve never really been one for the theory that we can suppress bad memories or incidents so that they never appear in our consciousness but a random discussion with a former England international awakened dark memories of a promotion near-miss and my first experience of how cruel a game football can be especially when your heroes seem invincible. The Merthyr team of the late seventies is often overlooked when the histories of our clubs are debated but it could be argued that for a generation of fans it was Doug Rosser’s lads who cemented our affiliation to the black & white (striped then of course) colours at Penydarren Park. 1979 remains an iconic year in history; Margaret Thatcher starts her reign of destruction, the Specials release their first records, I’m in my first year at Vaynor & Penderyn and Doug Rosser’s black & white army is fighting for promotion. My dad took me to Penydarren Park from a young age and as I’ve written in many articles over the decades