Dial M for Merthyr

So it’s been 5 years since the last issue of Dial M For Merthyr, to be fair they’ve probably been the most turbulent at Penydarren Park since we started playing the round ball game at the end of Park Terrace. When you last read your favourite (and only) Merthyr fanzine we are in the final throes of the previous regime and their desperate attempts to get the supporters to fund more madness in the name of Merthyr Tydfil FC. The well had run dry. The chickens had come home to roost. The fat lady was singing. So in stepped the Trust to protect the club from itself. We’re still the only set of supporters in the UK that has placed its own club into administration. A bold move but ultimately an expensive one. Did we have a plan? Yes. Did we know how things would develop? Probably not but we had the determination and the support to move things forward away. The public meetings at the Penydarren Club were always well attended and the support & belief of those supporters was ...

An Open Letter To Merthyr Town Football Supporters – a message from your wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends and families. We understand.   Monday is a big, big day.     Some of us – and I especially include myself here - don’t get football, don’t understand the offside rule, don’t know what leagues Merthyr, Swansea, or even Manchester United are in.   We’ve watched with gently mocking bemusement over the years as you meet the end of season with a either a deep and often unshakable depression or manic glee. But we understand - Monday is a big, big day.   Here’s the thing though.   It’s not just a big day for the supporters and the team.   Over recent years we’ve travelled with you on this rollercoaster.   We were there in the early days when you had no real stake in the club and watched helplessly at the unfolding results.   We held our collective breath when you took the first tentative steps toward independence, challenging...

The following presentation was made to the Merthyr Town FC Hall of Fame evening on Saturday 20th October 2012; ALBERT LINDON (1891-1976) Albert Lindon is a figure that transcends two football clubs and is paramount to the survival of professional football at Penydarren Park. He is no local. He was born in Kings Norton near Birmingham on 27th January 1891. His first clubs were the imaginatively named Birmingham Fruiterers and Delta Metal Works. Albert was a goalkeeper. In 1910 he joined his local club Birmingham City where he made 7 appearances for the St. Andrews club in the 2nd division of the Football League. The Blues had a disappointing season ending in 22nd place so our hero was on the move across the city to Villa Park where he managed one solitary game between the sticks for Aston Villa albeit in the lofty climes of the First Division. Albert frustrated by the lack of games first of all went to Barnsley and then Coventry City to seek regular games. He ma...

The pasts a different country...they do things differently there. I went to Football in the late 70's and 80's. It was different then. Much different. It had edge. No point saying it was anything else really. You learnt loads though. Was it better than now?...Different. There's a word...different. I used to just go to games. Any old games. My teams were Merthyr and Cardiff. Merthyr away was even more dangerous than Cardiff. Straight up. Non-league, no segregation, no reputation like Cardiff to scare people off...I had a clump once off a brick in Halesowen when a load of Zulu's turned up and the Copper laughed. Seriously...he fuckin laughed as I buckled. That was football then...we were animals. To be controlled. I didnt care. We were told we were nothing in school. Our Fathers lost their jobs in the pits and factories. I felt like we were under attack. Like they hated us, The Govt, the authorities. They did. I went to Newcastle on that fateful day. I drove ...

LIFE IN THE SOUTHERN LEAGUE SECOND DIVISION DURING SEASON 1911-1912 The season 1911-12 was certainly a successful one for Merthyr Town as they finished champions of the Southern League Second Division. This was no mean feat as, over the course of the season, they had to contest local derbies with Cardiff City, Pontypridd, Ton Pentre, Treharris, Aberdare, Mardy and Cwm Albion. The biggest ‘name’ in the division was, current Premiership side, Portsmouth, who had been relegated from the Southern League First Division at the end of the previous campaign. Not surprisingly, the south coast club were hardly enthusiastic about the number of visits which they would have to make to the South Wales Valleys. In an attempt to avoid travelling to the Valleys in the winter months, new Pompey Manager, Bob Brown, shrewdly arranged the bulk of his Club’s away fixtures for the first half of the season. Even so, the facilities and pitches at many of the South Wales grounds could, at best, be describ...

http://ffwtbol.co.uk/2010/11/29/fanzines-revisited-dial-m-for-merthyr-issue-one/

Fred Keenor - The man who never gave up James Leighton The Fred Keenor statue campaign is quite rightly high on the agenda at Cardiff City at the moment, the fundraising for an iconic landmark to celebrate one of the city’s favourite sons has started - the latest boost a release of a CD of the song “I’ll be there” by The Stand which no doubt you will all have bought via one avenue or another. An opportune moment then to release a biography on Keenor but can James Leighton do the story justice? The majority of Cardiff City fans will know the story of the Cup Finals of 1925 and of course 1927, coupled with the loss of the League Title on goal average but what about the man who led the Bluebirds though those amazing times? Will the publication Fred Keenor - the Man Who Never Gave up” provide the content to provide an insight into the man who lifted the FA Cup on 23rd April 1927 at Wembley Stadium? It’s a difficult task in itself as the story of that era has been debated over the decades b...

Dial M For Merthyr is sad to announce that the infamous MERTHYR TYDFIL GODS COUNTRY flag was lost prior to the Montenegro v Wales in Podgorica on 3rd September. A substantial reward of no particular value is offered for information leading to the recovery of the Merthyr Town FC heirloom. Please help reunite this artefact with its guardian Mr. Moppy. All information will be treated in confidence and forgotten very quickly. We thank you for your co-operation in bringing our flag back to it's spiritual home.