‘With all that has been going on, the players were superb’
TAYLOR-FLETCHER HAILS BANGOR AFTER TOUGH WEEK
BANGOR City player boss Gary Taylor-Fletcher praised the character of his young side after they suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to Gresford Athletic in the Huws Gray Alliance.
It had been a tough week for the cash-strapped Citizens, who lost a succession of players while having to switch their home clash with the Latics to Conwy Borough’s Y Morfa ground after water and electricity had been cut off at Nantporth due to unpaid bills.
Despite the narrow loss, Taylor-Fletcher was heartened by the resolve and spirit of a predominantly youthful City side captained by former Wrexham defender Mike Williams.
“With all that’s been going on, the players were superb,” he said. “The work rate, desire and togetherness will put us in good stead going forward. The lads who came in stepped up and did not look out of place.”
Two free-kicks proved City’s undoing, the first on 33 minutes when Simon Smith curled an effort from the left inside the far post.
City were back on terms four minutes before half time when the ball was chipped over the defence following a quickly taken free kick and Sam Jones coolly slotted into the bottom corner.
But Gresford were not to be denied, and regained the lead on 70 minutes when Joe Culshaw drove an excellent free kick from the edge of the box past keeper Nathan Wolland.
City – who hope to bring in a couple of new signings this week – have slipped to third spot, while the Latics are looking good in sixth position.
BANGOR City FC has agreed to pay £25,000 owed in electricity and water bills.
The lights and water were cut off at the club’s Nantporth stadium last month after bills of £16,000 for electricity and £9,000 for water went unpaid.
The club initially said the electricity bill was “unjustly” in their name, and said the bill was for a connection shared with landlord Nantporth CIC, which runs the nearby 3G pitch.
But Nantporth CIC, in a statement of its own, rejected the club’s “inaccurate” claims and said payments had already been made to the club for their share of the electricity.
Bangor City FC have now accepted they will pay both bills.
Luke Purcell, the club’s general manager, said: “Whatever the situation is or how unjust certain things are, we will have to take responsibility of this bill and will have to get it paid.
“It isn’t the ideal scenario and this will be looked at in more depth internally.
“However, the longer we argue about it, the longer the situation continues and the longer we have no power to our own stadium.”
Mr Purcell said they were hopeful that the club would announce a new stadium sponsor in the coming days, which they said would help behind the scenes.
As well as the outstanding bills, the club admitted last month that it owed £80,000, including bringing players and staff wages up to date and paying compensation to a former groundsman.
The football club has been beset by problems in recent months.
The club’s owner Vaughan Sports Management, which had been at the helm at Nantporth since 2016, announced in December their directors were stepping down, with an unnamed party set to step up.
They had previously said they were willing to sell the club to the fans “if they think they can run it better” .
The club held this weekend’s fixture against Gresford Athletic at Conwy Borough FC’s stadium Y Morfa.