Canaries defeat costs Huw job
CAERNARFON Town’s longserving manager Huw Griffiths has lost his job after a 1-0 defeat at home to Aberystwyth.
The Cofis lost ground on Haverfordwest County, 4-0 winners at home over bottom of the Play-Off Conference side Airbus UK Broughton, and now face an uphill struggle to force their way into the Europa League play-offs at the end of the season.
Haverfordwest boast a four-point lead and the sacking of Griffiths comes after nine defeats in the last 13 games.
“It’s never an easy task to part ways with the manager. This season has been extremely disappointing after a promising start,” said Caernarfon chairman Paul Evans.
“Having enjoyed success under Huw’s guidance over the past two seasons, when we lost one European play off final and won last season’s play-off only to be denied a European spot due to the co-efficiency points, we felt we should give him every opportunity to get things right this term.
“I’m afraid there is no guidance book on how to run a football club and so the board felt that this was the fairest and correct way to go about things. Unfortunately, we did not see an improvement and the last two performances have been very poor.
“Although things have not worked out this season, I don’t think anyone can question Huw’s commitment to the role and pride in being our manager. Everyone at the Oval thanks him and wishes him the very best of luck in the future.”
Richard Davies will step up to lead the team for the final five games, which start this weekend with a trip to Conference leader Haverfordwest, who had goals from Ben Fawcett, Ioan Evans, Jamie Veale and Dan Hawkins in a game that ended as 10 a side as both teams had players sent off.
Niall Flint was the hero for the Aberystwyth Town as he came up with the only goal of the game just before the break at The Oval. Caernarfon’s chances of getting back on terms took a dent when they had Laurie Bell shown a straight red in the 54th minute.
● It may not have been pretty at the Deeside Stadium, but Craig Harrison’s New Saints side ground out the draw they needed to retain their title with five games to go.
That made it 15 titles this century, along with seven second places and one third place finish to underline their total dominance of Welsh club football.
“Winning the league with five games still to go is testament to the winning mentality of this group of players and coaches,” said manager to defend against Bala Town, while the Nomads will be hoping to stay in second to take the other automatic European qualification spot.
Kane Owen was the hero for Penybont as they won 1-0 at Newtown to move to within a point of the Nomads in second.
Bala Town and Cardiff Met played out a goalless draw in the other game in the Conference.