The New Saints - The story so far

The New Saints of Oswestry, Welsh Premier League Champions for six of the last seven seasons have been playing under that ‘banner’ since 2006.   Prior to that and following a merger of at the time ailing Oswestry Town with Total Network Solutions in 2003 they played as the latter both at home and in Europe, in fact clashing with Manchester City and Liverpool in differing seasons.

Total Network Solutions had risen from the small welsh village of Llansantffraid who were nicknamed the ‘Saints’ and became TNS following a lucrative sponsorship deal with a computer networking specialist company owned by entrepreneur Mike Harris.

Following the sale of Total Network Solutions to BT in 2006, the club changed its name to The New Saints FC, a move which captured the spirit of both clubs and in 2007 they played their first game at the totally redeveloped Park Hall Stadium, unrecognisable from the ground that Oswestry had used in their latter years.

Park hall has a state of the art 3G pitch and it also features a major leisure development known as the Venue.

As mentioned above they have won the Welsh League title in six of the last seven seasons, ten in all and currently have a league record this season of played ten and won ten!

At the start of their current campaign, in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, they triumphed 5-1 on aggregate against Tre Penne of San Marino, before losing 3-0 to Apoel of Cyprus having drawn the home leg 0-0.

European scalps in recent times have included Northern Ireland’s Cliftonville, Bohemians of Dublin and B36 Torshavn from the Faroe Islands.

In fact only last season they lost through an extra-time sucker punch to Videton in Budapest, other sides to lower their colours in European adventures in recent times include, Slovan Bratislava, Legia Warsaw, Helsingborgs of Sweden and Danish side Midtjylland who were not disgraced last season in a two legged tussle with Manchester United.

Gateshead born Craig Harrison who played for Middlesbrough, Crystal Palace and Preston North End has been the manager at Park Hall since 2011 and he is assisted by Scott Ruscoe, the club’s all time record appearance holder.

We certainly look forward to welcoming the Officials, Players and Supporters of the New Saints to Station Park on Saturday afternoon.