Haverfordwest County receive confirmation they are promoted to top flight of Welsh football
Haverfordwest County have returned to the top flight of Welsh football following confirmation that promotion and relegation would be implemented into this season’s final tables.
The announcement was made this afternoon following an FAW board meeting, with the club going up along with JD Cymru North side Flint. Carmarthen Town and Airbus UK Broughton are relegated.
On May 20th, the FAW announced that standings would be decided via a points per game average, which meant the Bluebirds agonisingly missed out on the JD Cymru South title to Swansea University. Their average of 2.20 was just behind that of the students, who had 2.24.
However, unlike Swansea, Haverfordwest had already met the necessary licence criteria to go up, and in 2020/21 will take their place back in the JD Cymru Premier League for the first time since being relegated in 2015/16.
Bluebirds being backed
Of course, this news follows another major development at the club with London businessman Rob Edwards taking over as Chairman.
Whilst it wasn’t said publicly, you suspected then that both the club and Edwards fully expected promotion to be confirmed in due course. The new man has spoken well and struck the right notes so far – but now the real work begins.
Investments seem imminent and in reality, such steps will be necessary if the club are to become a sustainable top flight team again. Balancing out new signings whilst showing trust with the squad that got the club back up is the acid test for any club after promotion.
Mark appointed assistant
There has already been a change to the coaching staff, with Mark Murison today being appointed assistant coach after earlier this month, Tim Hicks confirmed he was leaving the club following two seasons in the role.
As for manager Wayne Jones, at the start of the season he didn’t shy away from the fact he had been tasked with taking Haverfordwest back up. He didn’t then envisage a shortened season, points averages, and licence criteria all coming into the equation but in a roundabout way, it’s job done.
And having got them back to the Cymru Premier League, his next obvious target will be to keep them there.