A Hometown Team, 320 Miles From Home

Where to begin. A Leeds United fan, who grew up in Lincolnshire, and follows… Haverfordwest County?! Something just doesn’t quite add up!

The story is not as absurd as it may first appear. My parents moved away from Lincolnshire in 1991 when my dad got a job working at the Gulf Refinery. They then settled down in the previously unknown to them town of Haverfordwest.

In the Summer of 1996 I was born in Withybush General Hospital and spent the first 11 months of my life living in Venns Close, Haverfordwest. Years later my dad would tell me he played football for Haverfordwest during our time in South West Wales. For a while I believed it to be the first team but in reality it was Haverfordwest County Reserves playing in the Pembrokeshire Leagues while the senior team competed in the Welsh Leagues. Eventually we left the area in 1997 and returned to Lincolnshire after my dad received a new job offer. But that is where my connection began, a hometown team 320 miles away from home.

Growing up I had three choices for a football team to follow. My dad was a Leeds fan stemming from his mum’s family being from West Yorkshire. He had though actually defied his own father growing up, who was a Grimsby Town fan, and geographically that was my closest team. Finally there was Ipswich Town. Always a rogue, left field option but my grandad on mum’s side hailed from Suffolk, and I could have joined him in being a tractor boy.

Eventually however, I saw sense and attended my first Leeds United game on my 6th birthday, a terribly boring 1-0 loss to Sunderland where I spent most of the second half asleep on my dad’s lap. Somehow it didn’t put me off and over 200 matches later it was definitely the correct decision.

Throughout the years however I always maintained an interest and connection with my birthplace, seldom turning off Final Score until the very end of the classified football results to see what Haverfordwest had done in the Cymru Premier. That was until their relegation in 2010-11 which saw the club fall off my radar somewhat.

It was a few years later when I became enthralled in the world of Football Manager, and used this to bring myself back up to date with how Haverfordwest were doing. I have managed the club several times over the years with my first time being a rather embarrassing stint which resulted in a sacking after 5 months and eventual relegation for the club in FM 2017.

I bought my first shirt in May 2020 a white and gold number, the 120th anniversary away kit, that from afar might be mistaken for cricket whites rather than a football shirt! So with the club’s results back on Final Score, more readily available match updates across social media and a shirt on my back, I was well and truly on the bandwagon again, which leads us nicely to 2022-23.

An historic season for the club, cheered on from afar by myself, which as you all will know resulted in the European Play-Offs and continental football for the first time in almost two decades. A wait time very similar to one I had just endured to see Leeds back in the Premier League.

I forget exactly how I watched the play off final vs Newtown, a stream on YouTube/S4C broadcast/another totally definitely legal form of viewing, but that penalty shootout was the most nerve wracking football experience not involving Leeds in my lifetime (though it wouldn’t be the last). When that Corey Shepherd penalty hit the back of the net, after a big cheer, my first response was to run through to see my dad with just one question… European Tour???

It quickly became apparent that would not be happening, earlier in the year I had stupidly let my passport expire and there was not enough time to get it renewed. Travelling from England to Wales, that still counts though right?!

A 4 1/2 hour drive down the A46, M5 & M50 and we’re in the nation’s capital. Wearing my 120th anniversary shirt and with a newly acquired scarf around my neck, I would finally be watching the team of my birthplace in person, and what a stage to do it on.

You don’t need me to tell you how the match went from here on out, but put it this way, the Welsh cakes I had during the day were comfortably beaten into second place for the highlight of the trip. I managed to capture the euphoria of Lee Jenkins’ tie-levelling strike on video, and it is as glorious now as it was back in July 2023.

And then to top it off Zac Jones only went and showed what a quality keeper he is, producing the vital penalty save to take Haverfordwest County into the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League!!! And boy was my voice hoarse travelling back home the next morning.

2 weeks later and we’re making the journey again! Limited edition Haverfordwest European shirt ordered in advance online and luckily it arrived just in time for this game. The lads couldn’t pull off another miraculous underdog story could they?

It just wasn’t to be. Sadly B36 were not dignified opponents as FK Shkëndija were previous, and through 120 minutes the Faroese side couldn’t back up their off-field antics on the pitch. If not for a helping hand thigh from the referee I have no doubt we’d have been celebrating a 4th penalty shootout victory in consecutive games.

The result did not dampen spirits too much. B36 were comfortably dumped out in the next round by Croatian side HNK Rijeka, but more importantly the lads had done their club, their town, and their country proud on the biggest stage. The appetite was whetted for more, and these players under Tony Pennock’s management and Rob Edwards’ leadership had laid solid foundations for a path of success within the club.

And that brings us about up to current day. I’ve not had the opportunity to travel down to Bridge Meadow as of yet, something I want to change sooner rather than later. But with The Bluebirds sat in 3rd place in the Cymru Premier, who could possibly complain if my next opportunity to watch lil’ ol’ Havvywest is in the 2025/26 Europa Conference League Qualifiers…

I would like to thank the admins here at Cleddau Casuals for giving me the opportunity to write something for their site. If they’d have me back I’d love to write a follow up piece on my current Football Manager save with Haverfordwest. This post is already long enough without me touching on it and I fear with modern attention spans, I’ve already lost some readers along the way today. Many thanks to everyone who did make it this far.

NormanProctorFM