Blaenavon Blues
Memorial Ground
Blaenavon Blues 2024/25
History
Blaenavon Blues were formed in 1947 by Ernest Pugh. During the early years the club competed in the Pontypool and District League. From 1959-60 the club were very successful, winning the Langdon Cup on three consecutive occasions in 1960, 1961 & 1962, the Benevolent Cup in 1960, 1961 & 1963, the E.I. Peake Cup in 1960, as well as the League Championship in 1961, 1962 & 1967.
In 1968 the club were accepted into the Gwent Senior League and the Welsh Football League, finishing 12th in Division Two of the Welsh League. In 1969 they appointed their first coach in Bert Sharland, the Blues played their home games at the Recreation ground and at Garn-y-Erw, while their usual ground of the Co-Op Field underwent some improvements.
In 1970 they appointed their first professional manager in Mel Davies, with his best finish coming in 1971-72 in 7th place in Division Two. For 1972-73 season former Manchester United Busby Babe, Ken Morgans arrived at the club, but after finishing in 8th place he was gone. In 1973 Tony Leighton was appointed manager and it proved a successful period in the club’s history, with the Blues winning the Welsh League Division Two title in 1974-75, with 28 wins out of 34 games.
In the early 1980’s John Coles was appointed manager, and in season 1983-84, the club won promotion in third place in Welsh League Division One, behind Pontlottyn and Newport County. The club then spent three seasons in the Premier Division, with a best finish of 7th place in 1985-86.
In the late 1980s Paul Young took over as manager after relegation in 1986-87 back to Division One. It was a difficult time for the club when they dropped their second team due to low player numbers. Young was subsequently replaced by Della Cheedy, and despite just missing out on promotion in 1989-90 in 4th place, in 1991 the club took the decision to pull out of the Welsh Football League.
The club won the Gwent Central League title in 1993, but failed in the play-off to return to the Gwent County League. They won it again 1997 and this time won promotion to the Gwent County League.
In 2003 and 2004 under the management of Mike Hall and Rob Browning, the club won back-to-back promotions to take their place in the Gwent County League Division One. In 2005 saw the Blues narrowly failed to win promotion to the Welsh League after finishing runners up in the Gwent County League Division One.
In 2011, the Blues left their home ground of many years at the Co-Op Field or a new ground on the other side of the town called the Memorial Ground. In 2014 the Blues again narrowly missed out on promotion to the Welsh League when they finished third behind runners up Panteg, who joined the Welsh League that season.
2020 saw the Blues finish runners up behind Abertillery Excelsiors on the ‘points per game’ ruling after the season was cut short by the Covid pandemic to miss out again. However, 2021-22 the Blues completed their Gwent Premier League campaign unbeaten to finish runners up to Lliswerry, gaining promotion to the Ardal Southern League, also winning the Gwent FA Senior Cup for the first time.
