Pontardawe Town

Although the present club was founded in 1947, football in Pontardawe certainly stretches back over 100 years, into the closing years of the 19th Century, when a Pontardawe club, run by industrialist CF Gilbertson, was among the members of the earliest Swansea League, and won the championship in 1899-1900. The club went on to join the Swansea & District League in the early 1900s, playing familiar names like Swansea Town, Morriston, Skewen and Clydach, as well as long forgotten ones such as Mond Nickel, York Place and Sketty. But honours were not forthcoming, and the club disbanded at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Reformed as Pontardawe Athletic in 1947, the club entered the Welsh League in 1948-49, playing in Division 2 (West). The first few post war years brought reasonable success at this level and in 1960-61 the club won the championship with 28 wins out of 32 league games. However, relegation came swiftly from Division 1 in 1961-62, Ponty finishing 19th out of 20 to go back down to Division 2 (West) with Milford United. The club failed to bounce back the following season with Milford pipping Ponty by 4 points. For 1964-65 the Welsh League restructured and Ponty spent several seasons in Division 1 until relegation to Division 2 in 1978-79.

A period of comparative success followed in the early 1980s, with successive promotions as runners up in 1980-81 and 1981-82 behind Trelewis and Brecon Corinthians respectively taking the club back to the top-flight of the Welsh League. 1981-82 also brought success in the Welsh Cup with Dixie McHale’s team reaching the fourth round, beating Maesteg Park (1-0) & Cardiff Corinthians (1-0) before losing at home 5-1 to Wrexham, containing Dai Davies, Joey Jones & Dixie McNeil.

Now competing in the Premier Division, 1982-83 saw Pontardawe lift the West Wales Senior Cup and finish 13th in the league, however another restructuring saw Ponty lack a ground adequate for the Welsh League’s new ‘National Division’ and they were relegated back into the middle division. Ponty went into decline again, slipping back to the third level of the Welsh League by the mid-1980s, quietly remaining there for over a decade.

In 1994-95 season, the club won the Division 3 championship, while 1997-98 the club also won the Division 2 league title to gain promotion to Division 1. Now adopting the Town name, Ponty came agonisingly close to winning Division 1 in 2001-02, losing out by a point to Ton Pentre. 2003-04 brought relegation however but this was short lived though as the club won Division 2 again in 2004-05.

For the next ten years the club played in Division 1 before relegation to Division 2 at the end of the 2014-15. Ponty also went close to League Cup success over this period, but on three occasions lost in the final to Goytre United (2005), Penrhiwceiber Rangers (2006) and AFC Porth (2014).

The club has relocated to Parc Ynysderw, which is a ground now dedicated to the club and the committee has invested time and money to bring the facilities up to Tier 2 standard. Pontardawe Town has the foundation to further develop, with the Junior Section being one of the best in the country, running over 20 teams. The club played in the inaugural season in the South West Division of the Ardal Southern, winning it in 2021-22 and then spent two seasons in Cymru South before their return this season.