The New Saints

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The club was established in 1959 as Llansantffraid F.C. to represent the border village of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain (population: 1,000) in 1959, and played at the Recreation Ground.

The club first played competition football through the Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League (then the fourth stage within the Welsh football league system) They won the title seven times. After the 1989-90 season, they were selected into the Central Wales League (now the Mid-Wales League) but their time in the league was short, and they won promotions to the Cymru Alliance as runners-up on their first go. The rapid rise of Llansantffraid continued, and they were awarded the status of League of Wales, now the Cymru Premier, as champions and were awarded their first Welsh Intermediate Cup (formerly the Welsh Amateur Cup).

The year 1996 was the time that Llansantffraid took home The Welsh Cup and became the first Welsh team to qualify at Europe's Cup Winners Cup. In 1996, a local computer firm, Total Network Solutions of Oswestry offered an agreement for sponsorship of PS250,000 that included the company's name in the name of the club. The club was named Total Network Solutions Llansantffraid F.C. they played against Polish Cup winners Ruch Chorzow and were able to draw 1-1 at home, before losing 5-1 in Poland. Since then, they have been invited to European tournaments several times. Their European home matches are usually played at either Wrexham's or Newtown's stadium since their old Recreation Ground was far below the standards set by UEFA (though during their 2003 match against Manchester City, they played their home games on the 72,000 seat Millennium Stadium in Cardiff). To be in compliance with UEFA's rules on third-party sponsorships the club was referred to by their initials TNS in the eyes of the European organization that runs their tournaments.

The name of the club in 1997 became Total Network Solutions F.C. It was the first instance within the United Kingdom of a football club changing its name to reflect the name of its sponsor. After the financial collapse in Barry Town in the summer of 2003, TNS became the only Cymru Premier club to have an entire team of players. At the end of summer 2005 but Llanelli AFC also announced plans to become a full-time club.

The summer of 2003 Oswestry Town's shareholders Oswestry Town met to approve the merger with TNS but none of the shareholders were aware about the meeting. The club that was financially less able was close to TNS and was also a participant as part of the League of Wales despite being located across the border into Shropshire. Shropshire was one of the counties that were part of TNS. Football Association of Wales (FAW) approved the merger on the 14th of August 2003, as did UEFA eventually despite its initial opposition to the merger of two clubs that had different governance bodies.

In 2003-04, the season went not a trophy-filled one for TNS when they finished runners-up on the League of Wales to Rhyl and lost to Rhyl as finalists of the Welsh Cup, also to Rhyl. The 2004-05 season was more prosperous and TNS achieved the League as well as a Cup double.

The off-season that began in 2005-06 was following the announcement that newly-crowned Champions League winners Liverpool were initially disqualified from participating in the following season's competition, TNS offered to play in a single-legged match against Liverpool Reds to be TNS's representative in the initial qualifying round. After UEFA came to a deal that ensured Liverpool were included in the initial qualifier round in the contest TNS and Liverpool were drawn against each other in the end. Liverpool took the lead in the first leg Anfield by 3-0 due to a Steven Gerrard hat-trick. In the second match which was held at Wrexham Gerrard scored two goals when he came in as a substitute for Djibril's opener to secure a victory of 3-0 Liverpool victory. Even though they lost, TNS drew praise, especially for the new Northern Irish goalkeeper Gerard Doherty and of whom Rafael Benitez said, "The goalkeeper stopped many goals, and, for me, I think he was the most effective player in both games".

In early 2006 , the sponsorship of the club, Total Network Solutions, was acquired from British Telecom, as a consequence because the sponsorship agreement ended at the close of the 2005-06 season , and it became necessary to choose the new identity for the club. After searching for fresh names, and attempts to sell the names via eBay The term "The New Saints" was deemed suitable to the past of both joined teams: Llansantffraid was always known as "The Saints"; Oswestry had strong links to Saint Oswald and the name of the club was already reduced into "TNS". A new badge for the club was also created in the same period that featured a dragon to symbolize Llansantffraid as well as a lion for Oswestry.

On the 10th of February, 2010 the BBC informed the public they had learned that New Saints had applied to play home matches in the Chester City's Deva Stadium in 2010-11, after being denied for a grant in order to build the new stand, which will have a capacity of 1,000 seats in Park Hall. The proposed move was tangled due to Chester City's governance problems. Deva Stadium's stands and pitch are in Wales However, the outbuildings located at the site where the club's office are located situated in England and Chester City were under the control by the English Football Association. Chester City were liquidated a month later by HMRC however Chester City were declared a non-profit organization. New Saints were granted a domestic license from the FAW in April 2010 , and continued to play in Park Hall for 2010-11 season. They were New Saints were crowned 2009-10 Welsh Premier League Champions.

The New Saints entered the Champions League in the 2010-11 season. They were selected in the second round against League of Ireland Premier Division Champions Bohemians in the second Qualifying Round. They lost the opening game 1-0 in Dalymount Park in Dublin on 13 July 2010. They won the following match on the other hand at Park Hall 4-0 and won the match 4-1 in average, which was the first tie the club won ever since making the club's European debut back in. Bohemians coach Pat Fenlon later labelled his team's performance as "disgraceful' and claimed that the players let the league, club and the country down'. The result was seen by other observers as the most disappointing result in Bohemians their 40-year European history. The Saints were able in the competition to face Belgian Pro League Champions and European Giants R.S.C. Anderlecht. The Saints were defeated 3-1 during the home match which was played in Wrexham and 3-0 in the away fixture in the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Brussels. The Saints were then playing CSKA Sofia in the Europa League playoff round, but they were defeated by 5-2 the aggregate. As league runners-up during the 2010-11 season, the Saints were invited to into the Europa League qualifying rounds in the year 2011. They defeated Belfast club Cliftonville by a score of 2-1 in the First Round , but lost to Danish team FC Midtjylland 8-3 on aggregate in the subsequent round.

30 December, 2016 The New Saints defeated Cefn Druids by 2-0 in the Cymru Premier. This extended their winning streak to 27 games, beating that previous record, which was established by Ajax in the 1970s to become the longest streak of consecutive wins by a top-flight club.

Detail as below mentioned.

The Sky Sports football show Soccer Saturday TNS's name was snarkily ridiculed by the show's main anchor, Jeff Stelling. Then, at the end of the day's class check in the event that TNS had been able to win in the home stadium, Stelling invariably used his famous catchy phrase "They'll dance in the street of Total Network Solutions tonight! " Since then, the catchphrase has been changed with "dancing through the city streets New Saints". Stelling's joke also was occasionally directed at the other Welsh team, Airbus UK in 2005-06. Stelling's joke could ultimately stem from the improbable "they'll be dancing on Raith's streets' Raith", believed to have been uttered by football analyst Sam Leitch in the 1960s during a game that was played by the Kirkcaldy-based Raith Rovers, though the phrase is more commonly referred to as a common phrase of the rugby commentary Bill McLaren, often stating "they'll be dancing on the city streets" ..." and inputting names of the team winning.

TNS is mentioned in the track "This One's for Now" by the group Half Man Half Biscuit on the album Urge for Offal.

The club's Futsal team has also had great success, as they were the winners of the first FAW Futsal Cup in 2011 and making it to the final in 2012.

As of 29 June 2022

As of 5 July 2022

Notes

• QR: Qualifying round
• 1Q: First qualifying round
• 2Q: Second qualifying round
• 3Q: Third qualifying round
• PO: Play-off round

• Cymru Premier Champions (14; record): 1999–2000, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2021–22
• Welsh Cup Winners (8): 1995–96, 2004–05, 2011–12,[32] 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2018–19, 2021–22
• Welsh League Cup Winners (9; record): 1994–95, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
• FAW Premier Cup Winners (1): 2006–07
• Welsh Intermediate Cup Winners (1): 1992–93
• Cymru Alliance League Winners (1): 1992–93
• Shropshire Senior Cup: 2011–12[33]
• Elizabeth Jaques Charity Cup (lower tier): 2015

• Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League Division One[34] Champions (6): 1968–69, 1969–70, 1982–83, 1986–87, 1991–92, 1992–93
• Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League Division Two Champions (2): 1970–71, 1980–81

• Highest attendance: 14,563 against Liverpool, 2005
• First progression in European football (4–1) agg -v- Bohemians, 2010

• Biggest League of Wales win: 12–0 v. Airbus UK Broughton in November 2019.
• Biggest League of Wales defeat: 0–10 v. Barry Town in 1997

•  Graham Breeze (1992–1994)
• Ian Clarke (1994–1996)
•  Graham Breeze (1996–1997)
•  Tony Henry (1997–1998)
•  Andy Cale (1998–2000)
•  Ken McKenna (1 January 2001 – 13 March 2008)
•  Andy Cale (13 March 2008 – 30 June 2010)
•  Mike Davies (2010–6 April 2011)
•  Carl Darlington (6 April 2011 – December 2014)
•  Craig Harrison (December 2014 – 2017)
•  Scott Ruscoe (2017–2021)
•  Anthony Limbrick (2021–present)

• Head Coach -  Anthony Limbrick
• Assistant Manager -  Christian Seargeant
• First Team Coach -  Simon Spender
• First Team Coach -  Simon Smith
• Fitness Coach -  Thomas Noon
• Sports Therapist -  Phillip Davies
• Performance Analyst -  Connor Hindley