History
Dolgellau Athletic A.F.C. are a Welsh football club based in Dolgellau, Wales, who play in the Ardal NE League.
They also have a reserve team playing in the MMP Central Wales League. In 2012 19-year-old David Webber became the youngest football manager in senior British football history when he was appointed first team manager at Dolgellau.
The home colours are yellow shirts with a black chevron and black shorts and socks.
A club was formed in Dolgellau as far back as 1879.
Read the full history
Early football in Dolgellau
The first known record of football being played in Dolgellau dates back to 1879, only two years after the establishment of the Football Association of Wales in 1877. In the same year, Dolgelley FC participated in the Welsh Cup, losing 3-0 to Newtown White Stars, who later won the competition.
Reports of football matches in Dolgellau appeared in local newspapers including Y Dydd and the Cambrian News and Meirionethshire Standard from 1878 onwards, indicating that organised football had been played on Y Marian ground since the late nineteenth century.
Football was also established within local education, with records of matches between Dolgellau County School and Grammar School during the 1880's.
Cambrian League and local football
By 1886, Dolgellau had joined the Cambrian League alongside clubs from Tywyn, Porthmadog, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Barmouth and Penygroes. In 1898, the club was banned from holding matches on the Marian for six months following crowd disturbances among supporters.
The Cambrian League later evolved into the Cambrian Coast League, in which Dolgellau continued to compete until the league ceased in 1962. Local derby matches against Barmouth regularly attracted large attendances, with reports suggesting crowds in excess of 1,000 spectators during the early twentieth century.
Professional era
In 1960, Dolgellau Athletic joined the Welsh League North as a professional club, while another Dolgellau side continued competing in the Cambrian Coast League. The professional club folded during the 1964–65 season.
Following the dissolution of Dolgellau Athletic and the end of the Cambrian Coast League, the town was left without a league football club for approximately six years. During this period, the former football ground was sold for industrial development.
Formation of Dolgellau A.A.F.C
Dolgellau Athletic Amateur Football Club was founded in 1971 and joined the Aberystwyth and District League. The club began playing at its current ground following the loss of the original Marian field.
The club currently fields multiple teams within the Welsh football league system, including a first team and reserve side.
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