Football
The New Saints: Life with Wales’ most successful club
“Isn’t there something you can do on the back of this Gavin and Stacey thing?” Harris asks David Cole, mind instantly whirring away of possibilities as he chats with his Barry guest over the half-time buffet.
His involvement in Welsh football may well have started as self-promotion, but it is clear Harris wants the game in Wales to succeed, not just his team.
Short in stature but big on ideas, he cares little that his suggestions or opinions aren’t welcomed by all, but certainly cares about trying to improve as he watches his side try to improve on the one-goal lead at the start of the second half, relaxed as he regales while leaning on the barrier at the back of the new stand.
“I always want to win, but I don’t expect success,” he says as Adam Wilson scores a second, back from Bradford City on loan after leaving for the EFL last season. “But I do like attractive football. I want to be entertained. I’d much rather see a 4-3 win than a boring 1-0.”
It wasn’t always the case. He retells the story of how, in the immediate aftermath of his investment and the name change, TNS drew their opening seven games and lost the eighth 10-0 at Barry.
“They were the standard we wanted to get to,” he says. “And hopefully we can be the catalyst for others.”
That includes the group stage of Europe, an achievement he had long promised all those who had listen. Most, including old friend and manager Graham Breeze, had laughed.
“I told him it was a pipedream,” Breeze says of the ambition “Which he called to remind me after they qualified, of course.”
Breeze wasn’t the only one who had told Harris he had set targets too high.
“But I genuinely believed it,” the owner says, eyes fixed on the game as TNS continue to dominate. “Now we just have to work out how to win it!”
There have been frustrations over the years when domestic triumphs didn’t lead to competing in Europe. There have been 86 games played in Uefa competitions in all, but the new qualifying system and a final 3-0 aggregate win over Lithuanian side FK Panavezys three weeks ago has secured what he admits is a “surreal” realisation of a dream.
A dream that started in Llansantffraid.
“We would have been relegated even as champions if we didn’t meet the licencing criteria,” he says of the move.
“Perhaps we could have made sure the reserve team played there, but I’m glad there’s a legacy and the new team is doing well.”
But have TNS truly found a home? Does it not irk that all this investment, all this success, and still only a few hundred join him?
“Look, both Oswestry and Llansantffraid didn’t get big numbers,” he argues. “We have had as much as 600 here for games and it is slowly starting to happen.
“But honestly I don’t care how many, I care about them when they’re here, that they come and enjoy it.
“Anyway, it’s not me you should be asking; Sarah, tell this man what the club means to you.”
Harris has called over to the supporter with a lengthy green-and-white scarf stood a few feet away.
She pauses as she thinks about the best way to put her response. As well as supporting the club, Sarah washes the kits; shorts and socks separate from tops, and get the shirts out of the dryer and hung up as quickly as possible.
“It’s like a family,” she says, content with her answer, before pointing out another member at the opposite end of the ground.
Chrissie shares her own story of affinity with the club, stopping to look as Saints add two quickfire goals at the far end in the game’s dying stages. She had only gone to take her son to see a friendly against Wrexham at Llansantffraid. Almost a quarter of a century on – making the short hop over the border – and she’s still here.
As is Harris.
“He always wanted this, but I didn’t think it would happen,” Chrissie adds of the European adventure. “We got there – but he probably won’t stop.”
Mateo Kovacic found his scoring boots to get Manchester City back to winning ways, as boss Pep Guardiola joked it was a “copy and paste” job of Rodri.
Rodri, City’s key defensive midfielder, is basically irreplaceable. But since his season-ending ACL injury, Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan are playing as a double pivot.
Such is City’s style of play that both ended up playing the majority of Saturday’s 3-2 win in Fulham’s half.
It ended a run of two Premier League draws since Rodri’s injury against Arsenal. Failure to win on Saturday would have meant their worst league run in 2024.
Kovacic, 30, is not a goalscoring midfielder. That has never been his job at Dinamo Zagreb, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea or Manchester City.
But you do not end up with a list of clubs like that without being a top-quality midfielder.
“He is not a top goalscorer but he maybe saw how many goals Rodri has scored in that position and did copy and paste. He scored two fantastic goals,” Guardiola told BBC Match of the Day afterwards.
Kovacic’s first was a deflected shot from a half-cleared corner and his second was a clean strike from the edge of the area early in the second half.
In his post-match news conference, Guardiola added: “They went four to five [defenders]. When they defended with five there is one man free on the edge of the box – Kovacic.
“The two goals were because in that position they can’t defend it. Kovacic was really important. Now opponents know they can’t leave him alone or he can score a goal.”
Kovacic’s double takes him up to three league goals for the season – having also netted against former club Chelsea – his best campaign already since 2014-15 for Inter Milan.
This marked only the second time he has ever scored more than once in a game – after a 2014 Europa League qualifying hat-trick for Inter against Icelandic side Stjarnan.
He celebrated a goal by sucking a thumb and told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It means a lot because my wife is pregnant so it was great to get some goals for the little one.”
It was clear at the end of last season that Liverpool needed to tighten things up defensively if they were to provide a strong challenge for the title.
They finished third, nine points behind winners Manchester City and seven behind second-place Arsenal, while the Reds had the worst defensive record of the top three, conceding seven more goals than City and 12 more than the Gunners.
So far this season, however, Arsenal have let in four more goals than Liverpool while City have conceded six more.
There is, of course, a long way to go but that is already an encouraging turnaround.
On the face of it, little appears to have changed at the back for the Reds.
The defence remains a familiar and experienced one with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk and Andy Robertson all starting when fit, while Ibrahima Konate is proving Slot’s favoured option to start alongside his captain at centre-back.
That centre-back pairing is flourishing. After the first seven games of last season Liverpool had faced 101 shots on goal, compared to just 64 this season, but Slot believes they offer more than just keeping out goals.
“They have been terrific throughout the whole season to now, not only in defending but the way they start our attacks in a good way,” he said.
“So many good things with the ball and also without the ball.”
Following the impressive 3-0 win against Manchester United last month, Robertson spoke about how there felt to be more control in defence under Slot.
“We look a bit more secure defensively,” he said after the Old Trafford victory.
“We had a lot more control in our game. A clean sheet is massive. To come away to your big rivals like Manchester United and keep a clean sheet is massive.”
Final Score’s Steph Houghton and Dion Dublin believe the Premier League title will “go down to the wire” between Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
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Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O’Neil says his side gave away “crazy goals” in their 5-3 defeat at Brentford in the Premier League.
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Southampton boss Russell Martin praises his side for some “brilliant moments” despite a 3-1 defeat at Arsenal.
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Liverpool boss Arne Slot fears he will be without goalkeeper Alisson “for a few weeks” following his injury against Crystal Palace.
The Brazil international, 32, went off in the 79th minute after appearing to pull his hamstring when making a clearance.
With Caoimhin Kelleher absent from the squad because of illness, Vitezslav Jaros came on for his Liverpool debut and made one save to keep out a tame effort from Eberechi Eze as the Reds won 1-0.
“With Alisson it is clear he will be out for maybe a few weeks,” Slot told BBC Match of the Day.
Liverpool had been in Champions League action on Wednesday and had a tight turnaround for the trip to Crystal Palace, with the game having kicked off at 12:30 BST on Saturday.
Slot added: “Maybe this is something the FA should look at – if you play Wednesday evening why do we have an early kick-off in an away game?
“Or they have to look at me and rotate all my players, maybe it is also bad luck, I don’t know.
“The positive thing is that Jaros did really well last season when on loan. He was champion and won the cup. He wanted to play desperately. At this club we need three good goalkeepers. He was outstanding today.”
Alisson, who has been at Liverpool since 2018, missed two games last month with a hamstring niggle.
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