2014–15 Welsh Premier League

Welsh Premier League
Season	2014–15
Champions	The New Saints (9th title)
Relegated	Prestatyn; Cefn Druids
Champions League	The New Saints
Europa League	Bala Town; Airbus; Newtown
Matches played	192
Goals scored	656 (3.42 per match)
Top goalscorer	Chris Venables (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Bala Town 8–1 Carmarthen Town
Biggest away win	Cefn Druids 0–5 Aberystwyth Town
Highest scoring	Bala Town 8–1 Carmarthen Town
Longest winning run	8 matches; The New Saints
Longest unbeaten run	30 matches; The New Saints
Longest winless run	10 games; Bangor City; Prestatyn Town
Longest losing run	5 games; Cefn Druids
	← 2013–14 2015–16 → All statistics correct as of 14 March 2015.

The 2014–15 Welsh Premier League (known as the Corbett Sports Welsh Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season of the Welsh Premier League, the highest football league within Wales since its establishment in 1992. The season began on 22 August 2014. The New Saints claimed their ninth Welsh top flight championship on 14 March 2015 after a 3–0 win against nearest rivals in the table Bala Town.

Teams

Location of the 2014–15 Welsh Premier League clubs

Afan Lido were relegated out of the Welsh Premier League the previous season, while Cefn Druids were promoted as winners of the Cymru Alliance.

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Aberystwyth Town	Aberystwyth	Park Avenue	5,000
Airbus UK Broughton	Broughton	The Airfield	1,600
Bala Town	Bala	Maes Tegid	3,000
Bangor City	Bangor	Nantporth	3,000
Carmarthen Town	Carmarthen	Richmond Park	3,000
Cefn Druids	Wrexham	The Rock	3,000
Gap Connah's Quay	Connah's Quay	Deeside Stadium	1,500
Newtown	Newtown	Latham Park	5,000
Port Talbot Town	Port Talbot	Victoria Road	6,000
Prestatyn Town	Prestatyn	Bastion Road	2,300
Rhyl	Rhyl	The Corbett Sports Stadium	3,000
The New Saints	Oswestry	Park Hall	2,000

Personnel and kits

Team	Head Coach	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsors
Aberystwyth	Ian Hughes	Nike	Cambrian Tyres
Airbus UK	Andy Preece	Macron	Gardner Aerospace
Bala	Colin Caton	Joma	Aykroyd's
Bangor	Neville Powell	Macron	Pentraeth Kia
Carmarthen	Mark Aizlewood	Macron	McGinley Support
Cefn Druids	Huw Griffiths	Joma	AtWill Pubs
Nomads	Mark McGregor	Macron	Think Accounting
Newtown	Chris Hughes	Givova	NEO/EOM
Port Talbot	Jarred Harvey	Macron	Blanco's
Prestatyn	Neil Gibson	Erreà	G & G Foods
Rhyl	Greg Strong	FBT	VanTruck
TNS	Carl Darlington	Legea	Derma V10

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	The New Saints (C)	32	23	8	1	90	24	+66	77	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	Bala Town	32	18	5	9	67	42	+25	59	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
3	Airbus UK Broughton	32	18	4	10	62	34	+28	58	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
4	Aberystwyth Town	32	14	10	8	69	61	+8	52	Qualification for Europa League play-offs
5	Port Talbot Town	32	13	4	15	54	59	−5	43
6	Newtown (O)	32	10	8	14	52	65	−13	38

7	Connah's Quay Nomads	32	11	10	11	44	53	−9	43	Qualification for Europa League play-offs
8	Rhyl	32	11	9	12	41	49	−8	42
9	Carmarthen Town	32	12	6	14	48	57	−9	42
10	Bangor City	32	9	8	15	48	62	−14	35
11	Cefn Druids (R)	32	7	6	19	38	64	−26	27	Relegation to Cymru Alliance
12	Prestatyn Town (R)	32	4	6	22	43	86	−43	18	Relegation to Cymru Alliance

Source: Welsh Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Results

Teams play each other twice on a home and away basis, before the league is split into two groups at the end of January 2015 – the top six and the bottom six.

Matches 1–22

Home \ Away	ABE	AIR	BAL	BAN	CMR	CDR	CQN	NEW	PTA	PRE	RHL	TNS
Aberystwyth Town		2–1	4–0	3–3	5–3	4–2	1–1	1–0	0–3	3–1	2–0	1–1
Airbus UK Broughton	1–1		2–1	5–1	2–0	2–3	4–0	3–0	3–0	2–1	2–1	2–3
Bala Town	4–0	0–0		3–0	8–1	3–1	0–1	3–1	4–1	4–2	1–2	0–3
Bangor City	2–2	1–2	0–3		1–2	0–1	0–2	1–3	2–1	3–3	0–0	0–5
Carmarthen Town	1–3	2–1	1–2	0–2		2–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	1–0	1–2
Cefn Druids	0–5	1–1	0–1	2–2	1–3		3–2	0–2	2–1	3–1	0–1	0–4
Connah's Quay Nomads	2–4	0–3	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–1		2–3	1–1	3–1	1–3	1–5
Newtown	6–3	1–0	1–2	2–1	0–2	4–1	1–2		3–3	4–3	1–0	2–3
Port Talbot Town	1–2	2–0	4–3	2–0	2–0	4–1	1–1	2–0		3–0	3–0	1–5
Prestatyn Town	2–1	0–2	3–3	1–2	1–3	0–4	3–2	2–2	2–1		1–2	1–3
Rhyl	0–1	1–2	0–1	3–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–2	0–3	2–2		2–2
The New Saints	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	3–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	6–0	6–1

Source: Welsh Premier League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–32

Top six

Home \ Away	ABE	AIR	BAL	NEW	PTA	TNS
Aberystwyth Town		1–3	1–2	3–2	2–2	0–4
Airbus UK Broughton	3–2		1–2	6–1	5–0	1–0
Bala Town	3–3	3–0		1–2	4–1	1–1
Newtown	3–3	0–2	1–1		1–3	0–0
Port Talbot Town	1–2	1–0	1–3	4–0		1–3
The New Saints	3–3	2–0	3–0	4–2	6–0

Source: Welsh Premier League^[usurped]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bottom six

Home \ Away	BAN	CMR	CDR	CQN	PRE	RHL
Bangor City		1–0	5–3	1–2	4–0	4–3
Carmarthen Town	3–3		3–1	2–3	5–2	1–3
Cefn Druids	0–2	0–1		2–0	0–1	1–2
Connah's Quay Nomads	1–1	2–1	0–0		3–1	1–1
Prestatyn Town	1–3	1–1	1–1	3–4		1–2
Rhyl	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–2	2–1

Source: Welsh Premier League^[usurped]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

UEFA Europa League play-offs

Teams who finished in positions fourth to seventh at the end of the regular season took part in play-offs to determine the third participant for the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League.

Semi-finals

9 May 2015

14:30 BST

Port Talbot Town	0–1 (a.e.t.)	Newtown
		Boundford 120'

GenQuip Stadium, Port Talbot

Attendance: 347

Referee: Kevin Perry

10 May 2015

12:45 BST

Aberystwyth	3–2	Connah's Quay
Venables 18' (pen.) Evans 84' (o.g.) Jones 90'	Report	Miller 14' Evans 67'

Park Avenue, Aberystwyth

Attendance: 391

Referee: Bryn Markham-Jones

Final

17 May 2015

12:45 BST

Aberystwyth	1–2	Newtown
Venables 29' (pen.)	Report	Goodwin 9' Hearsey 43'

Park Avenue, Aberystwyth

Attendance: 1,012

Referee: Lee Evans

Season statistics

As of 18 May 2015^[1]

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Chris Venables	Aberystwyth Town	28
2	Martin Rose	Port Talbot Town	18
2	Jason Oswell	Newtown	18
4	Greg Draper	The New Saints	17
4	Lee Hunt	Bala Town	17
6	Michael Wilde	The New Saints	16
6	Tom Field	Airbus UK Broughton	16
8	Luke Bowen	Port Talbot Town	14
9	Mark Connolly	Bala Town	13
9	Ian Sheridan	Bala Town	13
11	Lee Healey	Cefn Druids F.C/Bangor	12

Hat-tricks

As of 14 February 2015

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Chris Venables⁴	Aberystwyth Town	Cefn Druids	5–0^[2]	22 August 2014
Mark Connolly	Bala Town	Carmarthen Town	8–1^[3]	7 September 2014
Aaron Bowen	Rhyl	Bangor City	3–2^[4]	14 September 2014
Luke Boundford	Newtown	Aberystwyth Town	6–3^[5]	4 October 2014
Lee Healey	Cefn Druids	Prestatyn Town	3–1^[6]	31 October 2014
Martin Rose	Port Talbot Town	Aberystwyth Town	3–0^[7]	20 December 2014
Chris Hartland	Carmarthen Town	Bangor City	3–3^[8]	31 January 2015
Tom Field	Airbus UK Broughton	Aberystwyth Town	3–2^[9]	14 February 2015

⁴ Player scored 4 goals

References

The league's rules are contained as a section of the Handbook of the Football Association of Wales.^[10]

^ "Top 25 goal scorers season 2014/15". Welsh Premier League. Archived from the original on December 26, 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
^ "Venables' baptism of fire for new boys Druids". Welsh Premier League. 22 August 2014. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^ "Carmarthen Town lose 8–1 at Bala in Welsh Premier League". Carmarthen Journal. 7 September 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^ Hughes, Tomos (14 September 2014). "Bowen batters Bangor in superb Rhyl comeback". Rhyl Journal. Archived from the original on December 1, 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^ "Late winner puts Saints clear". Morning Star. 6 October 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^ Harrison, Nick (3 November 2014). "Healey nets record-breaking hat-trick for Cefn Druids". The Leader. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^ "Carmarthen and Port Talbot move back into Top Six with wins". Welsh Premier League. 20 December 2014. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
^ "City snatch a point despite Hartland's hat-trick". Welsh Premier League. 31 January 2015. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
^ "Last-gasp Airbus keep Europa hopes alive". Welsh Premier League. 14 February 2015. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2014-07-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

Official website

[1] "Top 25 goal scorers season 2014/15". Welsh Premier League. Archived from the original on December 26, 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.

[2] "Venables' baptism of fire for new boys Druids". Welsh Premier League. 22 August 2014. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

[3] "Carmarthen Town lose 8–1 at Bala in Welsh Premier League". Carmarthen Journal. 7 September 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

[4] Hughes, Tomos (14 September 2014). "Bowen batters Bangor in superb Rhyl comeback". Rhyl Journal. Archived from the original on December 1, 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

[5] "Late winner puts Saints clear". Morning Star. 6 October 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

[6] Harrison, Nick (3 November 2014). "Healey nets record-breaking hat-trick for Cefn Druids". The Leader. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

[7] "Carmarthen and Port Talbot move back into Top Six with wins". Welsh Premier League. 20 December 2014. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.

[8] "City snatch a point despite Hartland's hat-trick". Welsh Premier League. 31 January 2015. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.

[9] "Last-gasp Airbus keep Europa hopes alive". Welsh Premier League. 14 February 2015. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2015.

[10] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2014-07-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]