Seasiders Attic for Prestatyn Football Club
Post-War

In here you will find the club's history from 1946 to date.

Season 1960/1 also saw the revival of the Prestatyn Football Supporters Club which had been disbanded some years earlier. The PFSC edict was to raise money for the team with the cash going to paying the weekly wage bill but another idea sown at this time was that of a new ground in the town - something that would not come to fruition for another ten years.

In the late 1960s the old Bastion Road ground was swallowed up by housing and after considering using a pitch in the middle of the old Prestatyn Raceway for a time (now the site of Pontin’s Holiday Village) the club moved to their present headquarters off Bastion Gardens in season 1970/1 which has been slowly but steadily modernised ever since.

For most of the 1960s Town had been members of the Welsh League North but in 1970/71 after twelve seasons of semi-pro Welsh League football the club found itself in a dire financial position and it was a case of do or die - quit the Welsh League at the eleventh hour for the local amateur status Dyserth Area League or go under.

With the move to the new ground earmarked for the following season - an ambitious and costly project - the drop down in standard proved a shrewd move. Under the chairmanship of Chester Reeve, the club began to blossom again and with treasurer Reg Heighway keeping tight control of the purse strings, the debts and bills were paid and Prestatyn began to rise through the ranks again.

Season 1971/72 wasn't the disaster many feared, Town held their own at the top of the Dyserth League and began a rebuilding process based on security for the future. A ten-year lease had been granted on the new pitch and the club had sunk £1,500 into equipping the ground with the bulk going on the new pavilion. A further £400 was spent on relaying the pitch and erecting a perimeter fence.

Understandably, chairman Reeve was proud of the club's efforts to keep football alive in the town, as he explained to the Daily Post: "We came out of division one to concentrate on getting our finances straight and on developing a home of our own. By this time next year (March 1973) we should be out of debt and will have gone a long way to developing a ground that the whole town can be proud of."

At this time another side to the club emerged - the hugely successful Prestatyn Ladies team that swept all before them in the 1970s. Managed by Eddie Lloyd and captained by Mai Griffiths, they took the women's game by storm and often drew big crowds for their matches in the North West Women's League.

On the field player-manager Eaton Woodfine had assembled a mix of youthful talent and experienced old stagers and for the next three seasons - until 1973/4 - Prestatyn dominated the Dyserth League until the reorganisation of local football brought a whole new set of opportunities.

The new and for its level, exciting, Clwyd League pulled together the best teams in Deeside, the Denbighshire coast and the Vale of Clwyd and once again expenses rose as Town reverted to a semi-pro approach but this time on a much more even keel.

In the preceding seasons a 250 club had been established which brought in the tidy sum of £1,000 a year and a ten year lease on the new ground with an option to review for another ten, gave the Seasiders stability and security.

After becoming founder members of the Clwyd League in 1974/5 Prestatyn enjoyed immediate success under the charge of manager Woodfine, winning the inaugural and subsequent titles and bagging a host of cups along the way.

In the early 1980s the Woodfine era came to a close and he left the club as Clwyd Premier League champions for the fourth time in 1983/84, having also won the title the previous season. Woodfine's swansong had been a memorable one, apart from that fourth title win, he guided the team to the final of the 1983/84 NWCFA Challenge Cup and in an exciting match at Rhyl's Belle Vue ground, they pushed Colwyn Bay of the North West Counties League all the way before succumbing to a 2-0 defeat. For many watching neutrals though, the Bay were fortunate winners and Prestatyn unlucky losers.

In 1984/85 former player Phil Merrick took over the reins but the club`s on-field fortunes declined although a run to the third round of the Welsh Cup in 1986/87 was a high point. Town landed a plum tie at Bangor City and put up a valiant display at Farrar Road before going down 3-1.

The end of the eighties (1988/89) saw the club languishing in Division Two of the Clwyd League but with a new committee and former player Ricky Westwell in charge, Town found their feet again and a talented side of young local lads began to re-establish themselves as one of the league`s better clubs.

The next three seasons passed largely without incident as the Seasiders worked their way steadily back into the top flight but after finishing runners-up to St Asaph City in 1992/3, they decided to take the plunge and rejoin the Welsh League North, now known as the Welsh Alliance. At the Alliance AGM, Town romped home in the vote, polling 16 against Llanfairfechan Town`s 11 and Porthmadog Reserves` 5.

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