WWEELLSSHH PPRREEMMIIEERR TTIIMMEESS 22001133--1144 IIssssuuee 55//RRhhiiff 55 3300//0077//1133 Officials and Assessors in great demand Welsh Referee Lee Evans, who was last week in the Faroe Island on TNS exit with Champion’s League duty will fly to Austria for the UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg game between Rapid Vienna and Asteras heroic performance The New Saints bowed out of the Tripolis of Greece. Champions League in spite of a battling His Assistants will be Phil Thomas (Trealaw) and Gareth Wyn Jones display in a 1-0 second qualifying round (Bontnewydd) with the 4th Official being Brian James of Rhydyfelin. second-leg defeat by Legia Warsaw. This will prepare Lee well for his game the following week in Turku Vladimir Dvalishvili's 53rd-minute goal when he takes charge of the Finland v Slovenia Friendly International. gave the Polish champions a 4-1 aggregate Our Welsh UEFA Referee Observers have again been appointed to games win over the Welsh club. in the third Qualifying Round making it three consecutive appointments Craig Harrison's team put up a stubborn for Brian Lawlor, and Referees’ Manager Rodger Gifford with two display in defence, with goalkeeper Paul consecutive appointments for Ray Ellingham. Harrison in fine form. Brian and Ray have games on 8th August with Brian going to the Czech But they never looked like overturning a 3-1 Republic for Jablonec v the winners of the Stromgodset (Norway) / defeat in the first leg in Wales. Debrecen (Hungary) 2 round game and Ray goes to the fantastic new Goalkeeper and captain Paul Harrison was stadium in Poznan in Poland for the Lech Poznan v the winners of the forced into action in the fifth minute when Zalgiris (Lithuania)/Pyunik (Armenia) 2 round game. On August 1st he dived low to his right to turn Miroslav Rodger will visit either Northern Ireland or Greece for the winners of the Radovic's low shot past the post. Linfield v Xanthi game who will host either KR of Iceland or Standard The Saints then went close when Michael Liege of Belgium. Wilde just failed to get on the end of Chris FAW Head of Competitions Andrew Howard commented; "The Marriott's deep cross, with home goalkeeper Dusan Kuciak scrambling. appointment s in Europe are coming in thick and fast for Welsh referees But it could not last, and Dvalishvili finally which is most pleasing. I hope that anybody that is looking for a new hobby, a new direction in football or just hoping to be involved within the broke the deadlock eight minutes into the second half when he latched on to Radovic's beautiful game, is inspired by the wonderful opportunities that refereeing pass and slotted the ball through Harrison's has and they contact the FAW about our next referees course." legs. Prestatyn outclassed but learn The Polish team dominated to the end, but could not find a way past more brave Prestatyn bowed out of the Europa League with defeat against Rijeka in the defending from the Saints, with Furman second qualifying round second leg at Rhyl. denied late on by Edwards's goalline Trailin g 5-0 from the first leg, Prestatyn fell further behind when Ivan Mocinic clearance. www.bbc.co.uk/sport scored with a curled effort from outside the box. Ivan Boras added a second before the interval, slotting past Jon Hill-Dunt. Goran Mujanovic added a third for the Croatian side, who face Zilina in the next round. Prestatyn Town player manager Neil Gibson said after the match: "We massively improved on what we did last week. We knew we were up against a very good side but we came up with plans and .strategies to limit the effect they would have on the game. "We're disappointed with two of the goals we gave away in the first half but we thought we improved drastically on last week. "What we take out of it [European campaign] is that in the first tie against the Latvian team [Liepajas Metalurgs] we fully deserved to come through the tie. We were the better team in my opinion over the two games. "We deserve to be at this level and if we can perform how we did last season and improve on it with some of the signings we've made, hopefully we can be a force in the Welsh Premier League this season and make these European evenings more of a regular occurance for Prestatyn Town football club." Official Newsletter Cylchgrawn Swyddogol of the Uwchgynghrair Corbett Sports Corbett Sports W elsh Premier League Cymru The improvement continues…. by Dave Jones, Daily Post http://blogs.dailypost.co.uk/northwalesfootball/2013/07/euro-results-boost-welsh-premi.html OVER the past three decades Welsh Premier League clubs have achieved no more than the occasional good result in Europe. These welcome successes have been somewhat sporadic, however this summer has delivered what could hopefully signify a wind of change. For perhaps the first time in 20 years of competing in Europe, the performances of all our Welsh Premier representatives have caught the eye. And even more encouraging is the fact three of our four WPL hopefuls were first-time European entrants. July has seen Welsh teams play 10 Euro matches, winning two, drawing two and losing six - maybe not statistics to pull up trees, but a major improvement nonetheless on many previous campaigns. Pride of place went to PRESTATYN TOWN, who became only the second ever League of Wales/Welsh Premier club to win their debut European tie. After losing 2-1 at Rhyl to Latvians SK Liepajas Metalurgs in the first leg of their Europa League first qualifying round tie on July 4, few gave the Seasiders a prayer of turning the tables in the return at the Daugava Stadium. But late goals from Ross Stephens and Neil Gibson ensured Town won the match 2-1 to force extra time, which produced no further score. So it went to penalties and Prestatyn showed immense coolness from the spot to triumph 4-3 in an unforgettable shoot-out. In the second qualifying round, the Seasiders were unlucky to draw crack Croatian side HNK Rijeka, a wealthy club laden with international players, some rated as six-figure talents. It proved too much, Town losing 8-0 over two legs, but nonetheless, the Welsh Cup holders far from disgraced themselves in either leg. Prestatyn had already over-achieved, punched well above their weight in knocking out a team with a higher co- efficient which were a dozen matches into their domestic season, while the Seasiders had played just two warm-up games. Fellow Euro rookies BALA TOWN gave the Welsh Premier a real boost by defeating Estonia's Levadia Tallinn 1-0 at Rhyl in their first-ever European match. Ian Sheridan's early goal earned him a place in Lakesiders' folklore and gave Colin Caton's side genuine hope of completing the job at the Kadriorg Stadium. Unfortunately, a striker called Hunt put paid to the chances of a Welsh victory by scoring a hat-trick in the reverse leg, which the Estonians won 3-1. However, Bala could be hugely proud of their first Euro adventure. The same can be said of AIRBUS UK BROUGHTON, who finished their inaugural European excursion unbeaten! Taking on Ventspils of Latvia, regular conquerors of WPL teams over the years, the Wingmakers drew 1-1 in the opening episode at Wrexham and that away goal was to prove crucial as Andy Preece's men could only earn a 0-0 split at the Olimpiskais Stadions - an heroic effort nonetheless. Airbus could look back on both games and feel genuinely unlucky they did not progress at the expense of opponents who moved into the third qualifying round this week. And that brings us to THE NEW SAINTS. Our domestic league champions faced a really tough hurdle against Polish giants Legia Warsaw, those respected veterans of many a Euro campaign. This UEFA Champions League tussle saw TNS take a 1-0 lead into the interval of the first leg at Wrexham, courtesy of a Ryan Fraughan goal. Unfortunately, the Ekstraklasa outfit raised their game in the second stanza and ran out 3-1 winners. Anyone expecting the second leg at the Polish Army Stadium this week to end up 3 or 4-0 in favour of the hosts were in for a surprise. Saints only lost 1-0 and gave a great account of themselves, as they had in the first leg. Perhaps a 4-1 aggregate defeat does not look too impressive on paper, but the quality of opposition must be taken into account. So overall, no Welsh Premier club emerged from this season's European antics with a black mark on their record. Two wins, two draws.....much improved on what has gone before. The key now is building on this and one thing is for sure....after this summer's experiences Prestatyn, Bala, Airbus and TNS will be longing for another crack at Europe as soon as possible. Onward and upward..... Annual Referees Seminar another success The recent Welsh Premier Referees, Assistant Referees and Referee Assessors gathered together at Newtown FC for their annual joint meeting where over 60 match officials were present. It was also good to see FAW President Trefor Lloyd Hughes and Vice President David Griffiths in attendance for the whole day to support the training and education programme. Before presenting his review of the year Referees’ Manager Rodger Gifford called upon FAW President Trefor Lloyd Hughes to present Huw Jones with a pennant on behalf of UEFA to mark his service as an International Referee which was followed by Referees’ Committee Vice Chairman presenting Huw with a “Welsh Cap” with his name on to mark the FAW’s appreciation of his international work.