The New Saints

Gerard Doherty kept goal for The New Saints in 2005 when Liverpool came to Park Hall in the Champions League and left with a 3-0 win. It had existed for barely two years at that point, formed in 2003 when Llansantffraid F.C., founded in 1959, merged with Oswestry Town F.C., founded in 1920 — a union the Football Association of Wales approved that June, though the paperwork was not finished until December 2004. For a time the team played under the name of a sponsor, Total Network Solutions, before becoming The New Saints in 2006.

Since then the record books have struggled to keep up. The Saints have won the Cymru Premier 18 times, the Welsh Cup 18 times and the Welsh League Cup — under this name and its immediate predecessor — 24 times, missing that last trophy only once in the run, in 2019-20, when Bala Town took it. At the end of 2016 they set a European top-flight record with 27 consecutive league wins. Their closest rival for all this has been Connah's Quay Nomads, though no one has bothered to give the fixture a proper name.

The Saints have used it as a launchpad into Europe most years, and in 2024-25 they went further than any Welsh club before them, beating Panevėžys in qualifying to reach the league phase of the Conference League, then beating Kazakhstan's Astana 2-0 that October for the club's first win at that level.