WALKING WITH GIANTS

 "In 1962-63 Tottenham made football history by becoming the first British club to win a European trophy, not only that, they did so in flamboyant style.

But their thunder was stolen in the early stages by Welsh non-League Bangor City, holders of the Welsh Cup. Amazingly, they beat mighty Napoli 2-0 in the first leg and lost only 3-1 in the return. If the away goals rule had been operative, Bangor would have gone through."

Keir Radnedge - World Soccer, February 1999

Preliminary Round

First Leg

Bangor City 2-0 AC Napoli

On May 7th 1962, Bangor City won the Welsh Cup, beating Wrexham 3-1 in the final to qualify for the European Cup Winners' Cup. Bangor were paired with Italian Cup winners AC Napoli with the first leg to be played at Farrar Road. At the time, Napoli were one of the biggest clubs in Europe, and also entering the competition for the first time. In front of a capacity crowd of 8,000 on September 5th Bangor City, part-timers and lying sixth in the Cheshire League, outplayed their famous and illustrious rivals. The victory was masterminded by City manager, ex-Everton and Wales star Tommy G. Jones. Napoli played typical Italian pass and move football whilst Bangor’s no-nonsense more direct style of football paid off. With a capacity crowd urging on every effort by the Bangor boys, it came as no surprise when after 43 minutes Reg Hunter’s cross was met by Roy Matthews who shot home through a crowd of defenders to beat the unsighted keeper, Pontel, taking City into half-time with a 1-0 lead. Throughout the game Bangor missed numerous chances to increase their lead, hitting the bar twice, and every Napoli attack was snuffed out by a tremendous display from Bangor ‘keeper Len Davies, assisted ably by his strong defence. Then, after 82 minutes, Eddie Brown was fouled in the Napoli penalty area. The Danish referee awarded a penalty, which Bangor Captain Ray Birch converted to send Bangor into dreamland. There was no further scoring and Bangor had done it, beating Napoli by two goals to nil to become the first Welsh club to win in Europe.

Second Leg

AC Napoli 3-1 Bangor City

Three weeks later Bangor travelled to Italy for the Second Leg. City’s first-ever flight to the continent nearly ended in disaster when their plane was struck by lightning and was forced to make an emergency landing in Switzerland. In front of 80,000 Italians a hammering was expected, but City started with a bang and took the game to the Italians. However, Napoli gradually settled down and took the lead on the half-hour when Italian international Mariani scored from the edge of the penalty area. Disaster followed five minutes later when a rare error by Bangor ‘keeper Davies let Ronzon in for Napoli’s second. With the tie now level on aggregate, City came out for the second half with guns blazing, but the Napoli defence stood its ground. Then, with ten minutes remaining, City entered dreamland again when one of Ken Birch’s legendary awkward throw-ins caused havoc in the Napoli penalty-area, allowing Jimmy McAllister to sneak the ball past the bewildered ‘keeper to put City ahead on goal difference. Sadly, City were only six minutes from achieving the seemingly impossible when Pornella appeased the angry Italian fans by slotting the ball into the back of City’s net to force the tie to a play-off.

Play-Off

Bangor City 1-2 AC Napoli

Under the current away goals rule City would have progressed to the next round but instead a play-off was required at Highbury, the home of Arsenal Football Club - the first European Cup Winners’ Cup tie to be played at the venue. Thinking that Wales was part of England, Napoli originally objected to the choice of venue, arguing that a London venue was just as much a home to Bangor City as Farrar Road. However, the objections were over-ruled and on Wednesday October 10th coach-loads of City supporters left for England’s capital city for the match. In front of 21,000 spectators, Napoli were reduced to ten men for eight minutes quite early on in the game after Rivellino had to leave the field to receive attention to a head wound, but City were unable to capitalise on this. It was Napoli who took the lead on 36 minutes when Rosa, the Argentinian, fired a 20-yard shot in off the crossbar. A tremendous display by Len Davies in goal kept City in the game, and they were right back in it when, twenty minutes into the second half, Brian Ellis headed the ball down into the path of Jimmy McAllister who calmly slotted the ball past Pontel in the Napoli goal. Bangor’s dream finally came to an end when, with seven minutes to go, Rosa capitalised on a rebound to score his second on the night and put Napoli through. Napoli went on to reach the third round of the competition, and were finally knocked out by OFK Belgrade of Yugoslavia in another play-off, this time held in Marseilles.