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WHICH North Wales football club has the best website? (Dave Jones, Daily Post Blog) As someone who trawls through endless sites week in, week out checking out the latest news from our clubs I thought I'd compile my top 10 personal favourites. Many clubs have now switched to or started up with the Pitchero provider, which is a good thing in some ways and not so good in others. Good in that many more clubs now have sites because of the assistance Pitchero gives them. Bad because a lot of the sites have become very "samey". However, some Pitchero club sites are much better than others and are certainly easy to navigate. What do you look for from a club website? I like news to be up-to-date, concise, easy to read and with plenty of statistics. I also enjoy a bit of humour and certainly interaction with visitors really helps through forums etc. Here's my top 10 then, which is by no means a definitive list, just my opinion. Apologies if I've left out a really good site. This is probably because I haven't seen it rather than me ignoring its quality. I've omitted Wrexham from consideration as they come under the professional banner. 1 CPD PORTHMADOG - www.porthmadogfc.com No wonder this website wins so many awards. Season after season it does Welsh football proud. Match reports are the best you will see anywhere. Descriptive, expressive, informative and always a good airing for the opposition. There is always a good preview in the week leading up to the match and news updates on the site are frequent. Often Port make a stand about some of the issues affecting Welsh football on the site which can make for very interesting reading. Secretary Gerallt Owen's thoughts on the Super 12, plus those of former boss Tomi Morgan, were forthright and compulsive viewing. Match reports go back many seasons. There is also a good forum covering a variety of issues. Port have taken a few blows in recent times but the site doesn't hide. It comments honestly and tells its readers the true facts. Webmasters Iwan Gareth and Emyr Gareth offer a site which is proudly and admirably bilingual (a service not offered by many sites in Welsh football). Perhaps the thing most pleasing about the Porthmadog website is no matter how low the club's on the field fortunes dip, the standard of the site never drops. It is so easy to write lots of nice things about a team that wins all the time, but a losing side can so often create a sense of apathy within a club. Not Porthmadog. Win, lose or draw, you will see an honest, detailed match report. It is hard to suggest how the site could be improved....maybe a special competition offering free meals from Allports? 2 BANGOR CITY: CITIZENS CHOICE - www.the-citizens-choice.co.uk This isn't Bangor's official club website but it does an absolutely brilliant job in promoting the Welsh Cup holders. The webmaster is Mike Smith, one of the most knowledgeable men on the North Wales football scene. The guestbook is great, mainly filled with words from regular contributors who combine honest views with the occasional rant and some very funny comments. Don't slag off any Bangor players on there, you'll be turned upon in minutes by a passionate posse. They really get behind the team. Mike includes informative match previews and follow up reports containing an entertaining mixture of facts and opinion. Reports usually appear the day after the match, but this is largely because Mike lives some distance from Bangor and he's a busy family man. They are always worth waiting for. The archive section is outstanding. Features on legendary players, managers, matches. A rundown on City's WPL record going back to 1999/2000 (a separate historical site on BCFC provides info before that) and there are also goalscorers' lists, pen pictures present and past, and much more. If you know nothing about Bangor City read this site. By the time you've had a good look through you will be armed with a wealth of knowledge. 3 AIRBUS UK BROUGHTON - www.airbusfc.com Log on to their front page and you will be like a kid in a sweet shop! So much information, so many features to navigate, pictures, great match reports, this is a site to savour! There are also links to other Welsh Premier stories. The only thing which puts this site a little behind my top two is the shortage of nostalgia/archive (not the fault of the club which has only operated under its present name since 2000) and I couldn't see a forum (although there might be one somewhere, apologies if so). 4 GLANTRAETH - www.glantraethfc.co.uk Anglesey-based Glantraeth have returned to football in the Gwynedd League this season. It remains to be seen if they can recapture former glories on the field, but off the park they have the best PR man in the business in Stan Strickland. The Glantraeth website is superb. Match reports are so professionally written they could grace any newspaper page without the intervention of a sub-editor - and they always appear pretty soon after a game. Opposition goalscorers are never missed out. The moment something happens at Cae Trefdraeth it is on the website. The statistics are so comprehensive - everything you want to know. The pen pictures are top deck and there are regular photographs and a real community feel to the whole production. Take a bow Stan. 5 PRESTATYN TOWN - www.ptfconline.co.uk Mark Jones, a veteran football writer with more strings to his bow than Ernie Ball, keeps a very professional cyber-ship sailing for the Seasiders. This site is very attractive, a nicely laid out front page and the news is always up-to-date and easy to read. Mark has a lot of commitments outside of the club as well as doing a stirring job for it and as a result he is not always able to publish in-depth match reports this season, but he does offer a link to this blog which carries accounts of each game. The main site is also a taster to Mark's fantastic Seasiders Attic which covers the history of Prestatyn Town FC in a detailed way other clubs could only dream about. Well done sah! 6 CEFN DRUIDS - www.cefndruidsafc.co.uk As someone who trawls through endless sites week in, week out checking out the latest news from our clubs I thought I'd compile my top 10 personal favourites. Many clubs have now switched to or started up with the Pitchero provider, which is a good thing in some ways and not so good in others. Good in that many more clubs now have sites because of the assistance Pitchero gives them. Bad because a lot of the sites have become very "samey". However, some Pitchero club sites are much better than others and are certainly easy to navigate. What do you look for from a club website? I like news to be up-to-date, concise, easy to read and with plenty of statistics. I also enjoy a bit of humour and certainly interaction with visitors really helps through forums etc. Here's my top 10 then, which is by no means a definitive list, just my opinion. Apologies if I've left out a really good site. This is probably because I haven't seen it rather than me ignoring its quality. I've omitted Wrexham from consideration as they come under the professional banner. 1 CPD PORTHMADOG - www.porthmadogfc.com No wonder this website wins so many awards. Season after season it does Welsh football proud. Match reports are the best you will see anywhere. Descriptive, expressive, informative and always a good airing for the opposition. There is always a good preview in the week leading up to the match and news updates on the site are frequent. Often Port make a stand about some of the issues affecting Welsh football on the site which can make for very interesting reading. Secretary Gerallt Owen's thoughts on the Super 12, plus those of former boss Tomi Morgan, were forthright and compulsive viewing. Match reports go back many seasons. There is also a good forum covering a variety of issues. Port have taken a few blows in recent times but the site doesn't hide. It comments honestly and tells its readers the true facts. Webmasters Iwan Gareth and Emyr Gareth offer a site which is proudly and admirably bilingual (a service not offered by many sites in Welsh football). Perhaps the thing most pleasing about the Porthmadog website is no matter how low the club's on the field fortunes dip, the standard of the site never drops. It is so easy to write lots of nice things about a team that wins all the time, but a losing side can so often create a sense of apathy within a club. Not Porthmadog. Win, lose or draw, you will see an honest, detailed match report. It is hard to suggest how the site could be improved....maybe a special competition offering free meals from Allports? 2 BANGOR CITY: CITIZENS CHOICE - www.the-citizens-choice.co.uk This isn't Bangor's official club website but it does an absolutely brilliant job in promoting the Welsh Cup holders. The webmaster is Mike Smith, one of the most knowledgeable men on the North Wales football scene. The guestbook is great, mainly filled with words from regular contributors who combine honest views with the occasional rant and some very funny comments. Don't slag off any Bangor players on there, you'll be turned upon in minutes by a passionate posse. They really get behind the team. Mike includes informative match previews and follow up reports containing an entertaining mixture of facts and opinion. Reports usually appear the day after the match, but this is largely because Mike lives some distance from Bangor and he's a busy family man. They are always worth waiting for. The archive section is outstanding. Features on legendary players, managers, matches. A rundown on City's WPL record going back to 1999/2000 (a separate historical site on BCFC provides info before that) and there are also goalscorers' lists, pen pictures present and past, and much more. If you know nothing about Bangor City read this site. By the time you've had a good look through you will be armed with a wealth of knowledge. 3 AIRBUS UK BROUGHTON - www.airbusfc.com Log on to their front page and you will be like a kid in a sweet shop! So much information, so many features to navigate, pictures, great match reports, this is a site to savour! There are also links to other Welsh Premier stories. The only thing which puts this site a little behind my top two is the shortage of nostalgia/archive (not the fault of the club which has only operated under its present name since 2000) and I couldn't see a forum (although there might be one somewhere, apologies if so). 4 GLANTRAETH - www.glantraethfc.co.uk Anglesey-based Glantraeth have returned to football in the Gwynedd League this season. It remains to be seen if they can recapture former glories on the field, but off the park they have the best PR man in the business in Stan Strickland. The Glantraeth website is superb. Match reports are so professionally written they could grace any newspaper page without the intervention of a sub-editor - and they always appear pretty soon after a game. Opposition goalscorers are never missed out. The moment something happens at Cae Trefdraeth it is on the website. The statistics are so comprehensive - everything you want to know. The pen pictures are top deck and there are regular photographs and a real community feel to the whole production. Take a bow Stan. 5 PRESTATYN TOWN - www.ptfconline.co.uk Mark Jones, a veteran football writer with more strings to his bow than Ernie Ball, keeps a very professional cyber-ship sailing for the Seasiders. This site is very attractive, a nicely laid out front page and the news is always up-to-date and easy to read. Mark has a lot of commitments outside of the club as well as doing a stirring job for it and as a result he is not always able to publish in-depth match reports this season, but he does offer a link to this blog which carries accounts of each game. The main site is also a taster to Mark's fantastic Seasiders Attic which covers the history of Prestatyn Town FC in a detailed way other clubs could only dream about. Well done sah! 6 CEFN DRUIDS - www.cefndruidsafc.co.uk 7 COLWYN BAY - www.colwynbayfc.co.uk 8 HOLYHEAD HOTSPUR - www.holyheadhotspur.com 9 FC NOMADS - www.fcnomads.co.uk 10 RHOS AELWYD - www.rhosaelwyd.co.uk |
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