Garden Village Afc

Garden Village Association Football Club is a football club, based in Swansea and currently playing in the Welsh Football League Division 1

Garden Village A. F. C. was founded in 1922 and started playing football at Swansea League level before joining the Carmarthenshire League mid - way through the 20th century.

After numerous league and cup successes
over the years, Village gained promotion into the Welsh Football League at the end of the 1998 /99 season after finishing second in the Premier Division of the Carmarthenshire
League, and successfully beating Neath
League team Cwmamman United in the Welsh League promotion play-off to become the West Wales representative in the Pyramid system.

In only our first season of Welsh League football, the club secured promotion by finishing third in Division 3 behind Garw and Ely Rangers - one point ahead of fourth-placed AFC Llwydcoed - and also fared well in the
Welsh Cup; a run that saw them dispose of Pontyclun and Ely Rangers before being
knocked out by the then Welsh Cup holder & League of Wales side Inter Cardiff.

The Second Division proved to be a much tougher test for Village but managed to finish a respectable eighth in our first season. We did, however, manage to secure promotion in our second season winning the final game of the season at Chepstow Town and become Division Two Champions.

Village had just one short spell in the top flight of Welsh League football before they were relegated at the first at tempt. An excellent run of form towards the end of the season, which
almost kept them up, but unfortunately this co
-in sided with other teams hit similar form and Village narrowly missed out on survival, finishing two points adrift of Ely Rangers.

After a number of seasons in Division Two, where the club never finished outside of the top 8 positions, the club regained Division One status when they finished third in season 2008 /09. We remained in top division for two seasons but, unfortunately, a poor season in 2010 /11 saw us relegated back into Division Two.

In the summer of 2013 the club made a decision to appoint a management team from outside of the club, something that had not been done since the early 90’s. Steve Price was appointed manager and with his newly
formed team gained promotion at their first attempt finishing a creditable third. The outcome of our season going into the last game away to Briton Ferry Llansawel where victory
would get us being named as Division
Two Champions, unfortunately, we lost 2-1 to a last minute penalty moving us down to third and victory for Briton Ferry gained them runners-up and promotion.

Recently the club has shown its commitment into developing our own young players by introducing an Under 18 team in the West Wales Youth League as well as an Under 19 team in the Welsh National Youth League. Working together with our junior section this will now give our younger players a ladder to work their way into senior football from junior levels.

The club’s Stafford Common ground is greatly admired by visiting teams and their supporters and has been credited as having an exceptional playing surface. The ground is always improving – in 2006 the club opened its new changing room facilities while a new bar and suite area was added to the current club house in the summer of 2008. 2009 saw us complete the next phase of our development by installing a new 75 seater stand as well as rebuilding the covered standing area that had been damaged previously by a storm.

During the summer of 2010, we were delighted to announce the completion of the flood lights
system on the main pitch with additional training lights onto the outer pitch /warm up area. This long running project meant we were able to play midweek and evening games throughout the season, and further enhance the excellent facilities that we have already got, here at Garden Village.