Inside the world of Welsh football's most extraordinary club

The Saints are in the middle of a hugely historic season and WalesOnline was allowed into the inner sanctum of the club on matchday

"Right, lads. I need a minute. One minute. That's it. One minute. One minute."

Craig Harrison has been relaxed up until this point. Smiling and laughing with various members of staff and fans since arriving at Park Hall this morning. Indeed, he's already been here for the best part of three hours.

As his voice booms over the pulsating music in the home dressing room at Park Hall, it's a signal things are about to get serious.

The New Saints host Cardiff Metropolitan University this afternoon, a side that has previously been something of a bogey team in the past, and there's little room for any similar slip-ups today, a message he's keen to get across as he attempts to predict Met's defensive shape.

"If we lose today, it'll be the first time we'll have lost three-straight games at home since moving here in 2007," media manager Sam Wood explains later.

Home defeats to Bala Town and Caernarfon haven't quite dented the euphoria of the club's European exploits, which obviously took a sensational new turn with the recent trip to Fiorentina in the UEFA Conference League recently. But it's nevertheless a run of form that's clearly unacceptable to a club that's won a record 16 league titles.

Becoming the first side from the domestic Welsh pyramid to qualify for the group stages of a European competition is all well and good, but it's clearly not deemed a suitable excuse for this recent dip in form.

The league trophy, which Wood jokes is the most dangerous in world football given the number of jagged edges in its design, is proudly on display in the hospitality area, along with various items picked up from various other European exploits, including mementos of tussles with Manchester City, Liverpool, Copenhagen and Legia Warsaw.

As chief operating officer Ian Williams explains, it's already been one hell of a journey up to this point.

"This is my 22nd season at the club, and it's almost been my life," he says.

"The TNS now is almost unrecognisable to the club I walked into. When I started, the team trained at the pavilion pitches in Runcorn. We had an academy with about 30 kids who trained on a pitch at the back of a pub in Meifod, the village next to Llansantffraid, which was where the club was based at the time in 2003.

"We had a women's team in the English system and there was no real infrastructure. We played all our games at Llansantffraid, which at the time was really good and to be honest I miss those days. Watching the games by the oak tree on a community council pitch. The changing rooms were the village hall.

"At that time club licensing was coming in so we had to look at ways we could progress as a club in terms of our infrastructure and facilities and that meant we couldn't stay in Llansantffraid.

"Then the opportunity came to purchase Park Hall, where Oswestry Town were playing. They were struggling financially and approached us to help them. That turned into the merger between the two clubs."

Chairman Mike Harris, who's sadly not in attendance for this game, has been the source of the club's financial muscle, having backed the club for the last 27 years.

His influence has extended to the very name of the club, after rebranding it in the image of his company, a move that inspired pundit Geoff Stelling's infamous gag 'They'll be dancing on the streets of Total Network Solutions', a soundbite that further strengthened efforts to put the club on the map.

When Harris sold his telecoms firm in 2006, the decision was made to keep the TNS moniker and rebrand again as The New Saints.

"It's the Saint Oswald of Oswestry and the St Fraid of Llantsanffraid coming together as a merged club. A bit of creative marketing there," Williams says.

"We want to continue the journey now. I'm just as enthused now as I was 20-odd years ago. So is the chairman.

"It was always the chairman's ambition to get into the group stages of a UEFA competition and here we are. We've had some really memorable nights in Europe, but they've obviously all been in qualifying matches. So to get to a league phase is a dream come true really.

"Fiorentina was a real experience, and we did really well in the game. They've had to bring their stars on to get a result."

Excitement is clearly building towards the club's first home game of the Conference League, with Kazakhstani side Astana the visitors for this latest historic occasion.

However, UEFA regulations means this latest chapter in the story will take place 20 miles away at Shrewsbury Town.

"I've just spent an hour writing up a whole list of things, there's still a lot work to do to get things over the line," Williams says when discussing the preparations. "It's another challenge for us. We would like to have played the games in Wales, but unfortunately we weren't able to do that.

"But like I said we're a small team of staff and we're doing what we can to drive everything off the pitch to make sure everything goes as smoothly as it possibly can."

But the prospect of that night doesn't appear to have entered Harrison's head. For the imposing Geordie, nothing exists outside of the here and now.

"The one thing I will say is that stats on the tactics board show that the pass completion rate is the worst all season, 81 per cent," he tells his players in the dressing room ahead of kick-off. "Never seen anything at this football club below 85. So it just proves we've had the territory and the possession, but we didn't look after the ball well enough.

"Don't just ****ing make things up. Don't just chuck crosses in when there's no-one there. Don't just do mad things. We need to look after the ball.

"Back to basics boys. We ****ing work hard, look after the ball, play our style and close. All those ****ty things that I'm not saying we haven't done, but we might not have done as well as we could have done.

"First and foremost, whatever happens, individual battles and work hard. So whoever you're playing against, when you come off, whatever the score may be, the man you're playing against has not got the better of you. He's not run as far you, he's not won tackles, he's not closed you down."

Applause erupts. "Come on, lads. Kill the game off early," roars captain Danny Redmond over the cloud of high fives and fist bumps that's now thundering round the room.

Satisfying their boss appears a tall order at times. In fact, it's probably completely impossible.

"I'm never pleased, to be honest," Harrison says with a smile when asked about his methods over a pre-match coffee.

"Ask the players and ask my wife! I'm never pleased with anything. Sometimes that's to the detriment of my personal enjoyment. I think that's come from me having to retire from playing at such an early age."

After coming through the ranks at Middlesbrough, Harrison joined Crystal Palace in 2000, but saw his career cruelly ended in January 2002 at the age of just 24. Having already made 34 league appearances for the club, he suffered a double compound fracture in his leg in a reserves match against Reading.

Despite nearly two years of rehabilitation, and three operations, he was forced to hang up his boots, and even after all these years, it's clear he's not completely over it.

"I was almost in my peak as a Premier League/Championship player. And then it was all taken away from me," he adds.

"Even now, nearly 20 years later, I still feel bitter about it. That's what keeps driving me. That's what keeps pushing me forwards and wanting to be the best I possibly can.

"It's a huge character defect that it takes me such a long time to get over things, and I don't really enjoy things as much as I should do. Especially the success at the football club. I've won over 20 trophies and qualified for Europe. Bobby Robson's the only English manager to have managed more games in the Champions League than me.

"But I'm still nowhere near satisfied."

Harrison first joined the club in 2011, where he spent six years with the Saints before leaving for Hartlepool United.

After spells at Bangor and Connah's Quay, the latter so far the only side to have wrestled the league title off TNS over the last 13 years, he returned to Park Hall in 2022.

At the age of 46, his ferocious competitiveness shows little sign of easing, and there are occasions where he admits it perhaps overtakes his better judgement, which probably ruffles a few feathers among some of his counterparts.

Certainly, one gets the feeling that TNS, despite flying the flag for Wales in Europe, aren't exactly everyone's cup of tea.

Financial superiority, and the dominance that's followed, as well as the small matter of the club being based in England, have all proved problematic for some.

But no one, least of all the head coach, appears too bothered what others think.

"I think it's fair to say we're not massively popular with other teams," he shrugs. "But from my perspective it is what it is. You don't get disliked by being irrelevant. If you're just an average Joe pondering along, no one takes offence to you.

"I seem to find that people don't particularly like successful people or organisations. But that goes all the way through football doesn't it. You only have to look at the big leagues like the Premier League.

"How many people hated Manchester United for so long? Or Chelsea under (Jose) Mourinho? Man City at this moment in time? They've got the best manager and players, and the investment they've brought to the Manchester area, you still hear the haters saying that they haven't got a big crowd. Haven't got this. Haven't got that.

"To me it goes hand in hand with success."

It's interesting Harrison should mention crowds, as curiously, for all their success on the pitch, which included an unbeaten season last term, TNS unquestionably has a relatively small fanbase. Just 250 supporters have come through the turnstiles for this clash.

Among them is Reg, who at 85 has seen a fair number of things in his time., although flying out to watch the lads in Europe is unlikely to be one of them.

"Last time I flew, I went to Florida in the 1980s," he said. "I think it was the year the Epcot Center opened at Disney Land.

"It was also the year when two Concords flew from here with VIPs on like Maggie Thatcher and all that. One from here. One from France. They came into Orlando airport, parallel runways, landed, turned together and dipped their noises at each other.

"That was something special that. To be out there to watch them come in.

"I can't fly anywhere now because of my heart," he adds.

"I've had three heart attacks, a quadruple bypass, seven strokes that have actually put me in hospital, and I still haven't got a physical thing wrong with me. I still have a kickabout now and then.

"I love football, I used to steward at Haverfordwest. About 30 years I was down there.

"I came to Oswestry because my niece is a pharmacist and she got a job in the prison up in Wrexham.

"It's a good club and it's an exciting time to be part of it. It'll be nice to see them win in Europe. But to be honest, it'll be nice to see them win here today after the last couple of games."

Sweet Caroline comes onto the Tannoy, and Reg can't resist a little dance in the main stand. Down by pitch meanwhile, two supporters are lingering around the players' tunnel.

Kalin, who originally hails from Plovdiv in Bulgaria, is here with his 10-year-old son Mitik, who's clutching a TNS shirt bursting with signatures.

"He needs just needs a few more," Kalin says with a smile.

"This is our local team," he adds when asked why he started supporting TNS. "Manchester United have millions of fans. Here there's only a few, but it's still football.

"I came over to the UK 17 years ago as a strawberry picker, so I came to Oswestry for work, and we started following the club last year.

"It's really exciting at the moment. We'll be going to Shrewsbury to watch the Astana game, but my son, he wants to go to every game now."

Mitik, who admits most of his school friends are a little confused by his choice of football team, has garnered a reputation here for his vocal support.

"I just support. He's the big boss. The ultra," his dad laughs.

"He wants to go to every match. Every match."

The pair aren't the only ones bringing a bit of international flavour to the club. Behind the scenes, Emma and husband Heber have arguably the most important job of all, which is feeding the players.

The couple run an catering company out of Telford, and this is one of their last gigs before making the trip to Heber's native Uruguay for a visit.

"He left Uruguay 22 years ago, and this will be the third time he's been back. So it's a big deal and we're really excited," Emma says.

"We're still quite new here. We started here around June last year. We're event caterers normally. We don't normally work with football clubs, so it's been a bit different for us.

"But TNS were without catering and they called us, so here we are! It's been a big learning curve, and we love being here.

"Cooking for the players for their lunches is my favourite part of being here. Some of them are perhaps a little shy, but we get on with everybody here, and it's nice to see them enjoying the food. It's a pleasure to cook for people when they enjoy it."

The punters are also treated to the couple's culinary talents, and the steady queue throughout the day shows there's no shortage of appreciation.

After dishing out plates of chips, burgers and other delights, as well as a healthy amount of cider, it's time for kick-off.

As the game gets under way, the Bulgarians are, as promised, already making themselves heard, trading songs with a group of four teenage boys, who are gathered in the corner of the stand to the right.

'Saints Riot Crew' says the Wales flag behind them, and they work their way through a colourful songbook that celebrates those in green and white and takes aim at their opponents n equal measure.

"It's all gone quiet over there," they sing as TNS race into a two-goal lead in the first half, which feels rather curious as there isn't really a noticeable contingent of away fans. In fact, one would struggle to find anyone here openly supporting the visitors.

In any case, no one seems bothered by the hole in the logic, not least Harrison, who's too transfixed by matters on the pitch.

"Was I in your way lino?" he asks after a contentious offside call. "No? I must have been because you got that wrong."

Not long after, the linesman makes another call that provokes his ire, although in fairness, the somewhat sarcastic response of "Sorry, Craig", suggests he's not all that intimidated, which is probably just as well as he remains in the firing line from the dugout for most of the afternoon.

Bear in mind, Saints are 2-0 up and cruising at this point.

When the rain pours down, the Riot Crew break into a chorus of 'We're TNS, our weather is s****' and then slightly more bizarrely "Rain, rain go away, come again another day", which instantly makes them somewhat less intimidating.

It's heaving down at this point, but Harrison is unflinching, and allows himself to get soaked to the bone in what feels like implicit demonstration of his dedication to the cause.

The sun returns to reward his efforts midway through the second half, and the hosts' superiority remains, with Aramide Oteh scoring a really well-taken third. Reg twirls his green and white scarf in approval in the main stand, the Bulgarians bark TNS, TNS, TNS, yet again.

But Harrison still sees room for improvement. "Don't throw your hands around Rory, please," he tells Rory Holden a few minutes later, carrying the tone of a deputy head on a school field trip nipping a spot teenage rambunctiousness in the bud.

Holden complies, and TNS remain on top, seeing out the rest of the game to return to winning ways.

It's a welcome three points, but as he warned earlier, Harrison clearly isn't 100 per cent happy, although he perhaps feels some regret for the heat dished out to some of the officials throughout the afternoon.

"Once the game is over, or maybe before the game, I'm probably quite an unassuming quiet person," he said. "But once we're out there, my passion comes alive. I demand high standards from everyone, and I probably do push it too far sometimes with the officials.

"The officials do an unbelievable job. There's not enough money that would get me to do their job. But once the game's going you see things through green-tinted eyes, and you want everything to go your way.

"As long as the mark's not stepped over and we shake hands afterwards without it getting personal

"The first thing I do when I walk off the football pitch is look in the mirror and think about what I could have done better. I reflect and make notes on myself each game.

"It's not quite life and death, but it's a real competitive edge. It's never ever personal.

"I've worked with that group of players for a long time, and probably some of the must think, 'Please, Craig. Stop it. Just stop and shut up'.

"But they know that's not going to happen. The day it does happen is probably the day I walk away from football."

With that, he heads back down the tunnel, ready to compose himself and do it all again.

Tickets for The New Saints upcoming UEFA Conference League fixtures are available to purchase for all supporters by visiting https://www.tnsfc.co.uk/