Gareth Davies

A MAINSTAY of the most successful side in the club's history, GARETH DAVIES' unassuming efficiency at the back was a cornerstone of the glory days of the 1970s.

Signed by Alvan Williams, initially as a centre forward, having been spotted playing for the Welsh Youth team, he was switched to centre back by John Neal, and went from strength to strength. Only Arfon Griffiths made more appearances for the club in its history as Davies managed over six hundred games, and nobody played more often in Europe.

In a 16-year run in the first team, he picked up three Welsh Cup winners medals and played his part in those memorable runs to the quarter finals of both the FA and League Cups in the 1977-8 season.

That was, of course, a campaign capped by the Third Division championship, after Davies had been a mainstay of the side which came agonisingly close to reaching the Second Division for the first time in the club's history the previous season.

That was not Davies' first promotion, though, as he was also a part of the team which were runners-up in the Fourth Division eight years earlier.

Davies also picked up three Welsh caps, but this list of achievements and the bare facts of his career's longevity hardly do justice to a player whose elegant consistency was almost taken for granted at the back, or a man who exuded quiet dignity.