Wales oldest football team are the Cefn Druids Football Club, originally known as Plasmadoc Football Club they are believed to have been formed in 1869, which makes them the oldest football team in the World outside of England.
A few years after they formed, Plasmadoc were renamed as 'The Druids', as several of the local mining and quarry teams from the North Wales area, were amalgamated into one team. Six players from the Druids were selected to play for the Wales national team in their first ever international match when they played Scotland in 1876.
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The Druids joined the Welsh League in 1890, but at that time they were also allowed to compete in English competitions, including the FA Cup, although they never actually won the trophy, they did beat Bolton Wanderers in the fourth round of the competition in 1882/83, before losing to Blackburn in the quarter finals of the cup, who then went onto win the trophy.
The Druids have been more successful in the Welsh cup, winning the trophy eight times, and have been runners up in the competition a total of eleven times, the Druids also became the first team to win the Welsh Cup for three seasons in succession, from seasons 1880-1882.
In total, thirty players from the Druids have represented the Welsh national team, but the last of these was in 1904. With the development of the English league, the Druids suffered as a result, with many of their more talented players opting to leave and play for English teams in the football league.
By 1920 the club were struggling and they formed a combined team with Rhosymedre to become Rhosymedre Druids, they merged again in 1923 with Acrefair United then being known as Druids United, and by 1930 they had dropped out of the Welsh league and began playing in the Wrexham & District League.
There was a slight resurgence for the Druids during the 1950s, and in 1957 reached the Welsh Amateur Cup final, but lost after a replay. The Druids also moved to a new ground at Cefn Mawr, and played a friendly match against a Manchester United team, to commemorate their first match at the new ground, a United team that contained a young player by the name of George Best.
Druids United didn't really improve, and things became worse when a new local team were formed in 1967 by the name of Cefn Albion, an arch rivalry was immediately formed, but this didn't prevent the newly formed Albion team winning several trophies. All talk of a merger was fiercely resisted, until 1992, when both teams were persuaded to merge and formed Cefn Druids Football Club and it was decided at that time they would wear the original the black and white colours of the 1869 Plasmadoc club.
Following new sponsorship and management, Cefn Druids were promoted to the League of Wales in 1999 and in 2002 reached the semi-final of the Welsh Cup, however after narrowly avoiding relegation for two season, they were finally relegated from the Welsh premier league.
The Druids finally departed their home ground of Cefn Mawr after more than fifty years at the beginning of the 2010-11 season, after the construction of a new stadium called 'The Rock' was completed, the stadium has a 2,000 spectator capacity and will hopefully see a new era for the oldest club in Wales.
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