Oswestry Town
MEMBERSHIP 
3 Seasons - 2000/01 - 2002/03
GROUND
Park Hall
FOUNDED
1860
HIGHEST VICTORY
7-3 v. Flexsys Cefn Druids in 2001.
HIGHEST DEFEAT
0-11 v. Llanelli in 2001.
HISTORY
Oswestry Town FC merged with TNS in 2002/2003, having previously been one of the oldest football clubs in the World. The club were founded as Oswestry United in 1860 and played their home matches at Park Hall stadium, Oswestry, after a spell at Victoria Road. Incidentally, Park Hall is still used today by TNS for their Reserves and Academy and the club has plans to develop the facilities at the site.
Oswestry were the only English club playing in the Welsh Premier and they had a chequered history. As Founder members of the Football Association of Wales in 1876, a rare achievement for an English club, Oswestry went into decline despite winning the Cheshire League in 1972. Oswestry were forced to sell their Victoria Road ground to pay their debts and the club folded completely in the late 1980s. The re-formed club opted for Welsh football and played in the Cymru Alliance or the Welsh Premier from 1995/6 until 2003. After being initially refused entry to the League of Wales on ground criteria, Oswestry moved to the Park Hall athletics stadium and considerable improvements were carried out to reach Welsh Premier standards, although the ground had a long way to go to meet the modern standards of the Welsh Premier.
The club remained financially weak, and on 7th June 2003, it was announced that the club would merge with Total Network Solutions FC, from Llansantffraid, eight miles away, with the aim of playing at a new stadium in Oswestry from 2005/06. The Football Association of Wales approved the merger, but on 12th August 2003 UEFA ruled against the merger on the grounds that the two clubs were in different countries.
On appeal two days later, UEFA reversed its decision having reviewed the history of the development of football in England and Wales, and particularly noting Oswestry's role in the founding of the FAW and regular participation in the Welsh Cup from 1877 to the present. Consequently Oswestry Town were excused from completing its fixture at the start of the 2003/04 season on 16th August.
The merger agreement provided that the merged team would be known as "Total Network Solutions FC" and would play half its matches in Oswestry Town's dark blue strip. In 2006, after the club sponsor Total Network Solutions was taken over by British Telecom, TNS FC renamed themselves The New Saints FC, while maintaining their prior colour scheme, including the use of Oswestry Town's colours on the road.
Oswestry's club crest consisted of a blue shield outlined in Gold, featuring a large golden lion on the right and a small red shield (with a white cross in the centre) below a red Welsh dragon on the left - The newly designed The New Saints crest, features the same Golden Lion on the right side, to show that Oswestry still remains prominent in The New Saints emblem.
