Welsh Premier League 2017-18

Welsh Premier League 2017–18
Season information
Dates	11 August 2017 – 20 May 2018
Winners	The New Saints (12th title)
Relegated	Prestatyn Town Bangor City (due to failing the domestic licence criteria)
Season statistics
Goals scored	257
Biggest home win	New Saints 6–1 Prestatyn (14 October 2017) Aberystwyth 7-1 Prestatyn (16 December 2017) Bangor 5–0 Bala (24 November 2017)
Biggest away win	Carmarthen 0–5 New Saints (30 September 2017)
Highest scoring	Bangor 5–2 New Saints (11 August 2017) New Saints 6–1 Prestatyn (14 October 2017) New Saints 5–2 Carmarthen (25 November 2017)
← 2016–17	2018–19 →

The 2017–18 Welsh Premier League is the 26th season of the Welsh Premier League, the highest football league within Wales since its establishment in 1992. The New Saints are the defending champions. The season fixtures were announced on 23 June 2017. The season began on 11 August 2017 and will conclude in April 2018; the Europa League play-offs will follow afterwards. Teams played each other twice on a home and away basis, before the league split into two groups at the end of January 2018 – the top six and the bottom six.

On 26 April 2018 the FAW Club Licensing Appeals Body decided to revoke Bangor City's Tier 1 and UEFA licence meaning that they would automatically drop down to the second level of Welsh football the next season and would not be able to compete for a place in the following season's Europa League.

Teams

The bottom two placed teams from the previous season, Rhyl and Airbus UK Broughton were relegated to the Cymru Alliance for the 2017–18 season. They were replaced by Barry Town United and Prestatyn Town, champions of the 2016–17 Welsh Football League Division One and 2016–17 Cymru Alliance respectively.

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Aberystwyth Town	Aberystwyth	Park Avenue	5,000
Bala Town	Bala	Maes Tegid	3,000
Bangor City	Bangor	Nantporth	3,000
Barry Town United	Barry	Jenner Park	3,500
Cardiff Metropolitan University	Cardiff	Cyncoed Campus	1,620
Carmarthen Town	Carmarthen	Richmond Park	3,000
Cefn Druids	Wrexham	The Rock	3,000
Connah's Quay Nomads	Connah's Quay	Deeside Stadium	1,500
Llandudno	Llandudno	Park MBi Maesdu	1,013
Newtown	Newtown	Latham Park	5,000
Prestatyn Town	Prestatyn	Bastion Road	2,000
The New Saints	Oswestry	Park Hall	2,000

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	The New Saints	32	23	5	4	83	32	+51	74	2018–19 UEFA Champions League First qualifying round
2	Bangor City  (R)	32	19	3	10	49	32	+17	60	Relegation to Cymru Alliance
3	Connah's Quay Nomads	32	17	6	9	46	29	+17	57	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Bala Town	32	15	4	13	37	48	−11	49	Qualification to the Europa League preliminary round
5	Cefn Druids  (O)	32	12	8	12	38	41	−3	44	Qualification to Europa League play-offs
6	Cardiff Metropolitan University	32	12	7	13	46	41	+5	43
7	Barry Town	32	16	5	11	39	31	+8	53
8	Newtown	32	12	4	16	52	55	−3	40
9	Aberystwyth Town	32	10	7	15	47	56	−9	37
10	Llandudno	32	9	9	14	39	44	−5	36
11	Carmarthen Town	32	8	5	19	35	62	−27	29
12	Prestatyn Town  (R)	32	4	7	21	27	67	−40	19	Relegation to Cymru Alliance

Source: Welsh Premier League
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

UEFA Europa League play-offs

Teams that finish in positions third to seventh at the end of the regular season will participate in play-offs to determine the third participant for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, who will qualify for the preliminary round. However, due to Bangor's expulsion, there was just one semi-final, with fifth place Cefn gaining a bye to the final after Bala Town (who had finished 4th) took Bangor's place.

Semi-final

12 May 2018 (2018-05-12) 17:15hrs	Cardiff Met	4–1	Barry Town United	Cyncoed Campus Attendance: 665 Referee: Dean John
	Roscrow  26', 73' Evans  30' Sainty  43' (o.g.)	Report	Newman  89'

Final

20 May 2018 (2018-05-20) 12:25hrs	Cefn Druids	1–0	Cardiff Met	The Rock Attendance: 779 Referee: Nick Pratt
	J.Davies  16'

Season statistics

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Goal of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
August	Alan Morgan	Llandudno	Adam Roscrow	Cardiff Met.	Brayden Shaw	Bangor City
September	Scott Ruscoe	The New Saints	Kayne McLaggon	Barry Town United	Steven Hewitt	Bangor City
October	Huw Griffiths	Cefn Druids	Eliot Evans	Cardiff Met.
November	Kevin Nicholson	Bangor City	Dean Rittenberg	Bangor City
December	Colin Caton	Bala Town	Chris Venables	Bala Town
January	Scott Ruscoe	The New Saints	Aeron Edwards	The New Saints
February	Gavin Chesterfield	Barry Town United	Declan Walker	Aberystwyth Town
March	Gavin Chesterfield	Barry Town United	Michael Bakare	Connah's Quay Nomads

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Jason Oswell	Newtown	22
2	Greg Draper	The New Saints	15
	Alex Darlington	The New Saints
4	Mike Haynes	Bala Town	14
5	Daniel Nardiello	Bangor City	13
6	Adrian Cieslewicz	The New Saints	12
7	Nick Rushton	Connah's Quay Nomads/Newtown	11
	Liam Thomas	Carmarthen Town
9	Tony Gray	Airbus UK Broughton	10
	Ashley Ruane	Cefn Druids
	Henry Jones	Bangor City

External links

• Official website
• League rules

2017–18 in Welsh football
Domestic leagues
Welsh Premier League · Welsh Football League Division One · Cymru Alliance
Domestic cups
Welsh Cup · Welsh League Cup
European competitions
Champions League (Final) · Europa League (Final)
National teams
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (Group D)
2016-17                                                        2018-19