FA Cup: Filmmaker Jonny Owen hopes Merthyr's 'magical' cup run can continue
- Published
Penydarren Park has been home to football in Merthyr Tydfil since 1908
Filmmaker Jonny Owen is well versed in re-telling football's fairytale stories and bringing them to a wider audience.
His widely-acclaimed documentary I Believe in Miracles recalled Nottingham Forest's rise under Brian Clough to become back-to-back European Cup champions.
Don't Take me Home chronicled Wales' run to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and a memorable summer for Wales fans in France.
Whether Southern League Premier South side Merthyr Town's exploits this season will be documented on screen remains to be seen.
But this is a club that time and time again has bounced back from adversity.
Owen is a director at Premier League club Nottingham Forest, but his lifelong support for hometown club Merthyr is well known.
Along with his fiancée, Line of Duty and This is England star Vicky McClure, the couple's production company BYO Films, sponsored the club's shorts in 2021-22.
While Owen will be hoping for FA Cup success on Saturday when Merthyr host Folkestone Invicta in the fourth qualifying round, he is equally proud of the club's deep roots in the local community.
"These clubs tend to be more than just football clubs," Owen told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
"In Merthyr they have teams of all ages, the girls teams are really popular up there and the pitch is used every night.
"There are bands on in the clubhouse before and after games, they do stuff with the homeless in the town and there's so much that the club does.
"Football clubs are so important as we know in communities, but the smaller the town and the smaller the club it tends to be more amplified in their role in that town.
Community spirit inspired McClure and Owen to back Martyrs
"It had difficult times a few years back and was resurrected brilliantly by the fans and it would mean their safety would almost be guaranteed for a few more seasons.
"The people that run the football club do a fantastic job, most of it is voluntary and they understand that Merthyr Town football club is the heart of the town itself really.
"This is the furthest they've got certainly in a decade in the FA Cup and all the profile that brings
"And if they get through, financially it means that the club is secure for the next season or two which is so important."
The difficulties Owen talks about relate to 2010 when Merthyr Tydfil FC, a club which played in Europe as Welsh Cup winners in the 1980s, were liquidated and demoted to Division One of the Western Football League.
A new fans-owned club was formed and in 2015, five years after their expulsion, they secured a return to the Southern League Premier Division.
But financial issues continued to trouble the club and another blow would hit them in early 2020 - the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the 2019-20 season was abandoned, the Southern League did resume the following campaign, but that placed Merthyr as a semi-professional Welsh club at a disadvantage.
"You had this unique situation where they couldn't play because they were in Wales with different Covid rules," Owen explains.
"So they had to mothball a season and resurrect themselves from the start.
"It was a difficult season last season and they were relegated, but then reprieved.
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"This season they are having a real stab under new manager Paul [Michael], who's doing a fantastic job, and are hovering just outside the play-off places.
"And there's this magical cup run and hopefully it will continue."
Victory in Saturday's Cup tie against Isthmian League Premier Division side Folkestone would secure a place in the First Round proper and a potential game against EFL opposition.
The Martyrs secured their place in the fourth qualifying round courtesy of Lewis Powell's dramatic stoppage time winner at Gloucester City in the previous round.
A video of Merthyr fans' celebrating the goal went viral on social media and Owen added: "The whole joy of football is in that moment.
"It will be a great day on Saturday.
"If we can get a crowd of a 1,000 plus then that will be massive for us financially.
"The money you make from that helps the club into the future and if we get through the bonus money from the FA Cup is not insubstantial.
"That again puts the club on a more solid footing."