Wales. May be unjustly placed with the likes of Cyprus, may be not. Welsh clubs enjoyed strong time, but they played in the English leagues. And the Cup was peculiar by UEFA standards, for technically ‘foreign’ clubs were allowed to participate.
One of them, as it happened often in the Cup’s history, reached the final – Shrewsbury Town. The other finalist was Welsh – Newport County AFC. Internationally, it was OK – even if the English club won, Wales was going to be represented in the Cup Winners Cup by the losing finalist. But it was better than that – Newport won both legs of the final: 2-1 and 3-0.
Newport County was lowly even for a Welsh club – if they played professional football at all, it was in the 4th division, hardly something noticeable. But this was the best ever season of the small club – they won promotion to 3rd division and they won the Cup for the first time.
A historic victory, considering that Wales had its own ‘big clubs’ – Cardiff City and particularly Swansea Town, which enjoyed its best years exactly at that time, climbing up to the 1st English division. First trophy is a great moment in the history of any club, but in the case of Newport County it turned out to be the greatest moment ever, for the 1979-80 success was never repeated again – it remains the only trophy won by the club, which hit hard times almost 10 years later and disappeared for awhile. Since the distant future was unknown, the club enjoyed the moment – and more: after winning promotion and Cup, they had excellent run in the Cup Winners Cup. However, even this was still unknown yet.