Connah’s Quay Nomads
The town’s football club plays in the Cymru Premier and has knocked Scottish and Norwegian sides out of Europe, though it now plays its home games in Flint.
Connah’s Quay Nomads are one of the leading clubs in Welsh football’s top division, the Cymru Premier. Twice champions of Wales and regular entrants in European qualifying, the Nomads have built a record over the past decade that few clubs their size can match. They no longer play in Connah’s Quay itself, a point worth knowing before you set out to a game.
From a junior side to the national league
The club was founded in 1946 as Connah’s Quay Juniors, set up by Tommy Jones, the former Everton and Wales centre-half who came from the town. It took the Nomads name in 1951 and won the Welsh Youth Cup early on before spending decades in regional football.
The modern rise began in the 1990s. The Nomads were founder members of the Cymru Alliance in 1990 and of the League of Wales, now the Cymru Premier, two seasons later. After relegation in 2008 and a name change to Gap Connah’s Quay during a decade of sponsorship by a recruitment firm, the club won back-to-back second-tier titles in 2011 and 2012 to return to the top flight, and has stayed there since.
Champions of Wales
The best years came at the end of the 2010s. The Nomads won the Welsh Cup in 2018, the first time the club had done so under the Connah’s Quay Nomads name, beating Aberystwyth Town in the final.
Two years later they went one better. Under manager Andy Morrison, former Manchester City captain, Connah’s Quay were declared champions of Wales for the first time when the 2019-20 Cymru Premier season was ended early because of the coronavirus pandemic. They retained the title the following season, in 2020-21, to become back-to-back champions. The club added another Welsh Cup in 2024.
In Europe
European qualifying has produced the results the club is best known for beyond Wales.
The Nomads reached Europe for the first time in 2016-17 and beat Norwegian side Stabæk over two legs, keeping two clean sheets, before going out to Vojvodina of Serbia. The standout campaign came in 2019-20, when Connah’s Quay beat Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus and then knocked out the Scottish side Kilmarnock 3-2 on aggregate to set up a tie with Partizan Belgrade. The win in Scotland was hailed by the club’s own supporters as the greatest result in Welsh club football.
Not every famous night ended in progress. In 2017-18 the Nomads beat the Finnish champions HJK Helsinki 1-0 in the home leg, a result that made headlines, but lost the tie on aggregate. Because the club’s own grounds have not met UEFA requirements, its European home games have been played at larger venues elsewhere in Wales over the years.
Where they play
Connah’s Quay Nomads do not currently play in Connah’s Quay. The club left Deeside Stadium, its home for many years, at the start of the 2023-24 season after a dispute over the tenancy, and has since played its home games at the Essity Stadium in Flint, the ground of fellow Cymru Premier club Flint Town United. The stadium holds around 1,000 spectators.
In November 2025 the club set out plans to build a permanent home of its own, a proposed 4,000-seat stadium at the Ty Calon site to be shared with Shotton Steel RFC and developed in partnership with the Football Association of Wales and the Welsh Rugby Union. The plan would also allow the ground to host international fixtures. It is a proposal at an early stage.
Going to a game
The Nomads play in the Cymru Premier from August to the spring, with home games currently at the Essity Stadium in Flint. Fixtures, ticket details and the latest club news are on the club’s official website at the-nomads.co.uk. Because home games are in Flint rather than Connah’s Quay, check the venue when planning your journey; our guide to [getting around Connah’s Quay](/connahs-quay/getting-around) covers travel across the Deeside towns.
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