HUGHES PASSION NEVER WANED

Tributes to respected chairman

- Matt Badcock

IF a story summed up quite how much Anthony Hughes loved his football, it came from those strange postCovid days.

Self-isolating because of his cancer treatment, the proud Merthyr Town supporter would take his position on a grass bank that gave the perfect view into the Martyrs’ Penydarren Park.

It was a club he had been involved with nearly his whole life, both as an official and, firstly, as a fan.

“At the age of three or four, I would be kicking a ball around at the side of the pitch at Merthyr Tydfil with my dad who was ever-present at the club,” he said in a 2021 interview with the Southern League Goals Show. “It meant that I became entrenched in the Southern League; from the late 1960s until I was into my late 30s my team was part of it and I would watch them week in, week out without fail.”

His football life took him from programme editor to secretary and director, as well as a member of FA Council and, his dream role, Southern League chairman.

Hughes passed away this week. He is survived by wife Debbie and children Victoria and Shaun.

The outpouring of love and support shows the respect he commanded across the game.

“Anthony was relatively unique,” Northern Premier League chairman Mark Harris told The NLP. “A Welshmen, representing an English league in an English competition, but aligned to a club in Wales.