Andy Morrison: 'Plastic champions? Connah's Quay are the real champions of Wales'
- Published
Connah's Quay players celebrate after clinching the Cymru Premier title at Penybont
Connah's Quay boss Andy Morrison aimed a swipe at rivals The New Saints and cast doubts over his own future after his side won the Cymru Premier title.
Nomads beat Penybont 2-0 on the last day of the regular season to triumph.
Morrison's side were crowned champions last season, which runners-up Saints challenged unsuccessfully in the High Court.
"We were taunted as plastic champions and that the real champions were TNS," he said.
"Well they're not. The real champions of Wales are Connah's Quay.
"We were taunted last year, we had emails.
"They [TNS] tried to sign one of our players in season and take him in January so that he'd be ready for the Champions League.
"You make what you sow and the way it was dealt with last year - we were four points clear and we were outstanding last year."
Nomads were crowned champions last season under an unweighted points-per-game method, after the Football Association of Wales halted the season due to the pandemic - with Saints failing in a legal bid to overturn that.
The reigning champions went into the final day of the 2020-21 season two points clear of second placed Saints and goals from George Horan and Aeron Edwards secured victory at Penybont to seal the title.
Andy Morrison played for Plymouth Argyle, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town
Morrison had been assistant manager at Airbus UK before he was appointed Nomads boss in November 2015, with the side struggling in Welsh football's top-flight at the time.
Since then the former Manchester City captain has led the Flintshire side to two Cymru Premier titles, a Welsh Cup win in 2018, the Nathaniel MG League Cup in 2020 as well as Scottish Challenge Cup finalists in 2019.
He has also managed the Nomads in five European campaign, including last season's Champions League qualifiers, but has cast doubt whether he will be in charge for next season's campaign.
"I'm going to speak to my chairman this week," Morrison told 大象传媒 Sport Wales.
"I spoke with him a couple of times and I've been nine years now in this league.
"If I stay as manager I've got two weeks and I'm back for the Champions League preparations and I've done that for nine years on the spin. I just need a break.
"I'll speak to the chairman, we'll look at things this week and maybe after a couple of days reflection I might change.
"But at the moment I think it's very, very difficult because my mind was made up but I wanted to be with these lads and I wanted to cement these back-to-back titles.
"Like I said sometimes you have these thoughts and after a few days reflection you miss it. But we'll see. At the minute I'm just going to enjoy this.
"But it's been a fantastic nine years in the Welsh League.
Morrison added: "Nobody knows what's around the corner but there's nothing around the corner at the moment.
"Let me assure you that nobody's knocking on my door offering any jobs. It's purely that we've come a hell of a long way and it's relentless."
"I don't think people fully understand what it's like to manage in the Welsh League and be in Europe.
"We'll go from here tonight and then in the next couple of days we're starting trying to plan friendlies for June/July and then your preparations.
"It's relentless and you've got to have an incredible appetite for that and I've always have had."