Derby matches between Bangor 1876 and Menai Bridge Tigers are always special occasions, and this season they may now occupy a unique place in UK football. It appears that the 'El Straitico' may now be the game in UK football which brings together the two teams with the closest together grounds.

With only 0.2 miles separating Tannadice and Dens Park, the derby match between Dundee United and Dundee is often heralded as being the match which brings together the two UK teams who are closest together. These two Scottish sides meet on Sunday, but the Dundee derby looks like it may have been knocked off its perch as the most 'local' of local derbies in UK football.

Jonathan Ervine, who was born in Dundee and has been living in North Wales since 2007, is a board member at the fan-owned team Bangor 1876 who play in the fourth tier of Welsh football. Three days after the upcoming Dundee derby at Tannadice, he will be watching Bangor 1876 take on Menai Bridge Tigers at Treborth.

Although Bangor and Menai Bridge are separated by the Menai Strait between Gwynedd and the island of Anglesey, Menai Bridge Tigers now play in Bangor. In fact, their home pitch is approximately 40 yards our own. In other words, our teams’ match in the North Wales Coast West Premier League on Wednesday will bring together a pair of sides whose grounds are ten times closer together than those of Dundee United and Dundee.

Growing up in Newport-on-Tay, our press secretary could see both the Dundee grounds from his parents’ house and always thought they were pretty close together. Tannadice was where he attended his first ever football match in May 1989, an end of season fixture between Dundee United and Hamilton. He now considers the 0.2 miles that separate the stadiums in the city of his birth to be “quite a long way really”.

Although there have been city derbies in Italy that have brought together teams who play in the same stadium - in Milan, Turin, Genoa and Rome - he feels that Serie A games at times lack the goals and excitement that have been a feature of recent matches between Bangor 1876 and Menai Bridge Tigers:

“Serie A football has a bit of a reputation for being a bit sterile and defensive. In the last two games between Bangor 1876 and Menai Bridge Tigers, there have been a total of 16 goals. Fans who come along to watch our game at Treborth on Wednesday evening are assured plenty of excitement.”

Is thought that at Bangor 1876 we have at least two other Scottish fans. One of them is Mark Faure, who grew up in Glasgow. We'd like to wish him well as he recovers from a recent knee operation. Unconfirmed reports suggest we may have some Scottish-based fans in North East Fife, who may or may not be related to our press secretary.

The first ever game between Bangor 1876 and Menai Bridge Tigers took place in the Bob Owen Memorial Shield in early 2020 on a date which is important to people in both Scotland and Wales. It took place on 25 January of that year, which coincides with both Burns Night and St. Dwynwen’s Day. The first of these celebrates Scotland's national poet and the second is considered to be a Welsh equivalent of St. Valentine’s Day. We're sure that football fans here in North Wales would certainly love to see more goals in next week's most local of local derbies on Wednesday (22 September, 7.30pm).