Fond farewell for Fonners
Wednesday, 2nd Mar 2022“He got a standing ovation, a round of applause, and you could see the emotion in Fonners.
With the departure from the club this week of Owain Fôn Williams, Dunfermline Athletic has lost a great leader both on and off the park. That was the indisputable view of manager John Hughes who praised the 34 year old Welsh goalkeeper.
“He had fantastic leadership qualities and was a great ambassador in the way he conducted himself, we can only wish him all the best.”
Owain who made 62 first team appearances for Dunfermline including 23 this season, had his contract terminated for personal reasons. When his intentions to leave were revealed to the players John Hughes said it had been a very emotional occasion:-
“Obviously he`d made his mind up, it`s for personal reasons, and when we announced it to the players on Monday, there was a lump in my throat. It was very, very emotional.
“He got a standing ovation, a round of applause, and you could see the emotion in Fonners. We totally understand it, there`s no point in going into it, but we can only wish him all the best. He knows where we are.”
Although it was Stevie Crawford who brought Owain to Dunfermline in January 2020, it was John Hughes who brought him north in July 2015. The current gaffer added:-
“I can`t speak highly enough of Fonners. It was me that brought him to Scotland, when I was up at Inverness, and I`d been talking to him over the last couple of weeks.
“I can`t speak highly enough of what he`s done for this club. He`s been here for two years, we were working it out there, and he was always up for it, always up for the challenge. No matter what he does, and where he goes, we wish him all the best.”
Owain passed the 500 mark for senior appearances while at Dunfermline and for his strong bond with the fans and his fund raising efforts raising cash for the club with his artwork during lockdown, he will be fondly remembered.
“So he should be” claimed Hughes, “he’s been excellent. With personal reasons, you have to sit back and acknowledge that, and he`ll be a miss. He was a senior player in the dressing room, he could keep that dressing room in hand, he was the captain when it wasn`t Graham Dorrans, and as I said on Monday, when we let the players know it was his last day, it was emotional.
“There was a wee lump in my throat but I could see a tear in Fonners` eye when he was saying his goodbyes to the players.
It`s part and parcel of football and we just need to move on.”
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