Owain Fon Williams column: We're gutted but Wales will never forget Euro 2016
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During this summer’s European Championships, Caley Thistle and Wales goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams will be penning an exclusive column for The Inverness Courier. He looks back at Wales’ amazing journey and what lies in store for him now.
AS you would expect, we are all gutted to be going home.
It’s been incredible being here and it’s not going to be easy to go home. But no-one thought we would come this far.
We always believed in ourselves and thought we could go right to the final. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
Portugal made it really difficult for us. They were so compact between defence and midfield and we couldn’t get the ball into dangerous areas. They played really well, fair play to them.
You’d expect the winners of the France-Germany game to be the favourites to win it but Portugal showed how good they are. You could have three defenders on Ronaldo; if the ball is right, he’s going to get on the end of it. I think he leapt eight feet in the air to score! If someone is doing that, there’s not a lot you can do.
But it’s been an amazing ride and everyone is over the moon with how it’s gone – all the boys have given everything not just for the team, but for the nation.
There’s so many good memories and I can’t pick just one. We’ve been away for seven weeks and there’s been no fall-outs or arguments. There’s no egos and everyone has been in good spirits. We might not speak to each other that much when we’re away from Wales but when we’re here, we’re all together.
The Russia game was special because we needed to win – we did that and topped the group. We then put in an unbelievable performance against Belgium and I think everyone will be talking about Hal Robson-Kanu’s goal for years to come.
The fans have been absolutely fantastic. A lot of money has been spent to come and support Wales and that’s not gone unnoticed. Even at the end of the Portugal game, they were still singing and chanting.
We didn’t get the result we wanted but after the game where we had a moment with them that was quite special. It was a thank you from the players and staff, but also a thank you from them too.
We’re heading back to Cardiff today to the Principality Stadium for a welcome home party, where the Manic Street Preachers are playing. It’s a 34,000 sell-out and I’m sure there’ll be a couple of hundred-thousand on the streets. It wasn’t long ago that we couldn’t sell out Llanelli’s stadium, so it shows how far we’ve come.
I’m heading off to rest now because my body and mind needs to time to recover before the start of the new season. I’m always thinking ahead and after enjoying my first season in Inverness, with a new manager, new players and new ideas, I can’t wait to get going again.
