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    WALES NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM : YOUNG GUNS BLOG

    Wales Football Youth
    Young Guns Blog
    by John Jones

    page updated : Fri, 17 Jan 25 :07:50 - refresh for updates

    To read all last season blog posts scroll through posts on the young guns page

    A century ago, the FA Cup final was contested by Sheffield United and Cardiff City. In this season’s competition they were paired in a 3rd round tie and Cardiff managed to reverse the score line, also achieving their first victory at Bramall Lane since 1972. Cian Ashford (2004) was nominated as man of the match for his overall display and as scorer of the solitary goal that provided the result. Cian has also been a significant contributor in recent league matches and now will hopefully earn a regular place in the team over the second half of the season. Alongside Cian in the starting line-up were Rubin Colwill (2002) and Ronan Kpakio (2007) and both were judged to have contributed positively. Last season Rubin surpassed his century of appearances for the club and has been involved in most of their games this season. The fans are hopeful that he can be increasingly influential and help the team improve their league form in the coming months.  Ronan was withdrawn at halftime through injury. Making his debut early in the season, he has been increasingly involved with the team recently and is very much regarded as a future first team regular. Tom Davies (2003) provided a solid display as his replacement. The Cardiff academy was well represented in the game, with goalkeeper Matthew Turner (2002), defender Luey Giles (2006) and forward Isaac Jeffries (2005) amongst the substitutes. Midfielder Owen Hampson (2004) was introduced as a substitute for the final few minutes of the game by the opponents and added more first team experience to the two lengthy game appearances he made in the early season Carabao Cup ties. He will be hoping for some more chances during the second half of the season.

    After a frustrating wait of four months forward Pat Jones (2003) made his Exeter City debut when introduced off the bench for a League One match in late December. Signed by the club just prior to the end of the summer transfer window, he suffered an injury soon after joining them that required the lengthy rehabilitation period for his return to full fitness. Pat has made a couple more league substitute appearances since that time, as the club carefully manages his return to availability. He made another substitute appearance last weekend when introduced for the final fifteen minutes plus some considerable added time of the 3rd round FA Cup victory against Championship side Oxford United. A former Wrexham academy member, he moved to Huddersfield Town when they negotiated for his transfer in 2019. He quickly made a good impression at the Yorkshire club when playing in their development teams, sufficiently so for him to make his first team debut in a January 2021 3rd round FA Cup tie. This was immediately followed by a couple of Championship substitute appearances and then after a couple of occasions on the bench was unavailable through injury. Unfortunately, injury issues continued throughout his time at the club, otherwise he may well have accumulated more appearances than he totaled. Exeter thereby negotiated a permanent transfer to acquire his services. Although it started disappointingly, he will now hopefully be able to help the team in the next round as well as the remainder of the league campaign.

    The 3rd round of this season’s FA Cup will be fondly remembered by Burnley forward Tom Tweedy (2004) as it was the occasion of his first senior team involvement at the club. Named amongst the substitutes, he remained on the bench for the entire game. Nevertheless, it is still a significant moment in his career. Signed by the club from Penybont FC in January 2023, Tom has established himself as a regular member of their U-21 team over the past season and a half, signing a contract extension in the summer which runs until the end of next season. I think it can be assumed that he has made a favourable impression on the coaching staff for him to have been given the opportunity. His aim now will be to continue to try and convince coaches that he is worthy of future consideration. With the team progressing to the next round, he will be hopeful that there may be a selection for that game.

    It was quite an occasion for Bromley, in their first ever Football League season, to visit St. James’ Park, home ground of Newcastle United in their third round clash. Memorable for their players to perform in a stadium with over fifty thousand fans and witness the famous roar as they exhort their team to gain success. It was a noise that was temporarily subdued when midfielder Cameron Congreve (2004) gave the visitors the early lead in the game with quite a spectacular strike. On a season long loan at the club from Swansea City, Cameron has been a regular in the side throughout the season and has added to his experience in first team football. Having played well into a double figures number of times for Swansea over the previous two seasons, his aim will be to return to the club and perform at a level that secures him a regular place in the team next season. Additional Swansea City news is that midfielder Tom Woodward (2006) has been awarded a full professional contract and will be a member of next season’s U-21 squad. Tom was in outstanding goal scoring form for the U-18 team last season and is amongst the leading scorers again this season. He has also played a few times for the U-21 team and will be keen to gain as much experience as possible for the challenges that lie ahead.

    A positive note from the FA Cup ties was the name of defender Ed Turns (2002) as one of the substitutes for Brighton and Hove Albion’s team. It has been somewhat of a sporadic season for Ed, not helped by slight injury issues that have interrupted his availability. Although yet to make a first team appearance for Brighton, he had numerous bench occasions for Premier League matches two seasons ago. Since that time, he has been out on loan playing a good number of matches in League One and League Two and for the most part performing well. He remained at the club this season and other than playing in development team games, was on the bench for a Carabao Cup game. Hopefully, he will get more first team involvement for the remainder of the season. Another possibility is that he may get game time elsewhere, if according to transfer rumours, there are clubs possibly exploring his availability. Whether it would be on loan or on a permanent basis was not specified.

    [ photo embedded from FAW cymru ]

    Posted: Friday 17th January 2025
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