Ruthin Town Development 1
Wrexham Youth 13
Welsh Youth Cup (1st Round)

Match Report

The Young Reds made the most of their first competitive outing since March 2020 as they romped to a 13-1 win at Ruthin in the first round of the Welsh Youth Cup. Striker Dan Jones celebrated his Welsh U18 international call-up with a four-goal haul whilst substitute Connor Ross grabbed himself a 14-minute hat-trick.

Dan Nolan’s charges began brightly and opened the score inside three minutes as Jones sent a low shot past Ruthin keeper Alfie McKay and into the far corner of the net. The lead was nearly doubled on 11 minutes, but Owen Cushion saw a superb left foot shot come back off the post.

On a gloriously sunny day at the Memorial Playing Fields, the home fans were given something to cheer five minutes later when Ifan Jones made the most of hesitancy in the Wrexham defence to head home from close range. This setback unnerved the visitors, but they soon resumed control and Jones came within inches of netting a carbon copy of his opening goal before combining well with Cushion only for the latter’s shot to be superbly saved by McKay.

Then on 32 minutes Wrexham regained the lead as Jones capitalised on a fine mazy run from Cushion to net with a brilliant shot. Two minutes later Oli Hitchcox added a third before Jones completed his own hat-trick after 38 minutes with another sublime finish. The result was put beyond when Cushion made it 5-1 shortly before the interval, netting with a low shot after a cross from Joe Fountain.

Ruthin coach Jamie Hulse made a couple of changes at the interval, but the greater speed of the Reds’ youngsters continually stretched the home defence and the goals continued to flow after the break. A handball offence soon gave Kai Evans the opportunity to net from the penalty spot before Jones grabbed his fourth with another impressive strike, cutting in from the left to send a right foot shot into the top corner.

With Fountain having switched flanks to the left following the introduction of Harry Bell for Dan Davies just after the hour, the rampaging wing-back made it 8-1 with a long range shot that dipped viciously over the over-worked Ruthin custodian. Fountain then set up Tom Jenkins for goal number nine midway through the second stanza.

That was the signal for the introduction of Ross and Jack Towse and within three minutes Ross had scored his first despite looking in an offside position. Towse was first to react when his cross was headed back across goal by Rowan Davies to make it 11-1 before Ross added two more goals in the closing minutes as Ruthin longed for the final whistle.