FOOTBALL: A ‘non-existent’ football team which was formed after it was mistakenly entered into the FAW’s Youth Cup has seen its competition run come to an end.
Gwent County League’s Ynysddu Welfare were drawn to play Britton Ferry in the Youth Cup – despite not actually having a youth team.
Rather than cancel the match, the club managed to assemble a team and amazingly won the tie last month.
However, The U19’s cup dream came to an end on Sunday, November 4 after they were beaten 2-0 in the second round by Llanelli Town.
Speaking before the game, Ben Murphy, secretary of Ynysddu Welfare, told BBC Wales: “I didn’t think we’d ever do it.
“As I said at the start, just to put a side out there was an achievement in itself, but the story of then going to win. I think it was a bit of a fairytale.”
The journey ends. Boys give it everything they had but the quality of the home side shone through in the end as they run out 2-0 winners. Incredibly proud of the boys, done everything they could . Good luck to @LlanelliTownAFC in next round
— Ynysddu Welfare FC (@ynyswelfare) November 4, 2018
After the original administrative error by the footballing authorities, the club put out an appeal on social media.
After being flooded with offers from players across the country, Ynysddu Welfare finally settled on 21 players from the local area for its first match.
The club’s tale caught the football world’s imagination with the team featured on Sky Sports.
The first match, played last month, ended with a 2-2 draw against Britton Ferry. Ynysddu went through to meet Llanelli after winning tense penalty shootout 7-6.
Dan Thomas, who scored the winning penalty in the shootout, told BBC Wales that he hoped the team would not end with its cup exit.
He said: “We want to make this team go on as long as possible.”