Early lapses cost Wales o65...again!

The Wales Veterans' Football Association were proud to host an o65s international match between Wales and England at the FAW’s Dragon Park in Newport, on Saturday 6th June 2026...but a poor first fifteen minutes cost them dearly...writes Wales Manager, Rob Seago....

At a wet and windy Dragon Park, but on the beautifully prepared FAW grass pitch, England got off to a dream start...Wales were caught napping and the visitors quickly moved the ball down the left wing, a sharp cross found England’s Flynn unmarked and his misplaced shot was redirected into the net by Turner with just 36 seconds on the clock! Wales were disjointed and after 13 mins found themselves two down when an England free kick on Wales’ right caused confusion in the Wales defence and through a lack of communication, Gibbs’s attempted header rebounded into the path of the grateful Flynn who tapped-in for his, and England’s second. This left Wales with a mountain to climb but they slowly found their feet and started to put some tidy moves together with good link up play between Davies, Bobbett and Huish. On the half hour they earned a free kick on England’s left and Staddon curled a delightful left foot strike into the top corner. Wales were back in the game and started to make some in-roads through the England midfield as the passionate Welsh captain, Huish, urged his team on by example, with some sterling challenges and deft passing and his team went into the interval knowing that with the right attitude they could get something out of this game.

Manager Seago, made five changes at half-time, including replacing centre-backs James and Gibb, who will be representing Wales o70s in next week’s European Championships, with Davies and Moglia, who looked more than a capable alternative. Wales came out in the second half in a different mood and made advances down England’s left with some fine interplay between replacements, Brown and Lambert. Equally Evans was also making inroads down the right flank, however, the forays petered out with no real threat on England’s goal, apart from a few long-range efforts that didn’t test their keeper. With the hosts dominating possession, the big and athletic England outfit were reduced to breakaways, and were always a threat with the high-ball, particularly from the set-piece and Wales keeper Jones, coming to his team’s rescue on a number of occasions. Wales pressed on with their neat, one-touch football, and it was from one of these clever plays that Lambert put over a fine cross to the unmarked Marshall, but his ensuing volley was well wide of the target, and the visitors held on for a 2-1 win. England captain, Read, accepted the Rod Powell Trophy from the FAW’s Phil Sweet, who witnessed another hard-fought encounter and another great advert for veteran’s football.

Congratulations to the following players who were selected by Wales manager, Rob Seago...
John Jones (GK) – Barry Town
Alun Huish (Capt) – Barry Town
Phil Gibb – Barry Town
Pat Lambert – Merthyr Tydfil
Les Davies – Penybont
Kevin James - Newport
Allan Harris – Penybont
Barry Marshall – Barry Town
Paul Staddon – Barry Town
Jason Morgan – Penybont
Nick Moglia – Penybont
Stu Evans – Barry Town
Mike Bobbett – Barry Town
Huw Davies – Barry Town
Ian Thompson – Pontyclun
Kevin Brown – Barry Town