Saturday 4th July 2026 ko 14:00

Pre-Season Friendly

RHOSTYLLEN 4 (31 37 41 45)

CORWEN 0

Att 26

Free Entry

The calendar may have flipped over into July but there didn’t seem to be of much of interest. I knew I didn’t want to travel too far from our home in Oxford, and I couldn’t raise any enthusiasm for games switched to 3G cages. But then I spotted that Rhostyllen were at home. I checked the village is in the outskirts of Wrexham- well the staying local didn’t last long!

Rhostyllen is a village begat of coal mining with the Bersham Colliery being the last working coal mine in the Denbighshire coalfield. It closed in December 1986 and these days you’d work hard to find more then the odd reference to coal. One reference though is the club badge.

Vicarage Hill is a little gem, everything you could possibly want is here, with the stand reminiscent of those at Bury Town and Esh Winning giving the place both a useful facility and a real focal point. Rhostyllen are probably best known for their stint in the Wrexham Area League, but post Welsh leagues restruction did find themselves in the Ardal North West from 2021 to 2023. They’ve played in the North East Wales Premier Division ever since.

The issue with pre-season friendlies is that you never quite know what you are watching and this was the case here. On paper Corwen should have been the stronger side- they do play in the Ardal North West. However it became quickly obvious they’d sent a young looking side, and the hosts brushed them aside without metaphorically breaking sweat. I suppose you can only beat what’s put in front of you!