One of the more eye-catching sights in Welsh football at present is Kyle Hudlin on the hoof. It’s not just that Newport County’s striker is the tallest outfield player in UK professional football at 6ft 9in.

Rhian Wilkinson has admitted Wales have “work to do” if they are to keep alive their dream of making Euro 2025 after a shock 2-1 defeat in Slovakia. Wales’ hopes of reaching their first women’s major tournament finals are on a knife-edge following a massively disappointing performance in a 2-1 play-off first-leg defeat in Poprad.

Craig Harrison is dreaming The New Saints making the knockout stages of a European tournament after they became the first Welsh Premier side to gather points at the group stage of a major European competition. TNS beat Astana from Kazakhstan, 2-0 at The New Meadow, Shrewsbury Town’s ground, to write themselves into the history books.

With 21 goals in their last two games The New Saints will go into their historic first home game against FC Astana in the Group stages of the UEFA Conference League on Thursday full of attacking intent. But it was a similar situation before they faced Serie A giants Fiorentina in their first game at the start of the month, when they headed to Italy on the back of a 6-1 win at Newtown.

Omer Riza has turned the spotlight on Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan by calling for clarity over the managerial position at the club. His bold move comes after the interim boss further strengthened his hand by gaining another convincing victory for a team he has picked off the floor.

Newport County manager Nelson Jardim praised his team’s character as a 2-0 away win at Gillingham moved his team up to 13th spot in League Two. First-half goals from Matt Baker and Kyle Hudlin secured Newport a much-needed victory at out-of-sorts Gillingham.

Luke Williams has admitted to growing frustration over Swansea City’s lack of fire power. Although they gained a useful point in a draw at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, it was a 0-0 stalemate – meaning the Swans have not scored in more than seven hours of football and their winless run now

Five of the dozen JD Cymru Premier clubs were bundled out of the JD Welsh Cup on a bumper weekend of giant-killing acts in the first play-off round. Eliot Evans scored the only goal that took Cardiff Met through with a 1-0 win over Penybont at the home of current Cymru Premier leaders.

Alex Robertson believes Omer Riza’s five-goal job application deserves the thumbs up from Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan. Riza is four games into his interim stint in charge of the Bluebirds and has delivered seven points and eight goals to lift the club from bottom to 22nd in the Championship.

Luke Williams reckons he has identified Swansea City’s problem – his players are too afraid to score goals. The Swans head coach came to that conclusion after watching his team fail to win for the fourth successive match as they lost 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers. As in their previous three matches during their winless streak, his team created chances but failed to take any of them.

Cardiff City interim manager Omer Riza remained coy on his prospects for the permanent job at the club after his side comfortably beat 10-man Plymouth 5-0 in the Welsh capital. Cardiff’s victory was their first win by five goals in the league in seven-and-a-half years, since their victory against Rotherham in February 2017. “I’m just trying to do the best job I can,” said Riza.

The highest profile manager in the Championship goes head-to-head against the league’s biggest nobody in Cardiff on Saturday. Omer Riza – Cardiff City’s interim boss, who might struggle to be identified by any base other than Bluebirds fans – is up against Plymouth Argyle.

Wales manager Rhian Wilkinson is confident Chelsea midfielder Sophie Ingle will be fit for next summer’s European Championship should they qualify. Former Wales captain Ingle underwent surgery last month after sustaining anterior cruciate ligament damage during a pre-season friendly, an injury Wilkinson described as “horrible”.

Joe Allen admits he has unfinished business at the World Cup, although he admits that’s a long way down the road. The Swansea City star has made a “whirlwind” return to international football, but insists Wales have unfinished business in the tournament after flopping in Qatar.

Craig Bellamy may have made Welsh footballing history but as an international manager he insisted: “I’m such a rookie.” The confessional tone came as the Wales manager tried to play down the significance of four matches without defeat, a sequence no other Wales manager has managed at the start of their tenure. Bellamy remains unbeaten after a second victory in his Nations League campaign – a 1-0 victory over Montenegro at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Wales manager Craig Bellamy accepts everyone loves romance in football, but thinks asking Joe Allen to solve his midfield conundrum against Montenegro would be a “gamble”. Swansea City veteran Allen, capped 74 times for his country and among Wales’ best-ever midfielders, reversed the decision he made in February 2023 to retire from international football earlier this month.

Matty Jones has promised an enquiry after Wales’ dreams of an historic night at Rodney Parade and a place in the Under-21 European Championship finals were crushed by the Czech Republic. The Welsh side suffered a 2-1 defeat in Newport, compounded by a disastrous day that saw manager Jones forced to exclude six players due to an administrative error.

Craig Bellamy remained upbeat after Wales surrendered a two-goal interval lead to draw their Nations League tie in Iceland. Brennan Johnson and Harry Wilson rewarded some incisive first-half approach play to put Wales in command on a freezing night in Reykjavik.

Wales manager Craig Bellamy insists his team can build further on his first camp in charge last month when two positive performances created plenty of excitement among supporters to carry with them into Friday night’s match in Iceland. Euro 2024 quarter-finalists Turkey were somewhat fortunate to leave Cardiff with a goalless draw before Montenegro were beaten 2-1 in Niksic in Bellamy’s opening two matches in charge in the Nations League.

If Wales need inspiration as they head towards World Cup qualifiers later this season, then the man to supply it could be Rhys Norrington-Davies. The Sheffield United defender has shown bucketfuls of resilience to get to the point where he may now finally return for his country this weekend.