Cardiff City fans have reacted with anger and disappointment over the club’s decision to release Sol Bamba. The defender – who announced last month that he is cancer free following his battle with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma – has been moved on along with Joe Bennett, Junior Hoilett and Euro 2020-bound Wales midfielder Jonny Williams at the end of their contracts. Bamba, Bennett and Hoilett joined the Bluebirds in 2016 and made a combined total of 478 appearances.

The Football Association of Wales have been compared to the owners of the failed European Super League clubs by angry women’s teams locked out of the new elite structure for the domestic game. Cascade YV Ladies are one of a number of outraged established clubs who have found their place in the new order has been determined by an FAW committee, rather than results on the field. Under new plans, Caerphilly’s Cascade, Abergavenny, and Briton Ferry Llansawel have all been dumped from the proposed elite top tier and replaced by new teams, one of which is yet to be created.

Michael Flynn has hinted he could be on the move from Newport County following their heart-breaking Wembley play-off defeat to Morecambe. The Newport boss has admitted to unhappiness after learning the club intend to appoint a sporting director to work either over or alongside him. Flynn suggested he could have reached the end of the road after County’s crushing 1-0 extra-time loss that denied them a place in League One.

Former Sky Sports reporter Bryn Law is about to reveal the dark arts and the gentle persuasions of the football reporter. The man who prowled the touchlines during Wales’ run towards Euro 2016 will be disclosing tales of tetchiness in the technical area in an online session open to budding broadcasters. Law will be laying it down with other reporters on a panel discussion on Thursday, entitled “The Evolution of the Football Reporter” hosted by the Royal Television Society Cymru and Expo’r Wal Goch.

Newport County’s golden oldies Kevin Ellison and Nicky Maynard plan to prove themselves the patron saints of the written off and rejected when they grace Wembley today. The senior strike partnership have a combined age of 76, but Morecambe would be wise to respect their elders when they face the pair in the League Two play-off final. Ellison – the bald Scouser who was dumped by Morecambe boss Derek Adams – became a hero to every middle-aged bloke in the land when the 42-year-old scored a brilliant goal in the second leg of County’s semi-final against Forest Green Rovers.

Rubin Colwill – Cardiff City’s 19-year-old midfielder – has been included in Wales’ Euro 2020 squad after just 191 minutes of senior football. Colwill is the surprise name in a 26-man squad skippered by Gareth Bale and containing the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Daniel James, Ethan Ampadu and Joe Rodon. There are eight survivors from the group which reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals in France – Bale, Ramsey, Ben Davies, Chris Gunter, Danny Ward, Joe Allen, Jonny Williams and Wayne Hennessey.

Play-off finals, by their very nature, seldom amount to more than unspectacular and cautious affairs fraught by tension and fear of failure – but the curtain closer to the Welsh 2020/21 football season, much like the season itself, will be long remembered for being anything but ‘normal’. There was little indication of the events that […]

Steve Cooper insists there will be no sulking at Swansea City over the lost ticket to the Premier League. The Swans’ head coach has claimed he will soon get down to work on implementing plans for next season despite uncertainty over his own future following the play-off final defeat to Brentford at Wembley. Cooper’s side have been left to reflect on the certainty of starting the next campaign on zero points in the Championship – alongside the likes of Hull City and Peterborough – with 46 matches to play, instead of visiting venues such as Old Trafford or Anfield.

As the song says, we all need somebody to lean on. Newport County manager Michael Flynn had Lennie Lawrence whose wisdom could prove the foundation for play-off success at Wembley on Monday against Morecambe. Rob Cole spoke to him. Lennie Lawrence used to sit just behind Michael Flynn in the Newport County dug out and offer pearls of wisdom as and when required. But on Bank Holiday Monday, he will be sitting in the posh seats at Wembley with the club’s directors, casting an affectionate eye over the work of a manager he has grown to admire.

Freddie Woodman will be Swansea City’s last line of defence at Wembley today when they face Brentford in the Championship play-off final. The club’s immediate future – and £170m – could literally rest in his hands. But that’s the kind of pressure he thrives on, plus another type, as he tells Graham Thomas. Freddie Woodman has been catching things all season – on the football field or with a fishing rod in hand – but today he hopes to land the biggest prize of his life. If his performances in either activity this year are anything to go by, then calmness under stress should not be an issue.

Caernarfon Town manager Huw Griffiths has called for his side to be at their very best ahead of tomorrow’s European play-off against Newtown (12:00). Griffiths’ side defeated Barry Town last weekend to give themselves home advantage in the final which has been billed as the biggest game in the club’s history. Newtown were underdogs in […]

Steve Cooper believes being an England World Cup winner will help Swansea City seal a return to the Premier League. Swansea meet Brentford in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final at Wembley on Saturday, three seasons after their seven-year stay in the top flight ended. Cooper says his ethos is all about a collective approach and no hierarchical structure with “everyone having a voice”.

Jamal Lowe hopes to complete the journey from PE teacher to Premier League player in the shadows of the Wembley arch he knows so well. Harrow-born Lowe grew up 15 minutes away from England’s national stadium with dreams of making the big time dominating as he set out on his football journey. Those thoughts were a distant dream as Lowe trawled around the non-league circuit, from Hayes to Hampton & Richmond and many points in between.

While Swansea City make plans for Wembley and a shot at promotion to the Premier League, things are a bit more low key at present for Cardiff Ciity. That’s not to say they are inactive, but Jack Price reckons home-grown talent, and its suitability for the Championship, is high on their agenda. Cardiff City have shown a willingness to get their transfer business done early this summer but it could well be players within their own back yard they eventually spend more time weighing up. Striker James Collins has already arrived from Luton Town and while cynics will argue his recruitment is a re-stock job before they sell Kieffer Moore, few would argue it’s cheaper to buy before sellers smell desperation.

Scarlets scrum-half Dane Blacker has been tipped to make his Wales debut this summer. The Pontypridd product is the Scarlets’ top try scorer this season and has made a major impression in Llanelli despite competing with current internationals Gareth Davies and Kieran Hardy for a place in the side. Interim Scarlets head coach Dai Flanagan believes Blacker a player Wayne Pivac should seriously consider for this summer’s Tests against Argentina (twice) and Canada at the Principality Stadium.

Neil Taylor believes Wales can galvanise the nation at Euro 2020 just like the team he played in five years ago – but insists there should be few expectations. Taylor was part of the Wales side which reached the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and returned from France as heroes with thousands of fans lining the streets of Cardiff to greet them. It was the first time Wales had qualified for a major tournament since the 1958 World Cup, but five years one – including a 12-month delay – Robert Page’s team are back at the European Championship finals again next month and line up in a group also featuring Italy, Switzerland and Turkey.

Kevin Ellison looks more like Ming the Merciless than Roy of the Rovers, but appearances can be deceptive. Not even the old Roy himself could have written a script like the one currently being played out by the Newport County striker. Ellison compared himself to the dark character of the Harry Potter films, Lord Voldemort, when he signed for the club.

Aaron Ramsey will be assessed by Wales medical staff in Portugal as fears grow over his fitness for Euro 2020. The Juventus midfielder did not play for the Italian club in their final match of the season against Bologna on Sunday because of an ongoing thigh muscle injury. Ramsey was included in a 28-man training group announced on Monday by caretaker manager Robert Page that was notable for the absence of Hal Robson-Kanu.

Newtown manager Chris Hughes is bracing himself for a battle of the underdogs in next weekend’s all-or-nothing Cymru Premier European Play-Off final against Caernarfon Town. The Robins booked their place in next Saturday’s final at The Oval in dramatic fashion when a late winning goal from Jamie Breese helped them overcome the Play-Off’s highest-seeded team […]

Michael Flynn was proud of his rain-lashed Newport County heroes and claimed their Wembley shot at promotion is just reward for a year of playing by the rules and keeping their risk-taking to events on the field. Goals from substitutes Kevin Ellison, Joss Labadie and Nicky Maynard might not have been enough to win a thrilling League Two play-off semi-final second leg – they lost 4-3 in a dramatic clash at Forest Green Rovers – but they were sufficient to take the Exiles through to the final against Morecambe, with an epic 5-4 aggregate victory. Flynn said: “I am very proud. It has been a very tough year both on and off the pitch.