Wales’ Tom Lawrence has been praised as a special talent by his Derby County manager Phillip Cocu after he undermined Swansea City’s faltering promotion hopes. Lawrence was in the headlines for the wrong reasons back in October when he was convicted for drink-driving and his form dipped in the weeks that followed at a club that was then struggling. But his spectacular shooting and winning goal in Derby’s 3-2 victory at the Liberty Stadium reminded Ryan Giggs what the attacking midfielder can offer to his country at this summer’s Euro finals.

Rising Liverpool star Neco Williams believes the form that has put him on the radar of Ryan Giggs and Wales stems from the sky high standards he faces just to get a game at club level. The Wales Under 18 international has been part of the first-team training set up on and off for the last 18 months or so and being close-up and personal with fellow right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold has helped him develop his game. Williams, still only, 18 was man of the match in Tuesday night’s 1-0 FA Cup fourth-round replay win over League One Shrewsbury, achieved by a team with an average age of 19 years and 102 days.

Wales midfielder Joe Morrell is hoping to realise a personal ambition – and complete a remarkable football transformation – by being part of Ryan Giggs’ UEFA Euro 2020 finals campaign this summer. Since going on loan to Lincoln City from his parent club, Bristol City, last summer, so much has changed in a short space of time for the 23-year-old. Impressing in the Imps’ midfield in League One, Morrell was called into Giggs’ squad last August, making his debut in the home friendly against Belarus.

Gareth Bale has picked up another injury playing for Real Madrid that threatens to further disrupt his season in Euro finals year. The Wales star has an ankle problem which forced him to leave the field during his club’s victory over Unionistas de Salamanca, 3-1, in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday night. Bale scored the opening goal but was unable to continue beyond the 53rd minute and manager Zinedine Zidane said the new injury will need to be assessed.

Merthyr Town 2, Farnborough Town 0 Former Wales under-21 international Owain Jones believes Merthyr Town can launch a big push to qualify for the BetVictor Southern League play-offs. The Martyrs are 12th in Premier South, 13 points behind Taunton Town in fifth place and have games in hand on most of the teams above them. […]

Wales will put extensive security measures in place, amid rising tension in the Persian Gulf, when they play the United States in a March friendly. Contracts are about to be swapped between the Football Association of Wales and US Soccer for a March 30 friendly at the Cardiff City Stadium. It will be the first time that a major US national sports side will have visited the United Kingdom since Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed by an American air strike last week.

Wrexham FC are down in the Vanarama National League dumps, but they are far from out. The Dragons have a major recovery plan for 2020. Their 2-0 defeat at Maidenhead United was a body blow which kept them in the relegation zone, but most of their fellow strugglers also lost. Maidenhead were the only team […]

Penarth-born former Cardiff City and Wales player Alan Harrington has died at the age of 86. Harrington, who made more than 400 appearances during a one-club career (1951-1966), was  one of the Bluebirds’ greatest-ever players. He is survived by his wife Gloria and daughters Judith and Rachel. Welshmen Alan Harrington and Alf Sherwood had a […]

Christian Doidge aims to give Ryan Giggs a gentle elbow in the ribs on Friday night to remind the Wales manager not to forget him ahead of the Euro 2020 finals. Doidge will line-up for Hibernian at home to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership as the newly crowned Ladbrokes Player Of The Month in Scotland following an impressive few weeks. The Newport-born striker has struck seven goals in his last seven matches, a rate that has propelled him up to sixth place in the current scoring charts in his league and made him an increasingly talked about threat in Scottish club football.

Wales will kick-off their Euro 2020 preparations with a home friendly against Austria on Friday, 27 March next year. The FAW is yet to announce the venue for the game. It will be the first game for Ryan Giggs’s side as they begin the count-down to the Euro2020 games against Switzerland, Turkey and Italy next June.

Ryan Giggs wants Azerbaijan fans to adopt Wales as their back-up team and support them through the Euro 2020 finals. Wales will make a decision in the coming weeks over whether to base themselves in Baku for their tournament build-up, with the manager keen for locals to claim his side as their second country. Wales were placed in Group A in Saturday night’s draw in Bucharest, and they will play their first two matches in Azerbaijan – against Switzerland on June 13 and Turkey on June 17.

Tom King is worried he may have found his way onto the Madridistas’ hit list after standing next to Gareth Bale in Wales’ post-match celebrations after qualifying for the Euros this week. Bale’s team-mates huddled around the Real Madrid star after the game and draped a Welsh flag that carried the controversial slogan ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid.’ in front of him. That celebration created a storm back in the Spanish capital as tensions between the one-time world’s most expensive player and his club plummeted to an all-time low. Standing next to the four times Champions League winner was League Two goalkeeper, King.