Genero Adran Trophy seeding system is a total farce

Yet again today, certainly as far as Tier 2 North Wales teams are concerned, the FAW’s pathetic seeding system for the Genero Adran Trophy has been shown up for what it is – an utter farce.

Llandudno were hammered 9-0 at Wrexham, while CPDM Y Felinheli and Flint Town United were well beaten 7-0 by Aberystwyth Town and Cardiff City respectively.

All three North Wales teams were drawn away from home on a Sunday, the long journeys only adding to the mountainous task of competing against sides from a much higher level.

All due respect to Llandudno, Felinheli and Flint, who are very good Tier 2 sides, but some way below Tier 1 standard.

However, the FAW saw fit to ensure once more this season that no top flight clubs can draw one another in the last 16, thus maximising the chance of an elite quarter-final line-up.

And it worked. All eight Adran Premier sides progressed, all the rest are out.

True, one or two Tier 2 teams pushed their higher standard opponents all the way and hats off to them, but in the end no underdog actually won.

Why does the competition run like this?

Why not give women’s cup football a bit of romance and open the doors for a few ‘minnows’ to progress via an open draw instead of shooing-in the usual suspects. It’s boring, predictable and wrong.

After all, it’s not even the Welsh Cup – it’s a competition secondary in stature, sort of like the Carabao Cup in relation to the Premier League and FA Cup in the men’s game.

Why should it favour the elite?

Personally, as a North Wales football writer and fan, I have no issue at all with Wrexham going through.

After all, they are our best and only hope of winning the competition.

However, making a still very new and developing team like Flint travel to face the Adran Premier champions seems very unfair.

Felinheli’s task at Aberystwyth might not have been quite as difficult, but taking on an experienced Tier 1 outfit in their own backyard still made our hopefuls massive second favourites.

True, Connah’s Quay Nomads won at Barry a couple of seasons back, as did Llandudno away to Swansea City, but such occurrences are very much the exception rather than anything near the norm. And the gap appears to be widening.

The FAW once said this Adran Trophy draw system gives less accomplished sides hope of a giant-killing and offers an opportunity to play a ‘glamour’ tie.

Absolute balderdash! What good will a 7-0, 8-0 or 9-0 defeat do to the confidence?

All it does is give certain South Wales clubs an almost free pass to the next round and then a chance to look down smugly on a team from the north with much less resources and opportunities than southern-based setups enjoy.

We can do without this free ego massage for the elite from the FAW. Time to drop the seeding system.

REPORTS

Wrexham 9 Llandudno 0

Before Wrexham flourished from the Hollywood effect and joined Tier 1, they used to be involved in some great second-tier battles with Llandudno.
In fact, as recently as 2023-24, the Red Dragons only just scraped past Tudno 1-0 in a Welsh Cup tie at The Rock, Katie Sharp grabbing an added-time decider.
However, things have changed since then.
Wrexham are much stronger now and at this current time, with the additions made by new coach Jenny Sugarman in the summer, have their mightiest-ever squad.
Llandudno, meanwhile, are a team partly in rebuild, in with a chance of the Tier 2 title this season, but far from assured of it.
Today, the gap between the teams was painfully obvious. The superior fitness and skills of Sugarman’s Adran Premier high-flyers were a different class.
Mariam Mahmood, perhaps the best of the new faces, scored a hat-trick, red-hot and in-form striker Katie Barker netted twice, as did substitute Rosie Hughes, who doesn’t hold down a regular first team place any more but was still good enough to come on and notch a quick double against her former club.
Carra Jones and a Faye Knox cracker rounded off the rout.

Cardiff City 7 Flint Town United 0

Flint actually did really well considering they were minus a few key players for their trip to the capital.
Midfielder Becca Eagles was suspended, winger Ruby Hastings and star defender Taylia Chaloner were away, Grace Bamber injured.
The Silkwomen therefore, had to field a less experienced line-up than they would have liked and adapt players to unfamiliar positions.
Trailing 5-0 at half time, the Adran North visitors conceded just twice in the second period to the Adran Premier champions and Welsh Cup holders,
Rosie Hughes went close with a free kick and Beth Roberts had a few efforts at goal.
Whichever side they would have had out, they would have likely lost emphatically given the hurdle they faced, but all things considered, Flint performed with real credit.
They had senior defender Llinos Hughes carrying an injury and needing to be replaced in the first half, while the Essity girls also finished the match with 10 players having used all their substitutes and left-winger Daisy Hughes having to come off late on with a knock.

Aberystwyth Town 7 CPDM Y Felinheli 0

This one went to form with Aberystwyth scoring four goals in the first half and three in the second.
Depleted Felinheli travelled with just 13 players and important regulars missing. While giving it their best shot, the assignment ahead of them proved just a bit too difficult.