The cream always rises to the top, as the old adage goes, could not ring truer than after the conclusion of the JD Welsh Cup quarter-finals over the weekend.
Connah’s Quay, The New Saints, Cardiff Met and Barry Town United enter tonight’s semi-final draw, as the four best teams in the competition remain.
The top-three Welsh Premier League clubs have been a class above everyone else this season, yet all three had very different routes into the last four.
Joining the big-three are Cardiff Met, who have already won silverware in the form of the Nathaniel MG Cup this season, and they complete what will be a very competitive semi-final line-up.
And although the Archers are not strictly the fourth-best team on league record, the difference between themselves, Bala Town, Newtown and Caernarfon Town has been wafer thin this season.
The weekend’s Cup action began on Friday night as Connah’s Quay ground out a 2-1 win at Caernarfon Town. The tie was always going to be a close-fought game on paper and so it proved with Michael Wilde, a Welsh Cup veteran, putting the Nomads through after Rob Hughes’ wonderful strike was cancelled out.
24' ⚽️ GÔL/GOAL!!!
🔝🗑️ ROB HUGHES
Caernarfon 0-1 @the_nomads 🔴 pic.twitter.com/cjdG3u3JXP
— Sgorio ⚽️ (@sgorio) March 1, 2019
It was an altogether different affair for The New Saints, who made light work of Llandudno handing out an 8-1 thrashing.
Things got even worse for Llandudno after they went in 3-0 down at the break against ruthless Saints with Greg Draper claiming a five-goal haul.
Bala Town and Cardiff Met stifled each other until Elliot Evans secured the Archers an extra-time victory.
If the quarter-finals had been lacking a tie which was both competitive and entertainment, the concluding game between Barry Town and Cambrian & Clydach didn’t fail to deliver, proving a smart call from Sgorio, who chose this tie to be main televised game over the others.
In truth, Barry Town should’ve been out of sight after a rampant opening 20-minute period in which Cambrian couldn’t get to grips with the game.
A well worked equaliser from Cambrian was followed up by Sam Jones’ scoring against his former club, with a composed finish, worthy of any standard of football.
EGWYL | HALF TIME
Am hanner cyntaf yma ar Barc Jenner 😱
Sam Jones yn rhoi’r ymwelwyr ar y blaen cyn yr egwyl.
Y Barri 1-2 @CambrianBgc #CwpanCymruJD 🏆
— Sgorio ⚽️ (@sgorio) March 2, 2019
The game had a real ‘cup-tie’ feeling to it going into the second-half, but Kayne McLaggon who’d swapped Long Island for Barry Island – landing back from a holiday in New York earlier that day – went on to claim a hat-trick to secure their passage through.
The heavyweights continue to dominate this year’s Welsh Cup and the semi-final draw is guaranteed to give us attractive ties.
Welsh Cup quarter-final results:
Caernarfon Town 1-2 Connah’s Quay, Bala Town 0-1 Cardiff Met (a.e.t.) Llandudno 1-8 The New Saints, Barry Town 3-2 Cambrian & Clydach
Semi-final draw to me made tonight live on S4C’s ‘Heno’ from 7pm.