Crusaders promote Aled Davies from reserves to first team

North Wales Crusaders have promoted Aled Davies from the reserves to the first team.

The League 1 side’s ‘A’ team has only been running for a couple of months, but Davies becomes the first player to step up into the first team from the reserves.

Davies hopes to become a regular in the Crusaders first team now.

He said: “It’s an amazing opportunity for me to move up to the next level, especially to have been spotted when surrounded by so many good players in the ‘A’ team.

“This opportunity has only come thanks to the hard work done by all the Crusaders A and North Wales Origin volunteers and coaches as they have built a platform for local players like myself to be noticed.

“My goal now for this season is to continue developing as a player and hopefully earn a shot at pulling on the Crusaders jersey.”

Crusaders coach Anthony Murray sees a lot of potential in Davies.

He said: “Aled is a really good lad and has been training with us for a month or so now.

“He’s a good build, got some good skills and is improving every week so I’m happy to bring him into the first team and to bring a Welsh player through from our reserve side.

“He’s not the only one, there’s a few others that we’re having a look at and they’ll be training with us so that we can get a good look at them.

“Even though we have plenty of this season to go, we obviously also have an eye on next year and the future and hopefully they’ll be a few more faces to come into the squad over the coming months.”

Crusaders chief executive Andy Moulsdale is made up to see the club benefiting from their reserves side.

He added: “This is a credit to all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes creating links and pathways for these lads to be given an opportunity.

“There will be more to follow on from this, and four to five lads will be training with the first team over the course of the season and there’s others that are knocking on the door for contracts.

“It’s important that we as club do this in the right way, we are devolving the players at the right pace and will drip feed them into the system to aid their development.

“This should give everyone involved with North Wales Crusaders ‘A’ team a huge boost, especially the community team and our loyal supporters.”