Another ex-Conference player starts for Wales

First it was Paul Parry, now Sam Ricketts has seen a very quick rise from Conference football to International level.



Ricketts, who was playing for Telford last season before moving to Swansea, made his debut for Wales last night in their two -nil win over Hungary.



"I thought it went well on the whole," he admitted to the Shropshire Star



"I knew that they wanted me to play on the left but I didn't know how long I was going to play so it was an added bonus to get the full 90 minutes.



"I didn't imagine anything like this happening to me at this time last year when I was at Telford.



"It's been an exciting year for me really and it's come about so quickly."



Ricketts follows Hereford's Paul Parry who took just over a month to move from Conference football to playing for Wales after moving to Cardiff City. Gavin Williams, also formerly with Hereford and now with West Ham, was also picked to play but missed out because of injury.



The fact that these three players all either started with or spent their youth at local Conference clubs shows that they can progress to greater rewards given time.

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