SIX of the best ensured that Corwen made comfortable progress in a national competition.

Their bid to better last season’s feat in reaching the last-eight of the Welsh Trophy began with a home tie against newly-formed North East Wales League (East) side Rhosllanerchrugog.

The home side’s first chance in the tie came after Tommy Mutton was brought down on the edge of the box.

Dead-ball expert Scott Evans took the resulting free kick, which he was able to curl over the wall, but keeper Adam Reid tipped it away to safety.

Corwen’s next chance came when Joe Williams, who was making his home debut, sent a shot against the post.

The rebound fell to Ioz Jones, whose shot forced a good save from Reid.

Jones was at it again when he ran past a defender with the ball, but he could only force a good save from the keeper, who came running off his line.

The rebound went to Tommy Mutton, who mishit his shot.

The tie was held up briefly when referee Stephen Wilday spotted some dog mess on the pitch.

This meant that press officer and club photographer Gavin Billington got a much closer view of the action than normal, as he ran on to the field with a brush and spade to clean it up!

Shortly after the tie restarted, a ball was played across the field to Tommy Mutton, who held it up before playing in Tom Watkin-Jones, whose close range shot was saved.

As Corwen continued to dominate, Sion Dolben Hughes played the ball back into the danger area, where Mutton’s mishit his shot failed to trouble Reid.

Corwen were awarded another free kick in a promising position soon after.

Scott Evans’ set piece found Paul Jones and his header went narrowly wide of the goal.

The home side’s domination finally paid off in the 41st minuite.

After going beyond two defenders, Joe Williams sent a low shot past the oncoming Reid and into the back of the net.

There was double delight for Corwen in the second minute of first half stoppage time.

A well-worked training ground move saw Scott Evans send the ball to the 18-yard line and Ryan Billington was waiting to brilliantly volley it home to make it 2-0.

There was a similar pattern in the second half and soon after the restart, Joe Williams got past a defender and crossed to Tom Watkin-Jones.

While his shot had the keeper beaten, it went into the side netting. Williams was in the thick of the action again two minutes later, with a shot over the oncoming Reid, but the ball clipped the crossbar.

With 57 minutes on the clock, Tom Watkin-Jones was brought down in the penalty area and this resulted in Corwen being awarded a penalty kick.

Joe Williams stepped up to take the spot kick and he made no mistake as he found the bottom corner of the net from 12 yards out.

Corwen were four goals to the good with 20 minutes left to play.

Substitute James Evans played the ball into the penalty area from near the corner of the box and Harry Pooler got a run on his marker to head into the back of the net.

Five minutes later and the visitors went in search of a consolation goal.

When a cross was played into the Corwen box, striker Josh Rush got free of his marker, but he could only head the ball wide of the target.

Rush went even closer to scoring in the 77th minute.

On this occasion, his header was cleared for a corner.

From the resulting flag kick, Corwen won the ball and hit their visitors with a swift counter attack.

This culminated in Tom Watkin-Jones crossing the ball to substitute Nick Owen, who had a tap in to make the score 5-0.

Corwen were still hungry for more goals and Joe Williams ran at a defender before unleashing a shot at goal, which hit the post.

There still time for Corwen to make it a half-dozen of goals for the afternoon.

Ioz Jones crossed from near the touchline and Nick Owen was able to poke the ball home with his head from inside the six-yard box.