“It started getting spoken about, and once something is spoken about in prison it’s exciting, it is something new to talk about.
“Prisoners would come up to me and ask ‘do you play for Wrexham?’ and I couldn’t hide it in the end.”
Wrexham Women FC’s success has been very difficult to hide in recent months.
The women’s team were included in Reynolds’ and Rob McElhenney’s takeover in 2021.
They have since been promoted to the top tier of women’s football in Wales – the Adran Premier – and moved to a semi-professional model.
When asked if she’s met the owners she says that “they have met me!”
She met Reynolds for the first time on the Racecourse pitch after Wrexham clinched the Adran North league title at the end of March.
“I felt like the superstar, because I’d just scored the winner at the Racecourse ground in front of nearly 10,000 people, so when he [Reynolds] grabbed me to introduce me to his wife, kids – it felt like I was the star,” she adds.
Many prisoners make reference to Hughes’ football career as she takes me on a tour of the prison.
HMP Berwyn, Wales’ newest and biggest prison, is a vast site with its own football pitch and gym which Hughes uses to top up her football training during her lunch break.
She has been doing the job for six years and says there are plenty of transferable skills between her two jobs.
“You definitely need some resilience, good communication skills, an excellent listener and some emotional intelligence to do the job,” Hughes said.
“Communication and working as part of a team is massive for both football and as a prison officer.
“You need confidence in this job because you’ll get eaten alive if you don’t.
“It’s the same with football, you need to be confident on the ball. I’m so good at scoring goals and putting the ball in the back of the net because I’m confident to do it.”
Her record at Wrexham is incredible – she has scored 97 goals in 41 starts and one appearance as a substitute.