CakePHP reverse routing: Html link not showing correct link - cakephp

Question

Firstly, I understand there have been many questions and solutions about this but none I've found fix my issue.
In summary, the Html helper is not reverse routing correctly and instead of URLs like this:
http://website.com/user_of_website/slug_name
I get URLs like this:
http://website.com/things/view/username:user_of_website/slug:a_thing
Here is my router setup:
Router::connect('/', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display', 'home'));
/**
* ...and connect the rest of 'Pages' controller's urls.
*/
Router::connect('/pages/*', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display'));
//User routes
Router::connect('/login', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'login'));
Router::connect('/logout', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'logout'));
Router::connect('/register', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'add'));
Router::connect('/users/:action/*', array('controller' => 'users'));
Router::connect('/things/:action/*', array('controller' => 'things'));
Router::connect(
'/:username/:slug',
array(
'controller' => 'things',
'action' => 'view'
),array(
'username' => '[a-zA-Z0-9_]+',
'slug' => '[a-zA-Z0-9_]+',
'pass'=>array(
'username',
'slug'
)
)
);
Router::connect('/:userName', array('controller' => 'things', 'action' => 'user'),array('pass'=>array('userName')));
And my Html helper:
echo $this->Html->link('View', array(
'controller' => 'things',
'action' => 'view',
'username' => 'user_of_website',
'slug' => 'a_thing'
),array(
'class' => 'text-warning'
));
I really can't see what I'm doing wrong. Any help greatly appreciated.
NB, I'm using CakePHP 2.3

Answer 1

Have you tried if it works if you disable the 'regular' routes for things? E.g. /things/:action/*.
My guess is that, because of the wildcard, this route will match the URL as well, and, because it is defined before your custom route, will be matched in stead.
If that resolves the problem, you may try to move that route below your 'custom' route