Caernarfon Town Development 3
Wrexham Youth 3 (4-2 on pens.)
Welsh Youth Cup (3rd Round)

Match Report

Wrexham slipped to their second cup exit of the week after enduring a frustrating afternoon at a windswept Oval. Whilst the conditions might not have been ideal, the Young Reds had more than enough chances to have ensured their passage through to the next round during the 90 minutes.

Having fallen to a penalty shoot-out defeat in the English FA Youth Cup at AFC Blackpool the previous Thursday evening, there was a palpable sense of tension as the Wrexham players stepped up to take their respective spot-kicks with the scores tied at the end of normal time. With the Cofis perfect from the spot, misses from Dan Jones and Kai Evans saw Caernarfon progress much to the delight of the boisterous home crowd.

Coach Dan Nolan brought Harry Bell in for Owen Cushion as the only change from his starting eleven at Blackpool. Wrexham began brightly and looked to have taken the lead after 11 minutes with a stunning strike from Kai Evans. However, the linesman’s flag cut short the celebrations with Evans deemed to have been in an offside position.

Caernarfon capitalised on this escape midway through the first period when Owen Tomlinson opened the scoring with a speculative effort. Their lead was short-lived though as Evans levelled matters with a fine shot before then benefitting from a mistake by keeper Dion Price Owen to score his second with the simplest of tap-ins.

Undeterred, the Canaries hit back to take a deserved interval lead courtesy of strikes from Fabrizio Murtas and Gruffydd Jones. They also enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges in the second period with Louis Parr having to make a couple of smart saves whilst defender Rowan Davies made a goal saving tackle just short of the hour mark.

This seemed to spur new life into the Young Reds with Tom Jenkins sending a low cross flashing across the face of the Caernarfon goal before hitting the outside of the post with a low shot from fully 20 yards.

Will Mountfield then shot narrowly over the bar before Dan Jones rattled the woodwork as Wrexham laid siege to the Cofis goal. With just three minutes left on the clock Jones finally levelled the tie at 3-3 with a stunning strike that gave the Caernarfon keeper no chance.

Despite four minutes of additional time, Wrexham couldn’t find the all important winning goal and so it was the home side who moved into the next round after holding their nerve in the shoot-out.

PENALTY SHOOT-OUT

Wrexham
Tom Jenkins - scored
Dan Jones - missed
Will Mountfield - scored
Kai Evans - missed

Caernarfon Town
scored
scored
scored
scored