Altrincham U19 0
Wrexham U19 10
National League U19 Alliance (match expunged) (Division H)

Match Report

Wrexham recorded their highest ever away win in the National League Youth Alliance as they romped to ten-goal victory at bottom of the table Altrincham. Without a win all season, the home side had no answer to the pace and movement of Caleb Hughes, Jacob Milner and Mikey Hayman, Wrexham’s front three all getting their names on the scoresheet at Mereheath Lane.

With Rowan Davies having played for the reserves the previous day, Dan Wright partnered Harry Dean at the heart of the Young Reds’ defence whilst Callum Edwards came into the midfield for the injured Reece Oliver. Dan Nolan’s revamped line-up quickly settled and looked to have taken a third minute lead when Hayman rifled home from close range only for the referee to rule the ball had gone out of play in the build-up.

Hughes then forced a superb one-handed save from Noah Tyson and the Robins’ keeper was again in the thick of the action when he denied Hayman with a point-blank save, the ball eventually breaking to Milner at the far post who fired home to give Wrexham a deserved lead on 12 minutes. Owen Cushion then rattled the upright with a superb free-kick and Hughes shot just over the bar as the visitors dominated the play.

The only surprise was that it took until just past the half-hour for Wrexham to double their lead, Hayman capitalising on Harry Ashfield’s pass to cut inside and curl the ball into the far corner of the net. The Whiston-born striker made it three just four minutes later when he calmly converted Hughes’ left-wing centre.

Altrincham were forced into two substitutions either side of the interval, but they did manage their first shot of note seven minutes into the second period when Alfred Igbinake failed to trouble Matty Hess in the Wrexham goal. That proved merely to be a briefly respite for the Robins as a fine low drive from Callum Edwards and then a sharp finish from Harry Ashfield made it 5-0 on the hour mark.

With Ethan Simpson immediately introduced for Hayman, there was no let up in the Young Reds attacking dominance and a powerful run from Hughes ended up with him being fouled inside the penalty-area. From the resultant spot kick, the left-winger could only look on in anguish as his well-struck shot was palmed away by Tyson. The Altrincham keeper seemed determined to deny the Wrexham striker a goal, producing another fine fingertip save before Kareem Majzoub blocked another goal bound effort from the Welshman.

Wrexham eventually made it 6-0 after 75 minutes when Harry Dean opened his account for the season with a nicely controlled finish, substitute Simpson adding a seventh six minutes later after another great run and cross from the impressive Milner. With Altrincham having used all three substitutes, an injury to Igbinake saw them reduced to ten men and Nolan’s charges made full use of their numerically supremacy with two goals in three minutes.

A long ball over the top of the Altrincham back four on 82 minutes saw Tyson race out of his area but the young keeper missed his kick under pressure from Simpson who was left with the simple task of rolling the ball into an empty net. Hughes finally got his reward for an excellent display two minutes later when Owen Cushion’s defence-splitting pass allowed him to round the keeper and score with ease.

A further injury to substitute David Costa saw Altrincham go down to nine players and Wrexham coach Dan Nolan responded by bringing off Harry Dean and Owen Cushion to even up the numbers. There was still time for Simpson to complete the rout with another composed finish before the final whistle sounded much to the relief of the Altrincham players.

Nolan was understandably delighted with the team’s performance: “We’ve been threatening to do this for a while and it’s nice to see the players getting the reward for their hard work. We played some good football today and it was great to see the goals going in.”

Altrincham withdrew their team from the league on 14/12/2022 and so their record was duly expunged.