Wrexham Youth 1
Rochdale U18 1
Football League Youth Alliance (North West Conference)

Match Report

After a bright start, the young Reds grabbed the lead as early as the seventh minute, when Sam Pilkington’s speculative shot from distance slipped through the grasp of Bradley Wade and crept over the line. There were chances to increase that advantage as Cameron McGregor saw a shot parried and Pilkington drifted inside to curl a shot wide from 20 yards after the ball broke to him off a defender.

At the other end the Dragons defence and keeper Adrian Krol were kept busy as the energetic Fabio Tavares missed two good openings to drag Dale level before the equaliser came in the 28th minute with a superb strike; wide man Masambya Kisimba did well to control the ball on the corner of the area before turning inside and smashing home into the top of the net from 22 yards out.

This put the visitors tails well and truly up, and soon after an audacious effort thumped the bar from over 30 yards, a chipped cross from Lewis Bradley was grabbed by Krol under pressure from Tavares while the latter then cut in from the by-line and smashed a shot against the woodwork himself before Bradley Lewis whacked the rebound over.

The second half became more of a midfield battle with both sides still looking to win the game but very few clear-cut chances being created. It was Dale who was first out of the blocks as Phillip Perry produced a fantastic block at the far post to deny Lewis and from the resulting corner Krol did well to save from Daniel Adshead. At the other end, Dylan Allshorn put pressure on Luke Matheson and McGregor took advantage of the ensuing loose ball to fire a shot in from the edge of the area which Wade could only parry. Unfortunately, the lurking Matthew Jones saw his follow up effort saved as well.

With the clock running down the game burst back into life as Wade fumbled a McGregor shot but recovered to grab the ball at the feet of Jake Bickerstaff while Joseph Dunne’s effort was deflected away for a corner before Krol produced a stunning double close-range save to deny both Bradley and Louis White as the clock ticked around to 90 minutes. In the fifth minute of added time, Rochdale should have stolen all three points but, when given the freedom of the penalty area from a corner kick, Kisimba could only steer his header wide while the Reds breathed a huge sigh of relief.