Wrexham Reserves 2
Carlisle United Reserves 2
Central League (West Division)

Match Report

With his international clearance finally having come through, this game saw the first competitive appearance in a Wrexham shirt of new signing Silvio Spann, whose appearance alongside a certain Juan Ugarte in the starting line-up probably contributed greatly to the respectable attendance considering the 2.00pm kick-off time. The Trinidadian showed some nice touches and demonstrated on several occasion his prowess from dead-ball situations, particularly his delivery of corner kicks, but it was his Spanish team mate that took centre stage with both the Dragons’ goals in a 2-2 draw on the Racecourse.

However the star of the opening exchanges was another Trinidadian, Josh Johnson, who continually beat the Carlisle right back with ease and twice inside the opening seven minutes forced good saves from ‘keeper Adam Bradley. So it was no surprise that Josh was heavily involved in Wrexham taking a 19th minute lead, when his perfect cross from the left was met sweetly by Juan, whose side-foot volley from 16 yards out flew past Bradley and into the net. Ugarte and Matty Crowell both came close to extending the Dragons’ lead but it was the visitors that struck next when Danny Carlton was put clear by Steven Hindmarch and clinically beat Michael Jones from 14 yards out in the 35th minute.

The second period began in similar fashion to the first with Wrexham very much in the ascendancy. Marc Williams saw a curling effort drift just wide, Crowell worked an opening well but pulled his effort the wrong side of the post, and Ugarte saw a point-blank header somehow turned at full stretch behind for a corner by Bradley. The busy keeper then performed wonders again to fingertip Ugarte’s rasping effort from the 20 yards over the bar for another corner.

It therefore came somewhat against the run of play when Carlisle grabbed the lead on 67 minutes, Carlton given the simple task of slotting the ball home from six yards after a Luke Joyce nod down. The Dragons’ equaliser came from the penalty spot after 76 minutes when a combination of Neale McDermott and Matthew Brown were harshly adjudged to have tripped Johnson in the box and Ugarte’s spot kick had too much power and accuracy for Bradley, despite the keeper guessing correctly which way to go. Johnson could have won it 11 minutes from time after Stewart’s centre was missed by a defender and landed perfectly at his feet, but his shot failed to trouble Bradley and cleared the crossbar. It proved to be the last opportunity either side had to win the game!

With Joey Jones missing the first part of the game due to a scheduled medical appointment, it was left to coach Steve Weaver to look after affairs on the touchline and, after fielding the obvious questions about Silvio and Juan, he commented that: “We tried a little bit of a different system today, and for the first 30 minutes we looked a very good attacking side, getting in at them and creating chances. They then matched it up and we lost our way a little, but at half time we sorted certain things out. We changed again to 4-4-2 early in the second half, before going 4-3-3 at the end, which helped us continue to create chances.

“Because we have good attacking midfield players at the club it’s important we take advantage of them. As you will have seen today, Marc Williams has come up and got on the end of a couple of things, which is what we hope that people like Mark Jones will also be able to do. Overall we gained a great deal today, with performances from Juan and Matty. Reserve games are all about development and we are pleased that we created a number of chances throughout the game.”