Wigan Athletic Youth 1
Wrexham Youth 3
Football League Youth Alliance (North West Conference)

Match Report

The under-18s continued their impressive start to the new campaign with a superb performance against a strong Wigan Athletic side. “We played really well,” reflected Steve Cooper. “It was a really good performance.”
Remember Roberto Di Matteo’s FA Cup Final goal after just 43 seconds against Middlesbrough in 1997? Well, Matty Hurdman produced something similarly stunning within 30 seconds of the kick-off to give the Dragons the perfect start to the game. The midfielder, who scored two cracking free kicks in the pre-season draw against GAP Queen’s Park, broke through the centre of the retreating Latics’ back line and smashed the ball off the underside of the crossbar and into the net from 20 yards out.

This early immediately put the hosts on the back foot but, even so, they had a great opportunity to level the scores in the 7th minute when a Chris Maxwell foul resulted in a penalty being awarded. Chris guessed the right way but it didn’t matter anyway as the ball struck the outside of the post and went behind for a goal kick! Capitalising on this good fortune the Dragons went on to dominate the rest of the half. Mark Stewart was proving to be a lively problem for the home defence and he had a couple of chances to double the lead, and from a set piece Chris Marriott somehow missed a headed chance from a set-piece move when any touch would surely have meant a goal.

“We were extremely happy at half time,” added Steve. “But we reminded the players that they had to keep it going in the second half.” The pep talk obviously worked a treat as the Dragons doubled the lead on the hour mark when Hurdman grabbed his second of the game with a 25-yard right-foot shot into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. It may not have been as spectacular as his first but a really good finish all the same!

Wigan had to change things round, so they switched to a 3-5-2 formation to put the Dragons onto the back foot for a change and they were rewarded with a header from a set-piece to reduce the deficit.
Understandably this lifted the home side and they continued to exert pressure. But on 82 minutes George Stewart led a quick breakaway before feeding Hurdman down the right channel. The goal scorer turned creator and pulled the ball back to give substitute Rob Pearson an easy tap-in from close range to ensure victory and make it seven points out of a possible nine.