United’s reserves cruised to an easy victory over a young Wrexham second string outfit at Brunton Park this afternoon in a match fans of the Red Dragons will want to forget.
It took the Blues only two minutes to have the first chance of the game, Peter Murphy curling a shot wide with the outside of his left-foot. A minute later the first goal of the game came through Dan Dillon, fresh from his loan spell at Workington Reds. Dillon ran onto a through ball from Jamie McClen and hit his shot under Wrexham keeper Chris Mullock, racing back to try and clear was centre-half Gareth Evans but he could only help the ball into the net as United took the lead.
Wrexham had a couple of half-chances shortly after as the physical Jamie Reed firstly hit a shot over the Warwick roof and then screwed a cross-shot horribly wide.
It was all United from then on but they couldn’t increase their lead by the interval. On ten minutes McClen played a short corner to Lee Andrews who swung a good cross in from the right. Dan Kirkup headed back across goal where Simon Grand was on hand to smash an overhead kick against the crossbar which then dropped kindly into the hands of Mullock.
Five minutes later it was Glenn Murray who was denied by the woodwork, latching onto a pass from David Beherall, Murray turned his defender superbly before lashing a shot across goal which crashed back off the far-post and away to safety, just sixty seconds after Murray saw his hammered half-volley go straight at Mullock as United were well on top.
The game quietened down a little after that with Wrexham having a couple of pot-shots from distance from Levi Mackin and Matty Done, neither of which troubled Keiren Westwood in the United goal.
Murphy nearly got himself on the score-sheet in the 38th minute as his left-foot drive from the edge of the box almost squirmed under Mullock on the line and on the stroke of half-time McClen’s audacious lobbed attempt from 45 yards fell easily into Mullock’s grasp.
United made a change at the interval bringing Paul Gardiner for Dan Dillon as the Blues looked to get more reward from their attacking play.
Pete Ferris blazed wide on the edge of the box from a McClen pass in the 52nd minute and sixty seconds later a deep cross from Andrews bounced on top of Mullock’s crossbar as the young keeper back-pedalled furiously, bringing back memories of former United right-back, and back-pedalling champion, Mike Graham.
United continued to have all the play and in the 56th minute Rob Bainbridge’s shot from a Murphy pass was spilled by Mullock who gathered at the second attempt.
Seven minutes later the second goal finally came through central midfielder for the day Beherall. The ball was given away by Wrexham skipper Levi Mackin in the middle of the park to McClen, the ex-Newcastle man, who was outstanding in midfield throughout, crossed in an inch-perfect ball to Beherall whose low header found the bottom corner of the net off the fingertips of Mullock.
The Blues made it 3-0 on 64 minutes as Ferris scored with an excellent individual goal. Receiving the ball from McClen on the edge of the centre-circle Ferris ran on and hammered an unstoppable 25-yard drive across Mullock and into the far top corner of the net to draw cheers from the 50 or so spectators in the stand.
Wrexham had a rare shot at goal on 67 minutes as Chris Evans hit a weak left-footer straight at Westwood from the edge of the Cumbrians box.
On 72 minutes substitute Gardiner picked the ball up in midfield from United centre-half-cum-striker Dan Kirkup and struck his long-range effort powerfully but narrowly wide. Gardiner was disappointed again in the 83rd minute as he went into the referee’s notebook for bringing down Reed in full-flight 35 yards from the United goal.
The next seven minutes saw my pencil and paper go into overdrive as the match produced chances galore. On 84 minutes United substitute Andy Hardman showed good strength to run 25 yards in on goal while being pulled back continuously by two Wrexham defenders only for the young striker to shoot weakly wide as he made his way into the box.
The Red Dragons went straight up the other end of the pitch with a header by Braisdell from a Done cross being well saved low down to his left by an under-worked Westwood at his far-post. The action swung one way then the other as firstly Glenn Murray hit a powerful shot from a Gardiner through ball straight at Mullock then Done cut in well from the left to hit an angled drive from eight yards out which Westwood parried back to him, Done however, could only blaze the rebound well over.
The Blues went 4-0 up on 87 minutes as Kirkup, now playing as a centre-forward following the introduction of centre-half Matty Bell for striker Glenn Murray, flicked on an Andrews throw-in to Hardman on the edge of the Wrexham box. The Carlisle-based forward turned and shot in one movement as the ball went across his left side and he looked up to see the ball arrowing into the far corner of the net past Mullock who may have felt he could have done better as he was beaten from 20 yards out.
United made it five just two minutes later as Ferris again scored through an excellent finish. Gardiner played the ball through to Kirkup who laid the ball off to Ferris on the right where the winger controlled it well and smashed home a half-volley across Mullock and into the far corner to complete the scoreline.
A good performance from the second string albeit against a very youthful Wrexham outfit but the quality of finishing was superb and it’s good to see some improvement in the area of the game where United have recently struggled. McClen and Beherall bossed the middle of the park and Ferris also put in a good performance on the right-wing as United coasted to victory.
United line-up :
Keiren Westwood, Lee Andrews, Peter Murphy ©, Dan Kirkup, Simon Grand, Jamie McClen, Dan Dillon (Paul Gardiner 46), David Beherall, Rob Bainbridge (Andy Hardman 61), Pete Ferris, Glenn Murray (Matty Bell 86).
Unused subs : Adam Bradley and Martin Graham.
Wrexham line-up :
Chris Mullock, Mark Harris (Graham Roche 76), Matty Done, Simon Spender, Gareth Evans, Mike Williams, Andy Fleming ( Aaron Braisdell 59), Levi Mackin ©, Jamie Reed, Marc Williams, Chris Evans (Sion Edwards 74).
Unused sub : Wes Baynes.