BALA TOWN 1, WREXHAM 3
THE Dragons had too much fire-power on the biggest night in Bala Town’s history.
The pre-season friendly between the Lakesiders and Wrexham attracted a crowd in excess of 850 to Maes Tegid and it was Andy Morrell’s side who deserved their 3-1 victory.
Wrexham made all the running in the early exchanges and found themselves camped in the Bala half.
The pacy Adrian Cieslewicz easily skipped past a defender to earn Wrexham their first corner and Wrexham took the lead with their first opportunity in the 11th minute following a well worked move.
Johnny Hunt slid a pass through for Glen Little, who squared the ball into the path of Ogleby and the striker found the bottom corner with a low drive from just inside the area.
Wrexham were enjoying a large percentage of the possession and were well in control.
Stef Edwards' break down the left flank, which ended with a cross beyond his Bala team-mates, was very much against the run of play. Bala had put plenty of bodies behind the ball, allowing Wrexham to pass the ball around at will, and their patient build-up play soon resulted in more chances.
The lively Ogleby limped off in the 26th minute and was replaced by Nick Rushton, and the striker was immediately in the thick of the action when he latched onto Jay Harris' through ball but his drive failed to trouble keeper Mark Pullman.
Wrexham continued to get into some excellent positions and Cieslewicz almost found the net with his shot from Rushton's pull-back but John Irving was on hand to clear off the line.
With the Bala defence being kept on their toes, Wrexham again were thwarted by a goal-line clearance on 39 minutes when Harris fed Little who saw his effort kept out by centre-back Tony Davies.
Morrell's curling effort finished narrowly wide of the post just before the break and Wrexham continued where they left off at the start of the second half.
More pressure from Wrexham, who were again seeing plenty of the ball, finally resulted in a second goal in the 57th minute.
Morrell was bundled over by Ben Collins in the area after racing onto Joe Clarke's long ball forward and Cieslewicz dispatched the penalty.
Wrexham began to make the inevitable substitutions but Bala should have reduced the deficit on the counter attack.
Keeper Andy Coughlin made an excellent save to deny Stephen Brown and Lee Hunt put the follow-up wide with the goal at his mercy. However, Bala pulled one back on 67 minutes, Martin Riley blocked the first attempt before Brown fired past Coughlin.
But the two-goal advantage was restored 11 minutes later following a superb move which started from the back.
Anthony Stephens finally put the ball into the area and with Rushton causing havoc in the box, Morrell prodded home from close range to complete the scoring.