REPORT | Denbigh Town Reserves 5-2 Mold Alexandra Reserves

Denbigh Town Reserves played out the last-ever Town match with Central Park’s historic changing rooms and marked the occasion perfectly.

A sensational hatrick from Owen Herbert as well as goals from Rhys Lloyd and Matthew Blake turned the game around in an encounter that saw Mold take a two-goal lead with less than ten minutes played.

An ideal goodbye to a feature that has stood strong at Central Park for decades and a superb final home match for outgoing manager Liam Nash.

Nash made a couple of changes to his side that included the welcome inclusion of Harry Lockley, playing his first game since October 2023.

Mold however didn’t turn up just to be a bit-part player on the night and within the first ten minutes nearly blew Denbigh away. Within three minutes Matthew Cross nipped in before driving the ball at goal, clipping the outside of the post.

With seven minutes gone to deadlock was broken, Ifan Jones thumping the ball under young goalkeeper Rory Wynne to give the visitors the lead. Just two minutes later Aaron Filmer doubled the advantage in a shock opening from Town’s perspective.

Denbigh now had to fight back and almost restored parity moments later when Blake’s free-kick was scrambled away with Lloyd lurking at close range.

Changes began to dry up and it wasn’t until the half-hour mark had gone that Denbigh began a bombardment of the Alex net. A goalkeeping error led Blake to the ball 20 yards out, he fed it to Gruff Rogers who rounded him before firing over. Blake thought he’d won a penalty on 40 minutes when dragged down in the box but it was waved away before a follow-up effort was tipped wide by the keeper.

Finally, on 41 minutes a moment of magic got Denbigh off the mark. The returning Lockley rolled the ball to Herbert who ducked and dived through a sea of blue before smashing the ball into the bottom left corner. Three minutes later, just see above. Herbert again weaved through defenders before a carbon copy finish levelled things before the break.

Half-Time: Denbigh Town Reserves 2-2 Mold Alexandra Reserves

In the second half Town continued the barrage, Ryan Williams saw the ball drop to him in the box but his shot deflected out for a corner before two minutes later on 52 minutes, the scoreline was reversed.

Blake did well going forward before keeping the ball in play at the byline, backheeling it to Lloyd who slammed the ball into the back of the net.

With 58 minutes gone Lloyd was almost the provider when his excellent work kept the ball in on the right, feeding it back of Rogers who hammered the ball into the side netting. However, he made contact with Jordan Waite, who took a horrible collision to the ankle and led to a stoppage of almost 20 minutes. A car had to be driven on to the field of play as Waite was carefully moved and driven to hospital.

The stoppage tamed the match for a few moments and stoppage time, of which there was 17 minutes, saw the game explode to life. On 102 minutes Herbert completed his hatrick with a great finish before Blake added the final piece when Kyle Cooper fed him in to finish well.

Frustrations boiled over from Mold as Filmer landed a headbut in the aftermath of Denbigh’s fifth goal before following on the unsavory scenes on the walk back to the dressing room.

Town ended a run of three defeats by picking up three points and will do it all over again on Saturday when Town travel to Mold.

Denbigh Town Reserves: Wynne, Devine, Williams, Cooper, Lockley, James, Griffiths, Blake, Rogers, Herbert, Lloyd

Subs: Roberts, Smith, H.Nash, Senior, J.Jones,

Referee: Mark Blench

Attendance: 102

Image: Denbigh Town Reserves final home squad of the season line-up in front of the changing rooms before facing Mold Alexandra.