BRICKFIELD RANGERS 1

DENBIGH TOWN 1

NEW-LOOK Denbigh Town are experiencing plenty of decent tests ahead of the forthcoming Huws Gray Alliance League season.

The new Town players are being given plenty of opportunities to gel, with a couple of matches already played versus Welsh Premier League opposition.

Last Tuesday, it was a high-flying team in the Wrexham Area League that played host to the lads from Central Park.

Last season, Brickfield Rangers went close to scooping the Premier Division title, before they were forced to settle for the runners-up spot behind eventual champions Buckley Town.

In the Brickfield side on the night were two former Denbigh players, in the shape of Alan Bull and Jack Abraham.

The friendly started brightly on a good pitch and Brickfield had the better of the first 10 minutes.

After this spell, Denbigh did start to push the ball around and take some control of the contest.

Sam Tate had a lot of the ball for the visitors, while brothers Sam and Tom Jones were looking to create chances for Town.

Up front, Jake Walker was putting himself about and he went close to scoring more than once, while Mark Roberts' running and sheer effort was also causing problems for Rangers.

It was by no means all one-way traffic and Rangers were also causing problems for their higher league opponents.

Trialist A, who was in goal in place of Craig Vernon, needed to be sharp to keep the ball out of the net.

However, the opening goal of the evening went in Denbigh's favour.

Ross Weaver's low drive from close to the edge of the box found the back of the net to make it one-nil at the interval.

Both teams made changes in the second half.

Tony Davies, Sam Jones, Tom Jones, Mark Roberts and Jake Walker made way for Miles Todd, Sam Downey, Stu Vernon, Sam Cartwright and Trialist B respectively for Denbigh.

As in the opening period, Brickfield enjoyed the better start to the second half and they went close to finding the target on a couple of occasions.

Eventually, Rangers did gain their reward when they made it one-apiece.

From a ball that was pumped into the penalty area, it bobbled around and then fell for a Brickfield forward who smashed it home from close range.

The game then became more even and Sam Cartwright went close to regaining the lead for Denbigh, only for his shot to hit the post.

The woodwork also saved Denbigh twice the other end before the friendly finished up all-square.