Lauren Reese and Jodie Richards scored hat-tricks as Wrexham AFC Women ran riot in a dominant pre-season win against an inexperienced, but spirited Prees United FC Women’s side.
Interim manager Steven Dale’s record in charge extended to three wins from a possible four, as Reese scored four goals, Richards three, Libby Mackenzie two and Katie Sharp and Tiffany Sands also hit the target.
The Red Dragons were without both injured captain Abby Hughes and striker Carmen Reyes, while new signing Jodie Davies was also unavailable, but Erin Lovett returned to the team after missing last weekend’s defeat to Shrewsbury.
Although Wrexham scored 11 goals in the end, it actually took 20 minutes for the deadlock to be broken. When it did, Kim Dutton was unlucky to see her sweetly struck effort rattle the woodwork, only for Reese to be on hand to fire in the rebound from the edge of the box.
Just five minutes later, Wrexham doubled their lead – a wayward goal kick from the Prees United keeper finding Reese on the edge of the box. She took the ball well, shimmied into space, and fired a shot into the Prees net.
It only took Reese another ten minutes to complete her hat-trick – once again a strike from range beating the Prees keeper after some great initial work to make space for herself.
Reese came agonisingly close to adding her fourth only seconds later after being slipped through by Mackenzie, but her powerful effort cleared the Prees bar and flew away from danger.
Shortly after, however, Sharp – playing in a central midfield role – poked home a fourth to finish off a goal-line scramble after Reese’s dangerous corner.
Sands, Richards and Teleri Williams all came on at half-time for Wrexham, as Amy Glendenning, Sharp and Shannon Owens made way.
And once again Wrexham took some time to get going, with the fifth goal not arriving until the 65th minute.
When it did eventually come, it was on target once again. This time, she finished inside the box after beating her defender and rifling a shot at goal which clattered the inside of the post on its way in.
In a pattern similar to the first half, another ten minutes passed before another Wrexham goal. However after Richards netted her first of the game on 73 minutes, slotting home a low ball in from a wide position, the floodgates began to open.
On 75 minutes, Sands found herself in yards of space down the right hand-side. After carrying the ball and out-muscling on-coming defenders, she fired a shot at goal which the Prees keeper failed to control to make it 7-0.
Minutes later, Richards was gifted a second as a Prees defender played a pass back to her keeper only for the Wrexham number nine to intercept and finish coolly under pressure to add an eighth.
With ten minutes remaining, Libby Mackenzie opened her account for Wrexham after gliding past her marker and slotting the ball calmly into the bottom corner past the keeper.
Richards then completed her hat-trick on 84 minutes after the striker latched on to the end of a ball in from the left-hand side before hitting a side-footed volley past the Prees keeper.
However the goals wouldn’t stop there for Wrexham. Mackenzie added the 11th only a minute later when some fantastic play on the left allowed her to seal an extremely well-deserved brace, after putting in an outstanding individual performance.
Wrexham team: Kat Jones, Phoebe Rintoul, Erin Lovett, Megan Buckley, Shannon Owens (Teleri Williams 46), Kim Dutton, Katie Sharp (Tiffany Sands 46), Becky Pritchard, Lauren Reese, Libby Mackenzie, Amy Glendenning (Jodie Richards 46)