A treasure-trove of brilliant goals handed Wrexham a 4-0 victory over Altrincham.
Paul Mullin defined greatness, scoring an overhead kick to open the scoring in front of this season’s record crowd of 10,107.
Ollie Palmer added a second goal just two minutes later, via a cool, calm and collected finish into the bottom of Oliver Byrne’s net.
Palmer struck a third just over an hour into the game, with another trademark sweeping finish, before James Jones rounded off the scoring for the day, after some exquisite football from the Red Dragons.
Phil Parkinson named one change for the match, as Jordan Davies took his place back in the starting eleven, with Elliot Lee dropping to the bench.
The first talking point of the match saw Mullin bewilderingly called offside by the linesman, as he went through on goal from an Altrincham backpass. The referee seemed to overrule the linesman on this decision, but it was in vain as Mullin skyed his effort into the Kop.
It was a dominant start by Wrexham, as they were cruising along, but the play lacked any sort of killer touch.
With 26 minutes gone, Mullin created half a yard of space by shifting the ball onto his left foot and powered a shot towards goal, which unfortunately landed on the roof of the net.
On the half hour mark, Jake Cooper won a surprising header on the edge of the Wrexham box, but it was thumped straight into the hands of Mark Howard.
Out of nowhere, Ollie Palmer was found at the back-post to see his shot cleared off the line, but the resulting attack led to Mullin rotating his body to bury his overhead kick into the bottom corner of the Altrincham goal. A truly marvelous goal with 31 minutes on the clock.
Last season’s league top scorer then went on to assist his strike partner, as Palmer provided a sweeping finish to bury the ball into Byrne’s net just two minutes later. The killer instinct had certainly now been found.
Altrincham had started to settle into the game, but were quelled by two instant goals.
Ryan Colclough marauded down the left-hand side on the hour mark in acres of space, laying-off a ball to the completely free Elliot Osborne inside the Wrexham box. However, the Altrincham number ten completely scuffed his shot, as it dribbled wide of the goal.
Colclough was again the danger man for the Robins, manufacturing room to shoot on the edge of the Wrexham box, but ultimately blazing his shot over Howard’s crossbar.
Once again, Altrincham were starting to create more chances and so Wrexham responded. Callum McFadzean found open air to run into, before sliding a ball across to Palmer in the box. The big striker used his strength to turn the defender behind him, as he swept another finish into the back of the Altrincham net 65 minutes in.
Three minutes later Howard was required to make his first real save of the game, as he tipped over a Chris Conn-Clarke long ranged effort.
The fourth and final goal sealed a fine victory in style though; a result of pure, exquisite, one-touch football. Palmer held off a Altrincham defender, before laying the ball off to captain Luke Young, who fed the ball straight into the on-running Jones. The midfielder could not pass up the opportunity to slot the ball home with little more than ten minutes remaining.
Howard was called upon one last time in the 91st minute to save his clean sheet with a solid stop, but it ended up being the perfect afternoon for Wrexham, winning by four goals to nil.
Wrexham: (5-3-2): Howard (GK), Forde, Hayden, Tozer, Tunnicliffe, McFadzean, Young (C), J.Jones, J.Davies (O’Connor 70’), Mullin (Lee 77’), Palmer (Dalby 82’)
Subs not used: Watson (GK), Hosannah
Altrincham: Byrne (GK), Barrows, Cooper, J.Jones, E.Jones, Lundstram, Osborne, Malone (Kaja 75’), Conn-Clarke (Pringle 77’), Dinanga (Hulme 70’), Colclough
Subs not used: Gould (GK), Jackson
Attendance: 10,107 (285 away)
Referee: Scott Simpson
Wrexham Bookings: None
Altrincham Bookings: None
Man of the Match: Ollie Palmer