The game started in an open manner, with Luke Rodgers immediately threatening for Vale. In the opening minutes Danny Whitaker got round the back of Wrexham's defence and pulled the ball back to Craig Rocastle, who drove a powerful shot straight at Jones from six yards out which cannoned off the keeper's chest to Rodgers, whose drive slapped firmly against the left post.
Moments later Rodgers was at it again, lashing a shot wide after Wrexham's defence had allowed him the space to turn on the edge of the box. Throughout the first hour he was to prove a danger to Wrexham, giving Pejic in particular a torrid time with his pace, while Willock was a willing partner and both wide men offered threatening support.
UNUSED SUBS: Anthony Williams, Mike Williams
UNUSED SUBS: Alan White, Ian Harty
Referee: Carl Boyeson (E Yorks)
Attendance: 2,916 Away support: 493
Misc: Murtagh's Wrexham debut.
If Brian Carey can maintain the golden touch he showed tonight, Wrexham are in for a memorable season! Carey made bold changes to his starting line-up and some bold substitutions, and they all came off, allowing him to take a higher division scalp in his first cup tie as manager.
Selecting Michael Jones in goal and Levi Mackin in midfield showed that Carey's priorities are in the league, but both youngsters performed admirably in a fine performance, as did substitutes Josh Johnson, Marc WIliams and Conall Murtagh, all of whom staked a claim for a starting place on Saturday.
Torrential rain at half time seemed to wash Vale's spirit away!
Matty Done
Constantly threatening down the left and full of energy to the end, he also worked hard getting back to support Valentine against the threatening Tudor. Capped it all by juggling the ball colly on the spot before dispatching his penalty.
Vale held on as the superb travelling support egged their team on and the game went into extra time. Conall Murtagh came on to make his debut in place of Danny Williams and immediately showed what Brian Carey had seen in him with an authoritative display. Furthermore, Wrexham continued to look fresh and positive while Port Vale appeared to be out on their feet; they would not pose a serious threat throughout the extra half hour. Clearly Carey's faith in fitness coach Andy O'Boyle is well-placed!
However, Wrexham just couldn't quite get the winner. Marc Williams squandered the best chance, heading over from five yards after Done had crossed well once more, although the ginger striker was unfortunate in the second period when a fine piece of combination play down the left between Johnson and Done ended in the latter driving the ball across the face of goal, Williams lunging at full stretch but managing only a glancing contact in front of an open goal. Johnson also managed to dispossess Lowe in the box, dump him on the floor with his trickery and fire a shot into the side-netting before the referee signalled the end of the game.
Wrexham had lost a lot of experiance with their substitutions, but that did not matter in the shoot-out as they gave a flawless display. Valentine, Spender, Murtagh and Done all found the net, and when Whitaker hit the post with Vale's fourth kick, Llewellyn had the task of ending the tie. He did it comprehensively, and Wrexham had kick-started their season
Pure Genius! Gambled on Jones and Mackin and they repaid him, then made match-turning substitutions by throwing the quick strikers on to terrorise Vale's tired defenders.
Carey suddenly has a lot of new options as fringe players Jones, Mackin, Johnson and Williams pushed their claim for a first team place.
We can't draw Chester in the next round!
Fantastic! Let's hope we get a nice home tie against Man City now!
Has to be Llewellyn's winning penalty-a gratifying conclusion to a fine night!
If the ref had given Llewellyn a red card for his elbow on Talbot after fifteen minutes it would have been a very different game.
However, after eleven minutes Rodgers was pursuing an equaliser. A snappy exhange of passes ended with Danny Williams lofting a high ball over the top of Vale's defence. Michael Proctor's pace took him past Keith Lowe, but with the ball dropping from on high it was impossible to control immediately, and by the time he had it under control the angle was oppresively tight. That didn't bother Proctor though; he squeezed an opportunistic shot across the goal and inside the far post, a goal which owed as much to the inattentiveness of Lowe and keeper Joe Anyon as it did to Proctor's ingenuity.
Four minutes later came a moment which could have totally changed the game. Chris Llewellyn jumped with Jason Talbot, who led with the elbow but didn't seem to make contact with the Welsh winger. However, Llewellyn lashed out at the full back, who fell threatrically to the floor clutching his face right in front of the linesman. Llewellyn could easily have gone, perhaps he should have done, but a combination of a referee who wanted to keep his cards in his pocket and the fact that Llewellyn's action didn't have the force behind it that Talbot's reaction suggested meant he received only a yellow.
Meanwhile, Port Vale went about the task of pulling themselves back into the game, and gradually took control of the match. Danny Williams battled manfully to try to take the fight to them in the middle of the pitch, but with Mackin overwhelmed Wrexham spent an incresing amount of time penned into their area, riding their luck. A George Pilkington header from a corner was cleared off the line by Mackin, and Whitaker lashed the rebound just over, then a Shane Tudor cross bounced behind off the top of the bar.
Tudor was to be culpable for the miss of the match when Willock expertly turned Pejic, ran into the box and pulled the ball back perfectly to the winger, totally clear on goal twelve yards out. Inexplicably, he slashed a dismal shot well over the bar.
The breakthrough came in the thirty-fourth minute, in totally unnecessary manner. As Willock shaped to bring down a harmless long ball with his back to goal, Richard Hope inexplicably barged through the back of him to concede a blatant and needless penalty. Hope had done exactly the same to Rodgers ten minutes earlier, outside the area, and alarmingly had not learned from his mistake. Rodgers stepped up to drill the ball emphatically into the bottom left corner.
Fortunately for Wrexham, Port Vale seemed to take their foot off the gas after equalising, and the pressure on their back four eased. Indeed, their only chance to score in what remained of the half came in a dramatic exchange in injury time: Wrexham broke first, a superb break by Done ending in a cross which picked Llewellyn out at the far post, but his header was saved by Anyon; the keeper immediately instigated a counter attack which saw a clever pass by Willock put Rocastle clear on goal, but the midfielder, who
affected elegance throughout, tried a fancy chip over Jones rather than select a more sensible approach, and his weak effort floated into the goalkeeper's chest.
Port Vale began the second half with an initial burst of energy; within thirty seconds Tudor worked a one-two and drove the ball into the side-netting, the home fans celebrating erroneously as they saw the net ripple. Then Rodgers burst clear to be denied by a fine parry from Jones low to his left. Jones would execute another good stop later, lunging in the other direction to block a shot by Whitaker, but by then the game had begun to turn decisively.
As the half wore on Wrehxm began to get on top, with Done troubling McGregor and Mackin finding his feet, while the two full-backs not only got on top of their defensive duties, but also surging forward to support the attack. It was around this time that Vale appeared to sag physically. Suddenly Rodgers was half the threat he had been, and his first touch looked weary, while Pejic and Hope regained their equilibrium to become newly solid. .
At the other end Wrexham began to threaten. A driving run by Danny Williams ended in him feeding Proctor, but his powerful shot from the edge of the box was taken well by Anyon. Soon Proctor was to make way for Josh Johnson and Marc Williams replaced Neil Roberts as Carey pulled another crucial masterstroke. The pacy youngsters gave Vale's defence terrific probems as they ran onto passes over the top, complementing Done. Indeed, Johnson's first involvement nearly led to a winning goal as he teased McGregor before swingng over a cross which picked out Llewellyn at the far post. His header was true, but Anyon did brilliantly, scrambling across the goal to deny him with a fine save.
