Gresford Athletic fell to a dissappointing collapse as they were beaten by Mold Alexandra and knocked out of the 2023/24 Macron NEWFA Men's Senior Challenge Cup in the semi-finals.

The game began with a warning for The Colliers as Mold Alexandra hit the woodwork with an ambitious Danny Warren longshot in the 8th minute.

Gresford Athletic did not let that discourage them, though, and in the 12th minute, Alex Buxton had a good run that took him onto the edge of the box, but his cross was handled by Mold Alexandra goalkeeper Alex Swindell.

Charlie Mann then did superbly to run across the pitch with the ball in the 19th minute, finding Alex Buxton with his pass, who crossed it inton the direction of Dominic Deacon in the box, but the ball was pushed out for a corner by a Mold Alexandra defender.

Then, in the 33rd minute, Gresford Athletic were rewarded from their efforts as some brilliant work from Charlie Mann leads to a pass that finds Toby Gallagher-Keenan to slot it home and put The Colliers in the lead.

Captain Joshua Griffiths was then called upon to keep hold of the lead, doing excellently to head the ball off the line to deny a chance for The Alex in the 44th minute, just before the half time whislte blew with Gresford Athletic in the lead at the break.

Mold Alexandra came out swinging in the second half, putting on the pressure and looking for that equalising goal.

In the 54th minute, a tackle from Charlie Mann in the box led to a penalty for The Alex, which had Jake Roberts licking his lips. However, Adam Taylor had other ideas and got down fantastically to stop the spot-kick and retain Gresford Athletic's lead.

Adam Taylor then pulled off another great save in the 68th minute from a dangerous Mold Alexandra corner.

However, after waves and waves of attacks, Mold Alexandra did find their equaliser, as Danny Warren's 76th-minute corner was blasted across the box and straight into the roof of the net.

Then, to Gresford Athletic's shock, Mold Alexandra pushed ahead and took the lead, again through Danny Warren, who curled it into the net from 18-yards out.

Gresford Athletic were all over the place and The Alex capitalised, with Jake Roberts making up for his earlier missed penalty by heading in the third for Mold Alexandra in the 87th minute.

Just to top things off, in the 93rd minute of the game, Jake Roberts found his second goal from a free-kick, completing a disasterous second half for Gresford Athletic.

The full time whistle blew and Gresford Athletic must accept a very, very dissappointing end to a tough season.

Gresford Athletic

Starting XI: Taylor (GK), Edge, Hesp, Williams, Buxton (Ellis - 53'), Griffiths (C), Pownall (Roberts - 82'), Mann, Gallagher-Keenan, Deacon, Chaplin (Johnson - 66')

Goalscorers: Gallagher-Keenan

Mold Alexandra

Starting XI: Swindell (GK), Lewis, Watkin, Watkins, Coney, Warren, Duffy, Roberts, R. Nash (C), Griffith, H. Nash

Goalscorers: Warren (x2), Roberts (x2)

Yellow cards: H. Nash

Subs not used: Jones, McManus

Match Officials

Referee: Nicholas Pratt

Assistant Referees: Luke Allsop, Richard Dolphin