Denbigh Town shared the points in a six-goal shoot-out at the Airfield on Saturday as Nathan Brown, Owen Davies and a stoppage time leveller from Alfie Vaughan earned a point.

It leaves Town 9th in the standings come the end of the campaign as Denbigh close the book on their second season in the JD Cymru North.

Denbigh began the contest brightly and within seconds of the start had their first sight of goal, Vaughan worked well down the right before cutting inside and firing over from the edge of the box.

In a positive start Brown felt he should have done better on eight minutes when Sam Duffy pounced on a mistake at the back, squared it to Town’s top scorer, but he was unable to keep the ball down inside the box. Five minutes later Brown was involved again when Bobby Beaumont made tracks down the right before being brought down, the ball rolled to the forward who forced Lewis Dutton into a superb stop at his right.

Gresford’s first sight of goal came on 16 minutes when a corner was delivered and met the head of Paul Johnson who couldn’t keep it down, whilst two minutes later Charlie Mann couldn’t find the target after some neat build up.

On 28 minutes the deadlock was broken. As Gresford grew into the game a cross from Mann found the head of Ozlu at the back post to put the home side in front.

Now chasing the game, Denbigh continued to apply pressure but efforts from Brown and Iwan Roberts couldn’t test Dutton in goal whilst a corner in first-half stoppage time ricocheted off of Vaughan and flew harmlessly wide.

Half-Time: Gresford Athletic 1-0 Denbigh Town

After the restart Town continued to chase the game whilst Gresford would have to hold on without manager Eddie Maurice-Jones, who was shown two yellow cards within seconds for an altercation with the referee on 51 minutes.

Not to matter for the Colliers though, as two minutes later a ball into the box was spilt by Elijah Beattie and Mann was on hand to tap home from close range. It began a frantic ten minutes as moments later Tom Smith smashed a ball off the post before Denbigh got back into it when Brown pulled one back for Town. Ben Lockley flicked the ball to Duffy who squared to Brown to see it home and halve the deficit.

Less than two minutes later it went from inches away from going three down to Denbigh pulling level. Half time substitute Davies played a brilliant one-two with Iwan Roberts before thumping the ball into the bottom left corner from the edge of the box on the hour mark.

Despite all that effort to get back into it by the 69th minute Denbigh went behind once more. A ball over the top found Ozlu who bent the ball home from the left channel to restore the Colliers’ lead.

Three minutes after going behind once more Town almost responded perfectly when Duffy burst through on the right of the box but fizzed his effort across the face of goal.

Into the final ten minutes and it was all action at both ends. Ozlu almost had his hatrick on 83 minutes when his shot from range smashed the crossbar, whilst seconds later a Town shot was blocked by an arm and a penalty awarded. Brown stepped up but Dutton denied low to his left.

After being denied from the spot it looked like Denbigh would leave empty-handed, especially when with two of the 90 to play Iwan Roberts was denied after Charley Edge cleared his effort off the line. However, deep into stoppage time, Vaughan slammed the ball home inside the box to take a point.

Denbigh end the season in 9th in the JD Cymru North whilst congratulations are in order to Colwyn Bay who took the title, and our local rivals Ruthin who survived at the expense of Bangor 1876.

Denbigh Town: Beattie, Flanders, Beaumont, Lockley, Williams, K.Roberts, Jones, Duffy, Brown, I.Roberts, Vaughan

Subs: Cooke, Pownall, Butler, Hinchcliffe, Clarke, Salisbury, Davies

Referee: Patrick Wilding

Attendance: 107

POTM: Iwan Roberts - Bright throughout and looked a threat going forward, topped off with an assist for the first equaliser.