An injury time strike by George Miller secured Preston North End's young reserve side a deserved point against Wrexham at Buckley Town.
North End had gone behind in the 11th minute following a goal by Jamie McCluskey, however Miller capped off a dominant second half performance by the Lilywhites with an equaliser right at the death.
This rounded off a superb second half performance by Preston which also saw Adam Barton almost convert from the penalty spot midway through the half, only to be denied by a fine save by Chris Maxwell.
Wrexham started the brighter of the two sides and were able to take advantage of their good start with an early lead. The Welsh outfit opened the scoring after a well worked set piece; Neil Taylor retrieved the ball from a short corner, weaved in and out of the defence before laying the ball off to McCluskey inside the penalty area who buried the ball into the bottom corner.
The home side were almost able to double their lead in the 15th minute when McCluskey hooked the ball over the advancing Dominic Comrie, but the goalkeeper's team mate Sam Hart dropped deep to head the ball off of the line. Luckily for North End, the ball then dropped into the grateful arms of Comrie who was quick to get back into position.
Preston were struggling to break down a stubborn Wrexham defence and could only muster long shots in the opening half an hour, the bulk of which were coming in from midfielder Barton. The first clear cut chances for the visitors came with just over five minutes remaining in the half, with McGreevy seeing his drilled cross hacked away for a corner and Jamie Proctor seeing his header just fall wide of the mark. These were the last chances in a hard fought half.
In the second half there was a clear transformation in the way North End were playing and Jamie Hoyland, who took control of the reserves alongside of Dean Ramsdale, saw his side take the game to the Red Dragons.
Efforts on goal began to flood in for the away side, with Proctor seeing his left footed strike blocked well and Barton continued to pose a threat from distance, taking on plenty of shots from range. North End had definitely upped the tempo with full back Conor McLaughlin offering another dimension on the right hand side.
The Northern Irish youth international was at the heart of Preston's first guilt-edge chance after the full back found time and space on the right hand side to deliver the cross into McGreevy. This low cross found McGreevy but the forward poked the ball fractionally wide with the bottom corner gaping.
This combination almost opened the scoring for North End again with McLaughlin whipping in the cross to McGreevy but the young forward was just unable to get over the ball.
McLaughlin was now finding plenty of joy on the right hand side and the youngster's willingness and exuberance won his side a penalty in the 63rd minute. Barton, who was the orchestrator for many of Preston's second half chances, picked out McLaughlin who had his ankles clipped as he advanced into the penalty area. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and this gave North End the chance to level the scores.
Barton stepped up to take the spot kick but Chris Maxwell in the Wrexham goal pulled off a magnificent save, diving low to his right hand side and palming the ball away. This was a minor blow for the Lilywhites but following this chance, Barton continued to probe and minutes later saw his left footed strike just fly over the crossbar.
Hoyland's youngsters continued to press but almost found themselves two goals down in the 70th minute when Wrexham substitute Leon Clowes was played clean through. Comrie was quickly off of his line though and made himself big, blocking the shot and keeping his side in the game.
The game began to fizzle out in the final ten minutes and it looked like it wasn't going to be Preston's day until the second minute of injury time. William Hayhurst picked the ball up on the left hand side, drove on and unleashed a superb solo effort which struck the post, the ball then rebounded out to Miller inside the area who hit it first time. Miller's shot was too hot to handle for Maxwell who got a hand to the ball but was unable to prevent the ball from rolling into the goal.
This goal was virtually the last kick of the game and was nothing short of what Preston's superior second half performance deserved.
Next up for the reserves is Accrington Stanley in the league next Wednesday, with the game kicking off at 2pm at the QED Stadium.
Wrexham: Maxwell, Brown (Hunt, 64), Williamson, Edwards, Obeng, Fairhurst, O'Leary, Cieslewicz, McCluskey (Clowes, 64), Taylor, Taboubi (Pearson, 69). Unused Subs: Wolfenden, Morton, Rushton.
PNE: Comrie, McLaughlin, Hart, Barton, Wright, Holtom, Miller, Davidson, Hayhurst, Proctor, McGreevy. Unused Subs: Dudley, Devine, Clucas, Bent, Birch.
