Colwyn Bay made an impressive winning start to the new Cymru North season with a deserved 3-0 away to Gresford Athletic at Airbus UK Broughton on Friday evening.

Sam Jones’ first half header set Bay on track before second half strikes from Robbie Parry and Cai Owen sealed the win.

Captain Tom McCready recovered from a back injury to start and in a bright opening opening he tried his luck with speculative long range effort which went over before a free-kick in  promising position also cleared the bar.

McCready had another opportunity with a free-kick from a similar position parried by keeper Robbie Williams.

A lapse in concentration by the Bay defence let in Mike Pritchard but with only Andy Coughlin to beat he dragged his effort wide of the post before Daniel Holland also missed a chance, firing over the crossbar.

But it was Bay who went ahead on 22 minutes through Sam Jones’ powerful header from Cai Owen’s cross.

Jones turned provider for Bay’s second goal after 68 minutes with his cross finding debutant Robbie Parry, who had only minutes earlier come off the bench, firing into the top corner of the net despite the best efforts of keeper Williams.

Cai Owen, who was full of running throughout the game, wrapped up an impressive win with a stunning strike 10 minutes from time from Parry's pass.

Manager Craig Hogg commented: "“The performance was really, really good. Individually and collectively I was pleased with a lot of what I saw. Our men played like men tonight and I was really pleased for them.

“It was great to see Robbie (Parry), who hasn’t been training this week because he’s been away for a couple of days and we took a risk tonight in bringing him in.

“Sam Jones has been excellent for us in pre-season and he scored a great competitive first goal for us tonight. 

“And there was Cai Owen’s strike at the end. Cai’s been with us for a while and the Covid affected season where he hasn’t played any football for us and he puts a performance in like that.”

Reproduced with thanks to Colwyn Bay FC.