Wrexham 3-0 Yeovil Town: FA Cup - Dragons book third-round tie at Shrewsbury

Wrexham eased past a dogged Yeovil Town to book a third-round FA Cup trip to Shrewsbury Town.

The Dragons took the lead when Joe Day could only parry Ollie Palmer's header and he pounced on the rebound to score.

Yeovil nearly equalised when Jordan Young's free-kick clipped the post, before Andy Cannon doubled Wrexham's lead from the edge of the box.

Sam Dalby rounded off the win in time added on, skipping though the Yeovil defence before chipping Day.

Both sides struggled to create clear-cut other chances in a rain-soaked second half, but Wrexham had done enough.

They can now look forward to testing themselves away to League One side Shrewsbury in the third round, with ties to be played between 5 and 8 January.

Yeovil had painful memories of The Stok Racecourse, having been relegated by their defeat in north Wales in the penultimate game of last season - a campaign in which Wrexham clinched promotion to League Two.

But they entered Sunday's game as National League South leaders, while on the bench they had Rhys Murphy, who scored a hat-trick for the Glovers in a 3-3 draw in Wrexham in November 2019.

The two sides had only met once before in the FA Cup, with Wrexham humbled 4-1 in a first-round tie at Huish Park in November 2003 and keen to banish that memory 20 years later.

Paul Mullin takes evasive action as fellow striker Ollie Palmer puts Wrexham ahead against Yeovil

Wrexham were without on-loan Arsenal goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo because of a jaw injury, with Mark Howard taking over between the posts.

His opposite number Day is on loan from Newport County and would have been keen to get one over their Welsh rivals.

But he could do little for Wrexham's opener, doing well to keep out Palmer's initial effort from Cannon's excellent cross, only to be left helpless when the ball fell to Palmer for a second bite at goal.

Wrexham suffered an early injury blow when defender Aaron Hayden was forced off because of a calf strain, with James Jones taking his place in the back three.

It took more than half an hour for Yeovil to trouble Howard, who had been largely a spectator up to that point, but was alert to go full stretch to keep out Charlie Cooper's effort.

Young was then unfortunate when his fine free-kick hit the woodwork rather then the net with Howard beaten.

In the last moments of the first half Wrexham struck again when Ben Tozer's long throw was only cleared to the edge of the area, allowing Cannon to fire a bouncing ball back through a crowd of players past an unsighted Day.

Yeovil came out for the second half full of determination but had only a couple of shots from distance blazed over the bar to show for a bright first 10 minutes, with Frank Nouble at the heart of their best attacking efforts.

But as the rain began to pour down, Wrexham wrested back a measure of control and Jacob Mendy was unlucky to see his left-foot shot from outside the box skid just the wrong side of Day's left-hand post.

That still left Wrexham open to a swift counter and Young's incisive pass picked out a charging Murphy, fresh off the bench, only for George Evans to time his sliding tackle to perfection.

Back came Wrexham and as the Yeovil defence backed off, Jones was just wide with a dipping shot across the face of goal.

Mendy then worked space after good work by Mullin, only to slip as he tried to shoot, before James McClean's shot was deflected over.

Dalby gave the scoreline extra gloss as Yeovil chased the game, finishing off a slick Wrexham counter before sending the ball over the advancing Day and into the net.

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said:

"First half it was very comfortable for us but credit to Yeovil, they came back into the game. But we'd expect that, they're a good team and are doing really well in their league.

"When you're a team at the top of the table in your respective league you've got certain qualities and one of those is character, and Yeovil showed that in the second period, they never gave in.

"We couldn't quite find that final pass to go and kill the game off like we intended to do, right until the last minute when Dalby scored a terrific goal."