Wrexham 3 Oldham 3

SMILES turned to frowns as Wrexham let slip a 3-1 lead on a frantic opening to a new season.

Trinidadian internationals Dennis Lawrence and Carlos Edwards looked to have put Wrexham on the road to victory as they overturned a 1-0 half-time deficit.

The towering 6ft 7in Lawrence was clearly ecstatic about his first league goal, which cancelled out the Mark Allott effort that gave the Latics the lead just before the break.

Lawrence lunged in, telescoped one of those long legs and Wrexham's calypso show was on the way.

The silky Edwards made it 2-1 nine minutes later, and before Oldham had time to recover Craig Faulconbridge fired a third.

Rampant Wrexham were on the march. The Red Dragons were breathing fire.

Goalkeeper Kristian Rogers was feeling pretty good at that time, and why not? No blame could be levelled at him about Oldham's first goal.

Indeed, he brilliantly kept out Bangor-born Matthew Tipton's blockbuster only for Allott to react first to the rebound.

And it was Rogers's amazing double save on the stroke of half- time that kept Wrexham afloat. He made a greatstop from Stuart Balmer, and then made another from Allott's follow-up effort.

Rogers, and the rest of us, watched and could only drool over Wrexham's purple patch.

Darren Ferguson fed some quality stuff to his front-runners, and suddenly from the wilderness everything came up roses for Wrexham.

But nothing is lost until it is won, and Oldham never surrendered. No-one epitomised their never-say-die attitude more than centre-back Shaun Garnett.

The gnarled Garnett played on with a cut head swathed in bandages as the Latics came back in a dramatic finish.

Two substitutions by Oldham manager Andy Ritchie paid huge dividends in ironic twists. David Eyres, once of Rhyl, and Carlo Corazzin came on and turned this topsy-turvy game upside down.

Eyres made it 3-2 with a spectacular 25-yarder to continue his remarkable scoring record against Wrexham. Corazzin, who scored five goals against Wrexham last season, got the equaliser, ironically in time added on for a long stoppage after Ferguson had been injured.

Wrexham fans, understandably, were disappointed. So was manager Brian Flynn, who said, "It's very frustrating.

"It was the first game of the season and everyone wants to do well. We should have won the game at 3-1 up."

But there was also some validity in what Ritchie had to say. "It would have been an injustice if we hadn't got something out of it," was his comment.