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Wrexham: December 2011

Published on

25 декабря, 2010

Kevin

Hello friends and a Merry Christmas to you all. As the wife and the cat are still asleep what better way to send Christmas morning than a little bit of Football Manager. Besides it’s freezing outside :)

Our first game of a gruelling December was away to Acrrington who were sitting mid-table. I had decided to rest a lot of the regular first team players and Pogba who hadn’t been around for a while made an immediate impact scoring after just 11 minutes. When the home side went down to 10 men I thought we could really take advantage but failed to do so and Accrington found an equalizer just before half time. Pogba though added his second just before the hour after being the first to react to a teasing low cross by Nzuzi. That in the end would be enough for the victory.

Next up was a home game to Bury and with a top of the table clash on the horizon I kept with pretty much the same eleven as last time. MR Francis Laurent whom I’d had a guts full of his poor form was stuck up front and I told him this was his final chance. He scored after 2 minutes…naturally. However after such an exciting start there was nothing in between and we had to wait until injury time before sub Wesley Baheng scored a second to send the fans home happy.

The following game was at home to Southend and for the opening 10 minutes the visiting keeper was kept busy as Fofana and Baheng unleashed a barrage of shots on the Southend goal but couldn’t find the right one to beat him. It was five minutes before the interval that we were finally successful when Oliver Nicholas headed in from a Fofana corner. Fonana would double our lead midway through the second half using his strength to win a Baheng through ball and striking it into the top corner of the net. For a 2-0 win.

We travelled down the M5 to Yeovil as we reached the mid point of this long and hard December schedule and I was hoping for another three points. Wesley Baheng got things of to an exciting start hitting the insdie of the pst within the first 90 seconds and that fired up the team to push for an opening goal. Once again we came across an in form keeper but it was a set piece that gave us the lead on the half hour after Fofana floated into the box a free kick where unmarked DC Moses Barnet tucked it in for his first ever goal for Wrexham. As with the previous game it was mid way through the second half when we extended the lead with Baheng powering in a through ball from Williams which made it four wins out of four in December.

Our next game was at home to bitter rivals Shrewsbury and as in the last game Baheng hit the bar inside the first couple of minutes but that positive start soon deflated as Shrewsbury organized themselves at the back and frustrated us for the remainder of the game. This was one I wanted to win but for all our efforts we had to settle for a draw.

We stayed at home for the Boxing Day fixture against Tranmere in front of a crowd of just over 5000 and like ourselves Tranmere were on a 6 game streak without losing. We got off to a fantastic start with Fofana firing in the opening goal from a Williams through ball within 2 minutes of the start. Baheng added a second 12 minutes later easily slipping by the Tranmere defence and hammering the ball past the keeper. Things got even better as Williams was the architect once more and assisted by Fofana set Alex Smith up to score our third. However the home fans were in for a real Christams treat as number four went in 5 minutes from the interval as Nzuzi racing in from the right flank cheekily slipped the ball underneath the Tranmere keeper to send the crowd into hysteria. After the interval Tranmere immediately pushed forward and we caught them on the break with Baheng adding number five with a magnificent individual effort. Following that Lee McArdle was harshly sent off but even with ten men we tried to add to the tally but in the end the score remained the same to the delight of those who showed up at the Racecourse Ground.

With McArdle suspended, a 4 week injury to Brian Gilmour and the fatigue factor, it was a sort of make shift team that I sent down to the south coast to play Bournemouth two days later. Nathan Rooney conceded a penalty to give the home side the lead early on and it was the penalty taker Marc Pugh that scored an own goal early in the second half that earned us a draw in this less than entertaining encounter.

New Years Eve and the final game of this very exhausting month away to Burton Albion. Goals by Fofansa and Baheng in the first 30 minutes were enough to gain all three points even though the team looked very tired especially in the second half but we made it through the month unbeaten which is far more than I expected.