Wrexham: Happy New Year!!

Hello good friends and welcome to another quickly turned around update. Now that the pressure has eased off at work I can get back to relaxing with my favorite hobby :)

With the New Year celebrations over which we reluctantly had to fore-go we started our first game of 2011 on January 1^st against Crawley. French right winger Francis Laurent whom I’d picked up for free made his debut and within twenty minutes had forced an own goal though it looked like more his goal. We looked a bit more slicker but again failed up front until the late introduction of Fofana who, returning from a long injury,  smashed home our second.

As the transfer market was now open again I approached the board about making extra funds available for salaries and surprisingly enough they approved and added an extra £2,000 a week for a total of £ 20,000.

So instead of discussing anything else I went and signed Oliver Nicholas as I wanted to inject more youth into an aging back line.

Two days after the Crawley we travelled away from home to play Altrincham. Youngster Jay Harris came up from the reserves for this one and his determination in midfield led him to winning the ball and his direct pass set up Fofana for the opening goal after eight minutes. Altrincham fought back but we caught them on the counter and Cieslewicz’s sprint down the right flank and pinpoint cross was glanced in by the head of Marc Williams to make it 2-0. We held firm at the back until the home side forced a goal on the hour and minutes later Pogba who came on for Fofana missed an open goal but the two we already had were enough to take the three points.

Due to being knocked out of the FA Cup we got a bit of a much needed break and I was able to choose from a fully fit squad for the visit of 8^th placed Histon. Shane Williams who would go on to achieve a rating of 9.0 got things started with a through ball to Lyskov who buried into the back of the net after seventeen minutes. Lyskov run and telling cross into the box found the foot of Fofana to make it 2-0 and we were cruising. Chris Blackburn tapped in third from a corner before half time and although Histon created a nice goal for themselves in the second half they added one to our tally as well with their goalkeeper putting the ball into his own net. Overall it was our best perfomance in quite sometime and I was pleased with the debut performances of DC Oliver Nicholas and ST Wesley Ngo Baheng.

Next up was a trip to the Riveracre Stadium to play Johnny’s Motermen in the FA Trophy. Chris Blackburn headed us into the lead from a corner after just  ten minutes and a stunning strike by Fofana after the half hour put us into a comfortable 2-0 going into the interval. Vauxhall committed more men forward in the second half and eventually beat the offside trap twelve minutes from time. Cieslewicz quickly restored our two goal lead just a few minutes later thanks to some poor goalkeeping and so we were through to the next round.

It was back to the league and another away game this time against Fleetwood. Ismael Fofana gave us an early lead with another excellent strike following a good interchange of passes that started with  left back Steve Kinniburgh. We pressured the Fleetwood box for much of the first half but were unable to add to the scoreline. An injury early in the second half to DC Oliver Nicholas forced a change which Fleetwood took advantage of as we re-organized and they got their equalizer after forty nine minutes. Wesley Baheng had two simple chances to put the game beyond doubt but missed both though finally made up for lost opportunities bagging the winner with a lovely curling shot three minutes from time.

The final game of a busy month was at The Racecourse Ground with the visit of Forest Green. Chris Blackburn headed in the opening goal from a Fofana corner inside twenty minutes after which we laid siege to the visitor penalty area but were unable to get a second. Early in the second half we doubled our lead with thanks to some well executed passing ending in an intelligent ball from Williams to Wesley Baheng who made the score 2-0. It was a good solid performance though perhaps we should have added to the scoreline.

By then end of January we had a 100% record in 2011 which was just stunning as we had really been struggling the last little while. The signings of Baheng and Laurent have made a difference and Shane Williams seems to get better and better. All this resulted in a nice little lead at the top of the table. Oh, and the return of Fofana was also instrumental in our current success.

League Table

February Fixtures

Another fairly busy month coming up culminating in two critical back to back games against fellow title contenders which should be tough indeed.

Before I close just an off topic note. As most of you know by now I live in Toronto, Canada and have a very demanding work schedule and a two hour commute each day. Consequently due to that and the time difference I can’t always keep up with your wonderful stories in a timely manner or sometimes forget to check altogether for which I apologize. I am however very thankful for all your supportive and more timely comments on my current story. I hope to do better in the future.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!!