Wrexham: January 2012

Hello everyone and yes I have yet another update for you on my Wrexham story. Well, it’s winter I’m in Canada so what else can I do when it’s -20C outside :)

It was a brand new year which we began at home with a game against Crewe two days after finishing a huge eight game schedule in December. On looking at the squad this match had defeat written all over it as most of the players were extremely tired. I did manage to put out a starting eleven but as suspected we struggled and it was only in part to Nathaniel Jarvis who had returned from injury that the score was somewhat respectable. Having said that we were unlucky to lose to a 30 yard wonder strike late into the second half.

The following game was our FA Cup 3^rd round tie away to Burnley. The home side took the lead with pretty much their first attack of the game but we fought back with Fofana heading in an equalizer after 20 minutes. But from there on in it was all Burnley and as they say a picture tells a thousand words and in this case  that will do nicely. So out of the cup and for the first time we have been defeated two games in a row and conceded six goals. Yikes!

After back to back defeats we had to come away from Lincoln with three points and I told the lads as much before the game started. It took them a while to respond to my demands but eventually Jarvis but us ahead after 29 minutes when Fofana swept on a through ball to him which he neatly put past the keeper. Early in the second half Fofana doubled our lead having no problems scoring from the penalty spot and after Lincoln pulled one back themselves from the spot Alex Smith put the game beyond any doubt being the first to react after a Fofana free kick was pushed away by the Lincoln keeper into his path to make it 3-1. Shane Williams scored the fourth deep into injury time with a lovely diving header and so we left with a victory and the three points we were after.

Heavy snow and strong winds were the main feature of our home encounter with Cheltenham. For the first 30 minutes it was difficult to see what was going on but as the snow cleared our chances improved though in very awkward conditions we could only come up with a single goal scored by Nathaniel Jarvis 11 minutes into the second half.

A trip to Devon was next as we took on Torquay at the Plainmoor Stadium. Despite the home side going down to ten men relatively early on we had a difficult time breaking them down and creating meaningful chances. Martin Hansen produced two or three fine saves to keep us in the game  and it was substitute Wesley Baheng whose pace and finishing was enough to finally break the stalemate and secure the victory.

The final game of the month was at home to Barnet and with a top of the table clash coming up against Chesterfield I decided to send out my rotating players as the starting eleven. They didn’t look anything like a cohesive unit and struggled all afternoon and we eventually capitulated to a brace by veteran forward Michael Ricketts and so suffered our second home defeat in a month. Fortunately Chesterfield lost as well so we still remain ahead of them.

League Table

Despite those two home loses we remain top of the table but only just.

My transfer activity was pretty quiet mostly in part due to no money available for salaries which was disappointing as there were a couple of player I had my eye on. Still I did bring in two loans players; Michael Ordish from parent club Fulham and Jacob Walcott from Reading.

Complete transfer activity

Fixtures

The first game of next month is the top of the table clash with Chesterfield away from home which could prove pivotal to our promotion chances.

That’s all for this post so thanks for taking the time to read this.