Wrexham: October 2013

Hello friends and welcome back to my continuing Wrexham story in which we’ve encountered a difficult start in The Championship.

We started the month off with a trip to Vicarage Road to play Watford with the home side taking the lead with a long range effort after just 10 minutes. With the greater possession predominately throughout the first half we were able to fashion an equalizer with youngster Nuno Camara being first to react to a deflected shot that he whacked into the roof of the net. We put in a very solid second half performance but one slip of concentration allowed Watford to grab the winning goal two minutes from time. We deserved a point but only have ourselves to blame for the loss.

We were off to Devon next to face Exeter City  with 17 year old ML Mario Ferreria making his debut for Wrexham after joining us on loan from parent club Fulham. Once more we outplayed our opponents but after a scoreless first half the home side took the lead, heading in from a corner after 64 minutes. Patrick Nzuzi  on the right side seemed out of his depth and Fofana was practically invisible so were both replaced by American Lewis Henderson and  Baheng. The mood changed and we came up with the equalizer through Baheng who swept the ball into the net after a spirited run and cross by Ferreria 10 minutes later. The score remained unchanged and I was happy to come away with a point.

Mario Ferreria

Arriving back at The Racecourse Ground were two job offers waiting for me. The first from Cardiff whom I immediately rejected as I could hardly leave for a rival Welsh team and the second from Watford which I thought about for quite some time and involved a visit to the local coffee shop before deciding to carry on with Wrexham.

With no immediate games due to World Cup qualifiers I arranged a fitness fixture against Falkirk which we came from behind to win 3-2

Following the international break we had a home game against Hull City. It was a very even contest to begin with but Baheng broke the deadlock after 38 minutes with Lewis Henderson the supplying the cross from the right that Baheng headed home. We looked to have the game completely under control until a 30 yard lob caught GK Hansen off his line and it was 1-1.  That was the incentive Hull needed and they came up with the winner two minutes from time as LB Lough pushed too far forward providing adequate space for the visitors to snatch the victory.

Our next encounter was with Portsmouth at Fratton Park which in the end turned into one of those bore draws though Shane Williams had a golden opportunity for a late winner but he managed to send his close range shot over the bar. At least we got a point though.

The final game of the month was at home to title chasers QPR. We were rewarded for our workman like performance in the first half with a goal from ML David Martin following a brave diving header from Shane Williams into the box that fell nicely for Martin to put past the QPR keeper. We came out for the second half in a confident mood until a corner deflected onto our young RB Massacci and into the net. He couldn’t do a thing about it. Rangers then pressed for the go ahead goal but got caught too far forward with Williams breaking away and running 60 yards before striking the ball past the keeper for a magical goal. Just as we thought we had the game tied up QPR fought back and beat our offside trap for a dramatic late equalizer.

League Table

Fixtures

We find ourselves then just two points above the relegation zone and morale amongst my strikers is at it’s lowest since taking over the club with there seemingly no way out of their individual downward spirals. I’m comtemplating bringing in some short term loan strikers to try and rescue things up front.

We start off next month with a local derby away to Cardiff which is not the type of fixture one would want when things are going badly though the only positive is that they are doing worse than us and are in 24th place :)

Thanks for reading and enjoy your Sunday!