Wrexham: September 2011 (What happened?)

Hello friends and welcome back to my continuing journey with Wrexham as we play our second month in League 2.

September began with the visit of Torquay to the Racecourse Ground. My assistant manager reported that Torquay played well against a 4-4-2 so I switched things up with a 4-4-1-1 with young Slovakian Michal Dolinajec starting in the AMC position behind Baheng. Dolinajec has been in the squad for over a year though I rarely play him. Thomas Lyskov starting his first game of the season only took eleven minutes to get on the score sheet neatly placing the ball under the Torquay keeper with Williams as the provider.  The rest of the half featured FOUR clearances off the line and a Baheng shot that hit the post. After the interval the visitors were a little more ambitious and eventually found an equalizer after 73 minutes. Asante came on for Baheng and his fresh legs set up up a lovely counter attacking move that was finished off by Da Silva and  Asante bagged one himself latching on to a through ball by Williams once again.

The next game  was away to Cheltenham who were in 23^rd place so I was hoping for yet another three points. The game turned out to be one of those bore draws so our 100% record disappeared.

Four days later we played away from home this time against Barnet who were also near the bottom of the table. We got off to a great start with Wesley Baheng curling the ball from just outside the box into the right corner of the net. Barnet equalized off a headed in free kick and then we conceded another before half time again off a set piece. Our discipline totally fell apart in the second half and Barnet sensing the kill finished us off with another goal. It was undoubtedly our worst performance of the season so far.

Chesterfield were our next opponents and we would face them at The Racecourse Ground. Early pressure on the visitors goal saw two attempts from Nicholas and Baheng  cleared off the line within the first three minutes and then Francis Laurent stupidly got himself sent off for a very dangerous tackle and that left us down to 10 men after 13 minutes. With Baheng on his own upfront we had very  little chance of making any serious headway and it was all we could do to muster a draw out of a very miserable afternoon.

The last game of the month was away to Stevenage with the most exciting thing happening in the 90 minutes was the home side being reduced to 10 men early in the second half. We had good possession and passing but our cross ball into the box was lousy and rarely did we threaten Stevenage’s goal. At the other end Martin Hansen didn’t have much to do either.

What started out as a very bright month ahead turned into a very dismal 30 days though surprisingly we remain at the top of the table despite all those below average performances.

League Table

Fixtures

We start off October with a game against rivals Hereford and finish off playing Luton who were promoted along with us last season.

One noticeable item is that my midfielders seem to get more easily fatigued this season than last. Their training and instructions have not been altered dramatically and I believe is the reason for the current poor form. Hopefully I can figure out what the problem is?

Thanks for dropping by and those readers who have started school Christmas Holidays already have a great time off !!