Wrexham: September 2013

Hello  everyone and thanks for dropping in to catch up on all the news from The Racecourse Ground.

Following the two heavy defeats at the end of last month I decided to take a good look at the squad and lo and behold many of those who had played were “severely lacking in match fitness” even though they had 95 to 100% condition. It was terrible oversight and a very basic mistake on my part.

With the visit of Preston for opening game of the month I made sure I double checked fitness and selected the team accordingly and sure enough the team produced the result I was looking for. Ismael Fofana gave us the lead through a typical powerful strike after Ortiz had won the ball in midfield with a header forward to Fofana. Moses Barnett added the second from a corner in the 68^th minute and a shot by David Martin was pushed away by the Preston keeper that Shawn MacDonald pounced on to score his first ever goal for the club three minutes from time.

As it was time for the international break I decided to arrange a couple of friendlies for those players not on duty as it provided a great opportunity to get those squad members lacking match fitness some playing time. The results were not important even though we did win both games, however they produced the desired result in terms of fitness by the time we were ready to face Leicester.

The trip to The Walkers Stadium was a match dominated by the home side who very rarely allowed us into their final third of the pitch. GK Chris Maxwell was kept busy all afternoon but was unable to stop a powerful header from a corner which provided Leicester with the victory.

We returned home for the following game against MK Dons and got off to a smashing start with Baheng glancing in a header at the near post from a corner kick after just 10 minutes. American, Lewis Henderson who would go on to put in his best performance so far supplied the cross that Baheng latched on to in the six yard box to double the lead just after the half hour mark. By the interval came we had put in a good solid effort and continued on in the second half adding a third goal as Oliver Nicholas headed in off a Lee McArdle free kick. McArdle got sent off late in the game and the numerical advantage finally allowed the visitors a consolation goal.

Next up we were off to The Toon to play Newcastle who were quite possibly our biggest opponents since I took over the club. I told the lads the pressure was off but expected a performance from club captain Dean Hammond who went onto play his best game ever! We got off to a magical start with Hammonds shot forcing a corner which was fumbled by the Newcastle keeper and Conor Henderson fired the ball home for his first ever goal for the club after 7 minutes. The expected onslaught from the home side came immediately but DC Seb Hines, who finally started a game was equal to the task and GK Martin Hansen played like a man on fire. By the interval we were still holding on to the 1-0 lead and a stern word in the ear of Baheng and Mitrovic paid off as Baheng linked up with Hammond whose through ball was cleanly controlled by Mitrovic and his deftly finish put us 2-0 up. Despite fatigue setting in we held onto our lead for what was a truly memorable win and a valuable three points.

The final game of the month featutred the visist of league leaders West Ham United. We gave a good account of ourselves but should have done a lot better particularly with our finishing as we messed about with the ball too much outside the box and gave away possession. We did however out-shoot West Ham but in the end lost to a single goal which came from a corner kick. GK Martin Hansen was excellent between the sticks whislt Nathan Rooney played well in midfield. A disappointing result as it could have easily been a win for us.

League Table

Fixtures

A slightly better month that see’s us move up a couple of places  in the table and hopefully we can continue with a few more solid performances to strenghten our position in the table.

Thanks very much for reading and I get to enjoy a long weekend after work because Monday is a public holiday in Ontario. Hopefully it won’t be spoilt by Crawley Town beating United in The FA Cup tomorrow!