Wrexham: The 2013 / 14 Season Kick Off

Hello friends and welcome back to Wrexhams big kick off in The NPower Championship.

In the final days before the start of the season Brian Gilmour who had served the club well for the last three seasons was dropped to the reserves and lost his captaincy of the club. Dean Hammond was immediately promoted to lead the team this season with Espen Sogard being appointed as the Vice Captain.

Before the first game of the season there would be one more player joining The Red Dragons and that would be RB Rodrigue Dikaba of the Democratic Republic of Congo and was suggested by Kevin Pressman my Assistant Manager.

The build it was over and it was time to begin our Championship campaign with a home game against Reading. An almost full house of 13,000 showed up at The Racecourse Ground to see us get off to a very nervy start with Maxwell being forced to make a save within the first minute. New club captain Dean Hammond calmed the ship and by half time was “Captain Marvel”. A decisive run into the box by Hammond set up Nuno Camara for a goal on his debut after 30 minutes and Hammond himself added the second after a poor clearance by Reading ended up in his path to strike past the keeper. After the interval a break down the left flank resulted in a cross by Baheng whose younger French compatriot Camara headed cleanly into the net for his second of the game. Reading pushed and pushed for a way back into the match but we caught them on the break and Camara’s through ball to substitute Fofana ended with a blistering shot by the Ivorian into the roof of the net to seal an unbelievable start to the season.

Following that sensational start was a trip to Rochdale for a League Cup 1^st round encounter. An Oliver Nicholas header from a corner opened the scoring after 13 minutes but he was then involved in a defensive mix up with GK Martin Hansen that gifted the equalizer for the home side. That goal elevated moral for Rochdale who kept us very much under pressure for the remainder of the half. Order was quickly restored following a few harsh words at half time with Marko Mitrovic bagging a brace; first from a Billy Clifford through ball into the box and the second off a well worked free kick to seal the victory.

Next up was a difficult away game at The City Ground, Nottingham. Forest showed they meant business early on scoring from 30 yards out off a free kick that GK Maxwell never even saw. Despite that early set back we responded well but it took until the 38^th minute for Moses Barnett to head in the equalizer from a corner kick. Forest though went ahead once more just before the hour when their intricate passing left us at a standstill as they practically walked the ball into the goal. Their lead was short lived as RB Massacci played a long ball forward that Camara judged the bounce perfectly to slide it under the sprawling Forest keeper. Fofana came on for the injured Baheng and was unlucky not to get the winner having his shot desperately cleared off the line. I was happy though with the team’s spirit and they deserved the draw.

The following game was back at home against Ipswich Town who were currently at the bottom of the table. However we played more like the bottom club as Ipswich totally dominated from start to finish and should have really scored more than a single goal. It was one of our worst performances at home since I took over the club. New RB Rodrique Dibika who Assistant Manager Kevin Pressman insisted on buying was sent off on his debut to cap off a miserable afternoon.

Having eliminated Rochdale in the first round of the League Cup we faced a long trip north to The Riverside Stadium to play Premier League side Middlesboro in the second round. We should have stayed at home. Leroy Lita ran our defence ragged scoring a hat-trick whilst we managed only one shot on target even though we enjoyed the greater possession.

It was back to league action for the final game of the month and away to Leeds United. Lee McArdle’s foul allowed the home side to take the lead from the penalty spot early in the game and although we tried to muscle ourselves back into the game a rare fumble by GK Maxwell offered an easy second goal for the home side. From there Leeds never looked back adding two more unanswered goals to finish off the month with a crushing and demoralizing 4-0 defeat.

The dream start to the season has quickly turned into a living nightmare.

League Table

Fixtures

That’s it then for the first post of the new season and we’ve immediately found ourselves starring at the wrong end of the table which is something we haven’t really experienced. Hopefully next month will see some improvement.