Wrexham:November 2012

Hello my friends and welcome back to my continuing Football Manager Story.

Once again I’ll begin the month with the financial status which took a slight dip but nothing too worrying at this stage.

We started off November with a cross country trip to Colchester and after a disappointing end to last month I told the lads I expected a win today. The game started with some early chances going to Fofana and Nzuzi with the home side going close as well. As half time approached the game really came alive with Gilmour as usual finding Fofana in space to open the scoring. Colchester hit back from a set piece right on half time but Oliver Nicholas restored the lead early in the second half from our own free kick. Gilmour again was the architect this time finding Baheng to extend the lead further in the 61^st minute but the home side clawed one back once more as we failed to deal with a cross from the right flank. A well worked play saw Baheng thump the ball into the net to regain our two goal advantage but Dalla Valle hit an absolute screamer to bring Colchester back in contention once more. We weren’t done though with Gilmour producing a succulent pass to substitute Mitrovic who swept it passed the keeper for goal number five to finish off one of the most exciting games I can remember.

The following game was a trip to the Memorial Stadium to take on Bristol Rovers. Both Baheng and Fofana kept the Bristol keeper busy from the get go but some unlucky bounces of the ball and some fine saves ensured that the the home side kept a clean sheet and by the interval we looked more likely to make something happen. Sure enough we did with a typical move down the left flank with Conor Henderson supplying the telling cross for Fofana to sweep into the net. Bristol though responded admirably and dominated the remainder of the game but some solid defending by McArdle and good keeping by Chris Maxwell ensured we came away with the three points. With Barnsley losing at home we took top spot for the first time this season.

A good crowd of over 7,000 showed up as we took on Tamworth in the first round of The FA Cup. It was an opportunity to give some of the other players a run out and Nathaniel Jarvis got things going with a goal after 15 minutes. Tamworth though pulled back and equalizer though Jarvis restored the lead just before the interval. With the visitors already down to 10 men Mitrovic added a third early in the second half and Tamworth lost another player after a cynical challenge on Dean Hammond. The score remained unchanged at 3-1 so a good solid win which will see us travel to either Notts County or Tranmere in the next round.

Our next match was also a cup game that being the JPT Quarter Final North against Morecambe. The pundits said this had penalty shoot out written all over it and I should have listened as sure enough it was a drab 90 minutes but surprisingly Morecambe penalty takers were worse than mine and we went through by 4-2 from spot kicks. After the game my physio told ne that MR Jimmy Keohane had torn his hamstring and will be out for three months.

With the cup games out of the way it was back to league action and the visit of 24^th place Chesterfield to The Racecourse Ground. Ismael Fofana gave us the lead inside 10 minutes after Baheng had picked up the ball in midfield and slipped it through to his strike partner for a low shot into the corner of the net. Shane Williams doubled our lead seven minutes from half time with his first goal of the season. Wesley Ngo Baheng then took the game by storm hitting a second half brace in a dominating  performance which also saw the back four over committing themselves in attack allowing Chesterfield two easy goals.

Our first away game for a while saw us take on Brentford in a game in which we really struggled to make any impact. We had a difficult time playing against their 4-1-2-1-2 formation and an equalizing goal by Fofana just before half time provided what was really a very lucky draw for us.

It was the final game of the month and we were at home once more to take on Plymouth Argyle who lined up in a very attacking manner. As in the previous game we found ourselves defending more than anything else and what we did create up front never really troubled the Plymouth keeper. After the interval we did finally break the deadlock with Dean Hammond threading a ball through the Plymouth defence for a trademark power strike from Baheng. The lead didn’t last long as Plymouth soon found an equalizer from a long range effort  though Nzuzi could have given us the winner but put the ball wide from inside the six yard box. The game fizzled out for a draw and for the second time in a row our form deteriorated as the month came to an end.

Even though there are some questions around our drop in form again we actually came on on top of the table as we head into the final month of 2012. Not by much in terms of points but we do have a pretty good goal difference.

Fixtures

December as usual has a crazy amount of games so it becomes a survival of the fittest. We start off with an FA Cup game but then comes the dilemma of whether or not to send out the «reserves» for the JPT game. I’d like to save my best players for the league matches but Shrewsbury is our fiercest rival so if we lost that could have a negative effect on the club. What to do???

Thanks for reading and have a great day!!