Thanks again to Rory Sheehan who will be providing match reports and feature articles
Cambridge 2 Wrexham 0
Wrexham suffered their second successive defeat after being outfought and outplayed by Cambridge United. This disappointing performance followed the dismal home defeat to Burton, as one of the division’s fellow promotion tips beat the Dragons convincingly.
The home side featured ex-Wrexham players Lee McEvilly and Phil Bolland in their line-up along with Paul Carden, briefly a Wrexham player over the summer before his U-turn, as part of the growing colony of scousers at Cambridge. Apart from Shaun Pejic’s first start of the season in place of Steve Evans who was on international duty, Wrexham were unchanged from the Burton game.
Wrexham made a promising start when an early opportunity fell to Simon Brown. His shot on goal following a set-piece just went wide of the far post, and shortly after Levi Mackin had an attempt turned round the post by goalkeeper Danny Potter.
At the other end Wrexham were tested by Mark Beesley setting up Lee McEvilly for a close-range header which hit the post. It was an early warning of the threat the impressive Beesley posed.
As the half wore on Cambridge grew in confidence and began to dominate. They built on their pressure when, with around half an hour gone, a corner was flicked on and met by Beesley at the far post to slam home and make it 1-0.
Other than a long-range drive from Wes Baynes approaching the break Wrexham failed to threaten Cambridge at all and deservedly trailed at half-time.
Lacking any inspiration whatsoever going forward it was no surprise when Proctor was introduced (for Baynes) with less than half an hour to go. Unfortunately before the change could take effect the game was as good as lost.
McEvilly was able to cross to Holroyd whose shot was well-saved by Ward only for it to come back off the crossbar. Beesley was more alert to the rebound than the Wrexham defence and casually stuck the ball in the back of the net to make it 2-0.
Wrexham lacked fight with our lightweight midfield an obvious problem. The likes of Whalley and Louis had little to go on but when they did they couldn’t apply a decent finish. A horribly wide shot from Whalley followed a mistake by Potter which should have given us an opening.
The game petered out as Cambridge exerted a general dominance befitting of their two goal advantage. There could be no complaints from the Wrexham camp as they were second best after what appeared to be a bright start.
No Wrexham fan can be happy that the club currently lies in 13th place in the table behind the likes of such footballing powers as Crawley, Histon and Eastbourne. Sadly, with only 3 wins from the opening 8 games the table paints an accurate picture of where we are at the moment.
The fact that we have gone a goal behind in 6 of those 8 games is also startling and the last couple of performances are a real concern with the midfield becoming increasingly beleaguered. Brian Little has to improve the situation soon before the growing dissent amongst fans transmit into widespread calls for him to go.
A convincing win at home to Ebbsfleet on Saturday would be a great start…
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