Thanks again to Rory Sheehan who will be providing match reports and feature articles
Mansfield 1 Wrexham 2
Wrexham recorded their 3rd successive win since appointing Dean Saunders as manager and the resurgence continues.
They travelled to Field Mill where relegation from the Football League was effectively sealed last season, though the home side Mansfield eventually went down with us. They’d made a better start to life in the BSP but that has been curtailed by off-field issues and a recent points deduction.
New signing Ashley Westwood made his Wrexham debut at centre-half in place of Steve Evans. Levi Mackin replaced the injured Fleming and Simon Brown replaced Spann. Michael Proctor came in for the injured Louis. Ex-Dragon Michael Blackwood was in the ‘Stags’ line-up.
There was no real quality on display in the opening stages or any proper clear-cut opportunities. Simon Brown received plenty of stick from the fans of his former club and Carl Tremarco pulled up with an ankle injury early on. He was replaced by Silvio Spann who made an immediate impact – at the wrong end.
As Simon Brown dawdled on the ball following a Wrexham corner he was caught by Mansfield’s Emile Sinclair. Sinclair carried the ball into the Wrexham half but Spann closed in on him to dispossess the pacy forward… or not! His feeble mis-kick for a back-pass was pounced on by Sinclair who rounded Ward to open the scoring on 25 minutes.
It was a dreadful howler and to say Spann looked devastated would be an understatement. Maybe it was because he’d only recently returned on a long flight back from Trinidad, or because he’s starting to show his true quality as a player, fans and team-mates alike rallied behind him, immediately forgiving the error. Spann then went on to have a good, productive game.
As it was, we were soon back level. Just after half an hour a superb Baynes corner was met by an unstoppable Mike Williams header for his first senior goal. Wrexham were by now far the better team, going forward regularly and looking dangerous.
The home team started the second-half brightly but Wrexham were soon in control and creating chances. Our dominance paid off when Mike’s younger brother, Marc Williams, continued his rich vein of form in front of goal.
Proctor did the hard work in the area before playing the ball to Williams, who shrugged off the challenge of a defender, before lashing home from close-range in front of the travelling fans near the hour-mark.
Almost immediately Mansfield replaced one veteran striker (Mark Stallard) with another (Jason Lee) in an attempt to draw level. To counter Lee’s height Saunders replaced Simon Brown with Steve Evans. Still, it was Wrexham who remained on top.
Goalscorer Mike Williams became the latest injury victim as he went down concussed in centre-circle from an earlier incident with quarter of an hour to go. He was replaced by Sam Aiston. With one eye on running down the clock we hung on defensively at times in the closing stages though Proctor did have a shot saved point-blank from 6 yards out.
The final whistle eventually sounded to ensure that the Dean Saunders 100% record continued. Once again a young Wrexham side showed the character to come from a goal down away from home to take all 3 points.
Our instant turnaround in form since the arrival of Saunders has been well-earned and very welcome. The future now looks interesting if not very exciting.
He’s managing to draw performances out of players previously written off by some fans and the old regime – Spann, and Marc Williams to name just two, and is generally getting the best out of everyone else. Who knows what other hidden depths of talent he’ll find in the squad?
Maybe we’ll discover more when we start our FA Cup campaign at home to Eastwood Town this weekend…
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