Thanks again to Rory Sheehan who will be providing match reports and feature articles.
Rushden 1 Wrexham 1
Wrexham took a well-earned point from Sunday’s away game to much-fancied Rushden & Diamonds.
The performance was an improvement on the dismal away trip to York with Levi Mackin slotting back into midfield following suspension. Steve Evans came in for his first start of the season at the heart of defence, replacing the injured Nat Brown.We started brightly attacking the home team from the kick-off with Whalley giving Louis more support. The pressure didn’t yield any real opportunities, however Rushden failed to create much themselves.
A move involving Steve Evans and Sam Aiston ended with a good ball played across goal but unfortunately no Wrexham attackers were alive to the chance. Minutes later Diamonds goalkeeper Marriott was forced into a good save after Simon Brown’s shot from distance.
The last action of the half saw a Steve Evans header again well saved by Marriott from a Kearney free-kick. Wrexham ended the half strongly having been the better side throughout, a real boost after the last away game.
Another set-piece saw Kearney test the goalkeeper as we started the second-half well. Ironically, on the hour mark, we went behind against the run of play.
A general passage of poor defending amongst our back line led to an under-hit clearance from Simon Spender. It was picked up by Andy Burgess who raced to the byline and crossed for substitute Sam Smith to tap in from close range. The goal-scorer Smith happens to be the grand-nephew of ex-Wrexham boss Denis Smith.
Though the mistake for the goal was Spender’s he had a sound game having to deal with Burgess, undoubtedly one of the best wingers in the division.
In response Sam Aiston created a decent opening for himself only for his resulting effort to be disappointingly weak, as it so often is.
With 20 minutes to go Louis and Aiston were replaced by Wes Baynes and Neil Taylor. This time there was enough time remaining for the changes to take effect, which they did.
A combination of Kearney and Simon Brown delivered a cross for Shaun Whalley to pounce on from 6 yards out to equalize with quarter of an hour to go. Having created more chances, and generally dominated the home side there was hope that we might go on to produce a winner.
We found ourselves pegged back however as Burgess, Tomlin and Woodhouse tested Ward in trying to restore the Diamonds advantage. In the end we held out for a deserved draw from a potentially tricky away fixture.
Overall it was a better show than we put on at York though there are still a number of genuine concerns. Plenty of opportunities were created but went begging, we still lack serious cutting edge in the final third.
Though people will pick on Spender’s part in their goal and with Critchell to come in, he may soon be replaced) he Tremarco both had fine games. It’s in central defence where we look ponderous and at times vulnerable despite our collection of centre-backs.
The biggest positive other than the result was Levi Mackin’s performance and his growing partnership with Kearney. They are starting to stamp their authority in central midfield, and it’s good to see Mackin given a real opportunity to prove his many doubters wrong.
Our next fixture is a Setanta televised home clash against one of the BSP’s biggest clubs Oxford United on Thursday. They have similar promotion ambitions to those of ourselves. It could be a very interesting game…
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