______________________________________________________________________ It’s hard to analyse games at the moment without touching on the very distracting off-field context. The ambiguity surrounding Brian Carey’s future at the club and who will take his place as manager is no direct excuse for this hammering. However this result, performance and the confusion over the future management of the club seem to go hand in hand. The advent of the FA Cup 1st Round is usually a chance to indulge in escapist dreams of giant-killings and cup runs. Something we became used to in times gone by. It helps break the monotony of many a dull league campaign. Unfortunately for us there was to be no escape from our current nightmare away at high-flying Peterborough, though after the mini-improvement at home to Wycombe, some of us allowed ourselves to hope. As if the Cup wasn’t incentive enough, there was the opportunity to get one over on Wrexham old boy’s Darren Ferguson, Kevin Russell and Craig Morgan. Surely the players would be really motivated for this one no matter the gulf between the two side’s (divisional rivals but world’s apart on and off the field)? We started terribly conceding after just a few minutes, poor defending leaving Craig Mackail-Smith to head Posh into the lead. Peterborough were by far the better side and deservedly doubled the lead just before half-time through a piece of comical defending. Except for Wrexham fans this wasn’t funny. Defender Richard Hope and goalkeeper Anthony Williams embarrassingly colliding with each other leaving Mackail-Smith an open goal to claim his second of the game. Mackail-Smith grabbed his hat-trick in the second-half a decent strike putting the game beyond doubt after 53 minutes. Wrexham bagged a consolation when substitute Neil Roberts went in bravely to score with 25 minutes to go. The clock ticked on any potential Wrexham comeback until when with two minutes to go Aaron McLean poached a fourth. Our Cup dreams over at the first hurdle, we have little to look forward to for the rest of the season. A new manager and another relegation battle? A shot at the FAW Premier Cup? We have a break now until our derby game at home to local rivals Chester City who, to rub salt into the wounds, are doing well. The new manager has to be installed by then. The owners of our club have made a massive PR mess in the last week by publically revealing they were looking to replace Carey and then back-tracking on how soon that change will happen. They’ve even admitted they don’t have a clue as to who the replacement will be yet. It’s made a once proud club a laughing stock and is hurting the fans as much as the rubbish we’re seeing at the games. Brian Carey has conducted himself with great dignity over the last week given the humiliating circumstances he has found himself in. It’s a great shame things have gone so wrong under his tenure as manager this season, ending with this game. I wish I could feel as sympathetically about some of the players and the club’s board. They are the one’s we’ll be stuck with after Carey has gone. Dickens & Moss have to make the right appointment, and soon… ______________________________________________________________________ If this is to have been Brian Carey’s last home match in charge then it wasn’t a bad game to bow out with. No ‘Carey out’ chants, some decent football, a good team performance with lots of commitment, the only thing missing was a goal that would have turned a draw into a certain win. Leading up to the game was the distracting farce of the ‘board’ publicly announcing that a new manager would be appointed soon to replace Carey at the helm. There seems to be much confusion as to when this appointment will be made, or even whether the owners have a clue as to who they are going to bring in. In the meantime Carey will stay in the top job until a successor is appointed. Whether Carey will be part of the new set-up remains to be seen (I’d like to think he will be). What the players make of all this is anybody’s guess, but credit to them they battled well last night and showed any potential new boss that they have something to build upon. Wrexham started the game well and for the first time in a while started a game really positively at home. We put passes together going forward, Done ran and beat defenders out wide as did Eifion Williams up front, while Llewellyn put in maximum effort charging the Wycombe defence down at every opportunity. The central defensive partnership of Gareth Evans and Richard Hope were generally untested in the first half. Our best opportunity came from the penalty spot, when we were awarded a penalty after Done had been brought down in the area. Our penalty hero against Boston last season, Ryan Valentine, had his low effort to the keeper’s right saved. We continued to keep the pressure on the away side until half-time. Wycombe’s creative players Sergio Torres and Martin Bullock were stifled, as was their main goal threat Scott McGleish. In the second-half Wycombe came back into the game more, particularly through the above mentioned players. However Richard Hope and Gareth Evans held firm, with Anthony Williams also looking comfortable in goal. Wycombe applied pressure through numerous corners, particularly as the clock wound down. Many Wrexham fans were beginning to settle for a point and a clean sheet, especially with the understandable nerves creeping in that we’d concede yet another last minute goal. Thankfully we held out, and despite still having seen only 3 Wrexham goals scored at home all season most of the crowd went home satisfied. The attendance was poor, being under 3,000, many perhaps waiting until the new manager takes over before returning. Credit to those who did turn up, there was a more positive feel around the place. Though we’d had our money’s worth at last, you have to ask why it takes the prospect of a new manger coming in and having to play for their futures, for the players to play like they did. If they’d played like this under Carey previously, despite the lack of goal threat, we wouldn’t be in the relegation zone and looking for a new ‘Senior Manager’. It’s a little frustrating, but there were more positives than negatives to take from the game. We can only hope that whoever takes over from Carey can bring such performances out of the team on a more regular basis. For now though it looks as if Carey will be in charge for our big Cup tie away to some ‘old friends’ at Peterborough United this weekend…
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Rory Sheehan |
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