______________________________________________________________________ Another game, another defeat, another three goals conceded. To get anything from an away trip to promotion chasing Rotherham in our position would have been asking a lot, and to be fair there were times during the game when we really competed. Cruelly though, the bottom line is that we lost again and remain stuck in the relegation zone. Manager Brian Little surprised many by including Matty Crowell in the starting line-up. The central midfielder is one of our longest serving players yet his short-term contract runs out in just over a week’s time. He’s hardly figured at all in 2007, mostly because of injury, and Little obviously wanted to see what he could offer before making a decision over his future. Little also changed formation by moving to a back four which saw Pejic and Taylor miss out while Valentine returned. We started with Proctor, Llewellyn and Roberts up front. Within the first few minutes the home side had a goal disallowed and looked the stronger side. Our cause wasn’t helped when on 13 minutes we were reduced to ten men as Crowell was red-carded for a two-footed lunge on Ian Ross. Unfortunately the incident was reminiscent of many similar challenges we’ve seen from Matty during his time at the club. It was rash, thoughtless and he must have been devastated that he ruined his big chance to impress and maybe extend his contract. Now we were further up against it, Neil Roberts dropped back into midfield and we coped for most of the first-half. Just five minutes before the break however the Millers opened us up at the back for Ross to have shot. Valentine got in a block but it fell to the prolific Derek Holmes to slot home another goal against us. Roberts moved back up front for the start of the second-half and the move seemed to give us the impetus to have a real go at Rotherham. We put them under pressure with Mark Jones and Wes Baynes unafraid of shooting from distance, while we also dealt well with the home side’s attacks. Aiston had our best chance when he found himself one-on-one with their goalkeeper. Unfortunately his shot was straight at Warrington. Pushing forward we left gaps at the back. With less than 20 minutes to go Holmes grabbed another goal meeting a cross to the far post to kill off our chances of taking anything from the game. Josh Johnson replaced Mark Jones and went up front as Roberts was yet again shoved back into midfield. Rotherham scored their final goal with less than ten minutes to go. Substitute Newsham’s accurate drive following a cleared set-piece beat Williams and put the game beyond doubt. This was not as bad a performance as last week but the result and the late goals conceded hurt just as much. The finger of blame will be pointed at Matty Crowell, the target of pointed abuse from Wrexham fans at the game, and maybe rightly so. He let himself, his manager and his team down, and may reap the consequences with a three-game suspension and non-renewal of his contract at the end of the month. We play Rochdale at home on Boxing Day. Their manager Keith Hill sussed our game out when we were at our most solid and competent recently in gaining a point at Spotland. They will now meet us when we are weak and vulnerable. Another defeat is quite likely. Merry Christmas everyone…
______________________________________________________________________ This was a performance as poor as anything we saw during Denis Smith’s final months in charge and controversially, Brian Carey’s reign. Now that we are onto our third manager of the year, the spotlight for our many failings is now starting to fall on the players. Brentford supposedly came into this game low on confidence after a poor run of results and lack of goals cost manager Terry Butcher his job during the week. Brian Little made changes following the Dagenham game by bringing Mark Jones and Silvio Spann into midfield, both having returned from injury. Llewellyn partnered Roberts up front with Proctor left on the bench. Brentford took control of the game pretty much straight away. They were first to everything, kept the ball well and were incisive in attack. Wrexham by contrast struggled to retain possession in any area of the field. Again we didn’t create much in front of goal and the Bees went close with a few set-pieces. It was something of a surprise when against the run of play we opened the scoring. A run and cross by Aiston was nodded across goal at the back post by Neil Roberts for Llewellyn to head home. Just seconds later the referee gave the away side a penalty after Shaun Pejic committed a foul in the penalty area. Though booed by the home fans the fussy ref arguably helped us out by delaying the taking of the kick. It seemed to unsettle Lee Thorpe as his tame effort was saved by Anthony Williams. At half-time though you sensed Brentford would come at us again in the second-half, you hoped that we’d tighten up and concentrate in trying to protect our lead. The opposite seemed to happen after we made a more positive start to the second period. A smart move down the right from Bees sub Ricky Shakes saw him cross for Alan Connell to head home with less than half an hour to go. We then seemed to go into panic mode as the defence lost all concentration and forgot the basics. Brentford continued to push on, their pressure culminating in a calamitous Steve Evans own goal, his second in consecutive weeks. Connell grabbed his second with quarter of an hour to go, more shoddy defending giving him the opportunity to score after initially hitting the post. The home fans left in droves following that goal and those that stayed behind stayed to boo. To say that Brian Little now has work to do is an understatement. After a bright start to his reign when we tightened up and ground out positive results, we have gone back to our familiar bad old ways. We aren’t performing in games that we should really be looking to win to move out of the relegation zone. We’re conceding soft goals without looking likely to score ourselves. We don’t seem capable of winning the ball in midfield and none of the players, except for the consistently excellent Neil Taylor, look comfortable in possession. The number of times we lose the ball and are unable to win it back is worrying. We have some toughening up to do physically, mentally and technically. Brian Little will have to make further changes to personnel and formation. We have to improve sooner rather than later because we may not get as many opportunities to do so as we did last season…
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Rory Sheehan |
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