Where did it all go wrong?

[redman2014]

Now that the dust has settled on a disappointing campaign, I guess that the post-mortem will begin.

Clearly Dean Keates leaving in March was a huge blow and then led to a massive slump.

For me the title was gone and play offs looked a certanty. I couldn't believe that Wrexham did not appoint a man who could pick up one of the strongest defenses in the league and consolidate a position within the play offs. As history shows, they can be a lottery and anything can and does happen. I fancy Aldershot to make the final. Time will only tell.

In my opinion, Macclesfield looked title contenders as far back as August when they arrived at the Racecourse and took the three points with a hard fought victory.

I know Keates leaving was a huge blow. Failing to beat Woking and Bromley after that set the tone. I know Wrexham beat Maidstone in between but these were important points where the town lost momentum.

Much has been written and said about his departure and the impact. I believe it was a defining moment and the slump will be talked about for many years.

That said, I can't help but think of the return game with Macclesfield, on a very wintry Moss Rose lunchtime in December, live on BT sport. Wrexham should have made a statement of intent.That day they gave a lack luster performance showing the lack of creativity and attacking flair. To put it simply, Macclesfield showed the qualities that would lead them to be crowed champions.

The final standings tell us everything. More draws than anyone else, 49 goals for - the lowest amongst the top 10. In fact only 5 more than the bottom placed team Guiseley.

Clearly, questionable officiating was an issue. I know there was some bad performances at the Racecourse. The shambolic performance in the away game at Maidstone in September with Sam Allison showed why Wrexham have to get out of this league as quick as possible.

The answers...well obviously to score more than the opposition. The real question for the board is to try to emulate Macclesfield. For me this campaign showed how a team led by a very clever tactician and astute man like Askey is what Wrexham need.

I am sure we will dust ourselves down and lick our wounds. I dont believe that this club is happy with mediocrity. A loyal and supportive fan base will help the club get out of this league. The next managerial appointment is crucial.

[dixienormous]

At the start. You can't just have two decent centre halves and expect to do much, because that's all we have really isnt it?

[REDJB]

An incredible blow up. Top in Feb ? Same amount of points from the last relegated team as the top by the season end (22).

[RemovedUser]

The players downed tools once Keates left.

[WrexSi]

We were set up Not To Lose, from the start of the season.

This meant being quite well organised, disciplined, but lacking goals, as we were set up, as we say, not to lose.

We rode our luck up til Christmas. Quite a few points we picked up were rather fortunate at times. In the Premier League or thereabouts, you can set up to keep a clean sheet, and succeed in that. But at this level there was far too much pressure on our defence, and the players aren’t always going to be able to manage a shut out. Lack of goals at the other end meant the 1-0’s and 0-0’s began to turn into fails.

Keates leaving wasn’t the end of the world for me. I feel we were beginning to get found out,with our negative tactics anyway. In a way it was an Opportunity. An opportunity to get forward more. We showed what we could do v Dagenham at home -one of our best performances of the season. We seriously deserved to win that one. If we’d played like that all season we’d be out of sight as champions. I could be wrong but I sense that Davies is perhaps too nice a guy, no hairdryer treatment.... that extra 10% wasn’t being squeezed out of some of the players. You need good cop bad cop on the management team. I think we lost that element when Keates departed.

Today we showed again that we have one of the more honest squads in our ten years in the purgatory of the NL. But there’s just that lack of creative quality in midfield, and the lack of two prolific strikers..... Tranmere and even Ebbsfleet lately have shown the importance of this.

Another 0-0 despite a reasonable performance. Losing Quigs didn’t help of course.

So, season over, let’s hope for a marquee new manager announcement next week, so the new guy can set about the retained list ASAP, and then start the recruitment process. I would hope whoever it is, it’s someone with some fire in his belly, setting us up to attack more next season...there’s very few clubs promoted back to L2 who defend as deep as we did this term.

We need to get the new manager in the building next week (gulp) to not only start the squad construction for next season, but also to encourage season ticket renewals, with the hope and expectation of better things to come.

Next season will be tough, Salford, Chesterfield, Barnet (who always do well every time they come back down) and I suspect a strong Leyton Orient, plus of course the play off clubs who don’t go up this time.

COYR.

[TWREX]

We are a defensive team incapable of attack with any pace .

[the_holt_dragon]

To me Keates would have got us in the play offs, but we would have been quickly out of them. The end result would still not have been league 2.

The problem has clearly been lack of goals with Boden our main striker signing being a huge flop. If he had managed 5 or 6 goals (still a very poor tally) we would have made the play offs. However the midfield also need to take some responsibility offering no goals and little creativity. Lack of goals meant we had a poor (particularly at home under both managers) record against the top clubs restricting our points total and giving up points to our rivals. I think this is mainly down to poor (non defender) recruitment and any manager would have struggled to get this team up.

[Ugolini]

Losing Keates is the most significant factor imo.

[pagl]

a ship without a captain isn't going to arrive at the right port.

D&D should only have been sort term and that's where it eventually went wrong.
If however the right man is now appointed then longer term could be better as we were not good enough anyway.