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Wrexham

Blackpool

37'

25'

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REDS GO ON FIRST HALF RAMPAGE

By Mark Williams, Red Passion Online

Pre-match thoughts: Full of confidence after the win at Stockport and looking to make it three wins on the spin.

Conditions: The pitch looked wet under foot but the weather held off and it turned out to be a chilly winter afternoon.

Sum up the performance in one sentence: Efficient going forward but dodgy at the back.

Turning point: Too many to mention although Brian Carey coming on in the second half shored things up at the back.
 

Tactics: As virtue of being a guest of Gareth Collins for the match, Denis Smith said he made the three changes because he wanted to be more attacking at home to go for the win. Out went Shaun Pejic and Brian Carey to be replaced by Steve Roberts and Craig Morgan, and captain Darren Ferguson replaced Jim Whitley in midfield.

Main incidents and goals:

0-15 minutes: Wrexham looked eager from the off but it was a Blackpool player who almost opened the scoring for the Red Dragons when Simon Grayson tuned a Carlos Edwards’ right wing cross into the side netting. Darren Ferguson had not lost his quick thinking during his three game suspension when he floated a free kick over the head of Mike Flynn but it had just too much pace for Chris Llewellyn to latch onto as the ball ran out for a goal kick. It was not all Wrexham and Blackpool came close to scoring when Steve Elliott got above Craig Morgan in the box to head Danny Coid’s corner back across goal but the ball narrowly missed the far post with Andy Dibble stranded on his goal line. Score 0-0.

15-30 minutes: Wrexham opened the scoring on the fifteen minute mark and it came from the most of unlikely or sources – Chris Llewellyn! The striker picked up an infield pass from Paul Edwards in the left channel and as the Blackpool defence stood off Llewellyn he broke into the box before unlashing an unstoppable shot passed Lee Jones – the Blackpool keeper – from eighteen yards. After Llewellyn waited four months since his last goal he scored a second within six minutes. It all came from another sweeping move down the right with Carlos Edwards delivering a deep cross to Paul Barrett who headed the ball back across goal for Chris Llewellyn to knock in from six yards. In football a team is most vulnerable when they have just scored and Wrexham proved this point as Blackpool pulled a goal back within a minute of Wrexham’s second. It was bad marking for Wrexham as they stood of their man to allow Scott Taylor to fire in a shot from eighteen yards that took a slight deflection to beat Andy Dibble in the Wrexham goal. This set back did not dent Wrexham as they continued to press the Blackpool defence. Carlos Edwards beat Martin Bullock, not for the first or last time, but his cross to Paul Edwards at the far post had too much height on it and the chance was gone. Score 2-1 Wrexham.

30-45 minutes: The Blackpool defence continued to look suspect on every Wrexham attack and it was no surprise that the Red Dragons extended their lead with 33 minutes on the clock. Paul Barrett latched onto a through ball that took him into the area and after rounding the grounded Lee Jones he looked destined to score but was unlucky to see his shot hit the post. Thankfully the ball rebounded into the path of Hector Sam who made no mistake from ten yards out. Chris Llewellyn’s confidence was clearly high after his five minute brace earlier on and he almost made it a hat trick when he fired in a twenty yard shot that Lee Jones did well to position himself to make what turned out to be a simple save. Wrexham's attacking endeavours were not over and he Racecourse was in dream land as Hector Sam ran onto an perfect sliderule pass from Darren Ferguson, and after outpacing the Blackpool defence he drilled the ball into the net through the feet of Lee Jones to make it 4-1. This goal came on the stroke of half time but there was still time left for Blackpool to pull a goal back in injury time. Danny Coid picked up the ball in midfield and his driving run to the edge of the area saw his shot take a deflection off Craig Morgan onto the cross bar and over. The Wrexham defence only cleared the resulting corner back to Coid on the left and his inswinging cross travelled over at least five static defenders to Mike Flynn at the back post who had the simple task to head in. Almost immediately the referee blew up for half time. Half Time 4-2 Wrexham.

2nd Half: Normally I breakdown the second half into 15 minute intervals but in contrast to the first half it was rather dull as both defences finally learned how to defend. Wrexham brought on Brian Carey for Craig Morgan after 11 minutes and this experience resulted in Wrexham looking a lot more comfortable at the back. The closest Blackpool came to pulling a goal back was from a free kick 35 yards out. It looked as if Simon Johnson had over hit his cross but Dibble kept his concentration to tip the ball over for a corner. From this Wrexham broke quickly with Hector Sam going on a run that took him half the length of the pitch before he side stepped Mike Flynn on the edge of the penalty area but could only shoot into the arms of a grateful Lee Jones. That was it really for incident during the half as Wrexham’s decisive attacking play in the first period secured the win against a Blackpool side that lacked any cutting edge to break down the Wrexham defence. Full Time: 4-2 Wrexham.

Opposition and fans: A good 1,000+ of them turned up and were in good voice. After watching Blackpool twice this season they look to be lacking the creative quality required to break into a play off position.

Officials: I thought the referee was too fussy and the bookings he issued to both teams were harsh. Just as well there were no controversial decisions to make as he probably would have got them wrong.

Man of the match: We opted for Chris Llewellyn for the brace he scored and especially the way he took the opening goal of the game. His general link up play was good again but his extra confidence was clearly evident as he started taking on shots from distance. Hector Sam put in a good display and Paul Edwards was a close third as we were impressed the way he attacked the defence infield as well as going on the outside as he always seams to do.

If you were Denis Smith: Pleased that the brave decision to change a winning team paid off in what was our best first half performance for along while.

Post match thoughts: Six points out of six over Christmas and sixth in the table with a game in hand. Can’t be bad, can it?

Jump To: Match Stats, Match Reports, Detailed Match Reports, Other Match Reports, Press Conference Quotes, Division 2 Results, League Table.

BBCi: Wrexham 4 Blackpool 2 - Minute-by-minute

Ananova: FT- Wrexham 4 Blackpool 2

Denis Smith: "I took a massive gamble by changing two centre backs and a defensive midfield player, following two cleansheets. I could have been standing here with egg on my face, but it came off and we are now up to sixth in the table. Paul Barrett has done superbly and with Darren Ferguson pulling the strings from midfield, we were creating plenty of chances. I was a little disappointed we didn’t go in at the interval 4-1 up, as we could have been a bit more adventurous in the second half. But if they had got another early goal after the break, then we would have been under pressure. As it was, we kept the ball well and they really didn’t give us any problems." [Source: Wrexham AFC]

Results

Barnsley

0-1

Chesterfield

Hurst 80'

11,664

Bristol City

peacock 40'

A Brown 56'

2-0

Bournemouth

13,807

Luton Town

Forbes 4'

Boyce 70'

2-0

Notts County

7,181

Oldham Athletic

0-2

Hartlepool United

Williams 45'

Porter 79'

6,243

Peterborough United

0-0

Grimsby Town

5,245

Plymouth Argyle

Capaldi 48'

Lowndes 63'

2-0

Brentford

Roget Sent Off 42'

17,882

Port Vale

McPhee 4' 28'

2-2

Stockport County

Barlow 6'

Lynch 29'

6,237

Queens Park Rangers

Gallen 12'

Thorpe 57'

2-0

Colchester United

Duguid Sent Off 33'

15,720

Swindon Town

Parkin 45'

Miglioranzi 66'

2-1

Brighton & Hove Albion

Knight 55'

Jones Sent Off 90'

9,269

Tranmere Rovers

Jones 76'

Taylor 85'(p)

2-2

Sheffield Wednesday

Lee 4'

Ndumbu-Nsungu 21'

9,645

Wrexham

Llewellyn 15' 21'

Sam 33' 44'

4-2

Blackpool

Taylor 23'

Flynn 45'

6,171

Wycombe Wanderers

0-2

Rushden & Diamonds

Jack 4' 35'

5,421

League Table