|
Match Report |
Accrington Stanley: Who are they? Well Wrexham
certainly know now as mistake after mistake were well and truly punished
by a Stanley side that put away each chance gifted to them by the men in
black.
The five goals all came in a twenty minute spell either side of half
time that resulted in half of the 799 support making an early exit for
their journey home. With every goal going in players were left with
their heads in their hands with what was left of fans on the terraces
shaking their heads in disbelief to what was unfolding in front of them.
It is difficult to believe that it was virtually the same team that
played so well to win 2-1 against Swindon on the weekend with only the
expected two changes of Jon Newby and Simon Spender replacing the
injured Neil Roberts and Lee Roche respectively.
Wrexham did start well and looked the most likely of the teams to score
but both keepers went untested for the opening stages of the game.
Wrexham did force a number of corners early on in a game that had little
flow due to the amount of clearances going out of the small ground and
their was the inevitable delay in play for the replacement ball. The
best chance Wrexham had during this spell was when Pejic headed a
Ferguson corner over the bar from about twelve yards out but the home
side did deal well with Wrexham’s set plays.
The game’s direction turned on the half hour mark after Stanley soaked
up the initial possession and territorial advantage that Wrexham had
although the Red Dragons failed to test the home side’s keeper with a
shot at goal, let alone one on target.
Accrington were edging themselves back into the game and it was
clear they were now winning the 50/50 challenges in all areas of the
pitch. The Wrexham defence was getting stretched with Accrington making
most of their players who had pace and Wrexham paid for not making the
most of their early dominance in the game as they fell behind three
minutes before half time.
The Wrexham defence were slow in closing down a shot from Roberts on the
edge of the area but Ingham could only parry the shot back into the path
of Paul Mullen, when it should have been turned around the post, and the
striker made no mistake in turning the ball over Ingham from close
range.
Wrexham were virtually down to ten men at this point with Matty Done
picking up an injury late on in the first half and it was no surprise to
see him replaced at half time with Josh Johnson coming on and Mark Jones
switching to the left wing at the start of the second half.
Wrexham started the second half in shocking fashion with Accrington
doubling their advantage with a goal direct from a corner within four
minutes of the restart.
The corner came after Spender allowed his man to cut inside and Ingham
did well to turn the short around the post. There appeared to be no
danger from Ian Craney’s corner as it was delivered low without any pace
to the near post but Spender just simply let it go past him and the ball
was in the net before any of the other players had time to react.
It got even worse for Wrexham three minutes later when Shaun Pejic
completely missed his header for a simple high bouncing ball forward and
Gary Roberts latched onto the through ball to fire it low past Ingham
from inside of the box.
It got even more comical three minutes later although their was no
laughing from the Wrexham fans, just anger as Wrexham conceded the forth
goal in the 55th minute.
Shaun Pejic was penalised for a free kick about thirty yards out and as
Ingham was busy lining up his wall the rest of the goal was left exposed
for Peter Cavanagh to score from a quickly taken free kick. To make
matters worse it was not a shot into the far corner as the ball went
into the centre of the goal with Valentine arguing with Ingham as the
keeper smacked the ball up field in anger and this was one of only a few
occasions that he kept one of his kicks in play all evening!
Denis Smith introduced brothers Mike and Marc Williams for Spender and
Newby and it was Marc Williams who had Wrexham’s first shot on target
after he beat the keeper but was unlucky to see his shot deflected off
the line.
With Wrexham looking for a consolation they fell further behind in the
62nd minute after another high ball caught the defence out again. It
would be generous to say that Gary Roberts did well to spring the
offside trap but he simply just ran past a static Wrexham defence for
the high ball forward that he took around the outside of Ingham to slot
into the empty net from twelve yards.
It was almost six goals in the closing stages of the game with Gary
Roberts finding himself clean through on goal again but this time Ingham
did well by not committing himself early and made a decent save at the
feet of Roberts. This resulted in ironic cheers from what was left of
the Wrexham fans and the cheers got even louder when he kicked the ball
straight down the middle of the pitch!
The game ended following four minutes of injury time with every Wrexham
player walking straight off the pitch with their heads down in
anticipation for the inevitable tongue lashing from manager Denis Smith.
One thing is for sure, they certainly owe us a performance at Stockport
on the weekend as this type of performance is simply not good enough. |
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Match Reaction |
|
Denis Smith:
“I am not stunned, I am angry and embarrassed.
We had let in four goals this season. To let five in the way that we have
... four of them came from kicks out of their goalkeeper’s hands, and one
straight in from a corner which there is no excuse for. Neil Roberts would
usually deal with that, Neil wasn’t playing, but we worked on exactly that
and I asked the person where he was and he said ‘I moved too far out’. You
can’t cater for people not doing their jobs, and if you can’t head balls the
keeper has kicked down the middle of the pitch then you are going to have
problems. There was not one good goal out of them. Obviously Accrington will
be happy with it – I’m not. We’ll just have to see how we respond. To have
just one player missing and for that to happen then I’m not happy We let
goals in far too easily. There are things there that you look at and think,
why haven’t you done it. Only players can explain that, I am not a mind
reader. There is not a lot I can say because most of the things I could say
would be highly critical and I don’t really want to be doing that. This was
the first defeat we’ve had and we’ve let five goals in. Players can say they
couldn’t see the ball in the light, but Accrington didn’t seem to have any
problems. It is not something I am happy with and we will have to see how we
respond. The one thing I know now is I am not stuck with these players. I
can bring players in and if I can find players I will attempt to do it. But
it has got to be the right players. I thought I had got a group of right
players but I don't expect that result we got last night. We will see who
wants to play on Saturday." [Source: Evening
Leader] |
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|
Match Notes |
| Venue |
Fraser Eagle Stadium |
| Attendance |
2,689 |
| Half Time |
Accrington Stanley 1 Wrexham 0 |
| Referee |
C Oliver (Northumberland) |
|
|
Other Match Reports |
|
Wrexham
Dragons Final Whistle Pod Cast
BBC:
Accrington 5-0 Wrexham
TEAMtalk: Stanley strikes slay Dragons
Wrexham FC: Accrington 5 Wrexham 0 (Ft)
Wrexham MAD: Accrington Stanley 5 Wrexham 0 |
|
League 2 Results |
|
Barnet 3
Boston United 3
Chester 0 Notts County 0
Darlington 1 Bury 0
Hartlepool 2 Mansfield 0
Hereford 1 Wycombe 2
Lincoln City 2 Macclesfield 1
Rochdale 1 Grimsby 0
Stockport 0 Shrewsbury 3
Swindon 2 Milton Keynes Dons 1
Walsall 5 Peterborough 0
Wednesday:
Accrington Stanley 5 Wrexham 0
Torquay 0 Bristol Rovers
0
|
|
League 2 Table |
|
|
|
Pld
|
GD
|
PTS
|
|
1 |
Swindon |
8 |
8 |
21 |
|
2 |
Lincoln City |
8 |
8 |
20 |
|
3 |
Wycombe |
8 |
8 |
19 |
|
4 |
Walsall |
8 |
10 |
17 |
|
5 |
Milton Keynes Dons |
8 |
4 |
16 |
|
6 |
Darlington |
8 |
4 |
13 |
|
7 |
Notts County |
8 |
2 |
14 |
| 8 |
Torquay |
8 |
2 |
13 |
| 9 |
Wrexham |
7 |
0 |
12 |
| 10 |
Shrewsbury |
7 |
7 |
11 |
| 11 |
Peterborough |
8 |
-2 |
11 |
| 12 |
Hereford |
8 |
-2 |
10 |
| 13 |
Barnet |
8 |
1 |
9 |
| 14 |
Mansfield |
8 |
-1 |
9 |
| 15 |
Hartlepool |
8 |
-2 |
9 |
| 16 |
Accrington Stanley |
8 |
-1 |
8 |
| 17 |
Chester |
8 |
-2 |
8 |
| 18 |
Bristol Rovers |
8 |
-5 |
8 |
| 19 |
Grimsby |
8 |
-6 |
8 |
| 20 |
Boston United |
8 |
-5 |
7 |
| 21 |
Rochdale |
8 |
-3 |
6 |
| 22 |
Bury |
8 |
-5 |
6 |
|
23 |
Stockport |
8 |
-9 |
5 |
|
24 |
Macclesfield |
8 |
-11 |
2 |
|
|
Next Game |
|
Stockport
County (a),
Coca Cola League 2
Saturday 16
September 2006, Kick Off @ 15:00 |
|
78'
76'
79'
78'
76'
79'