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Match Report |
Wrexham’s season hit a new low with a
comprehensive defeat at home to locals rivals Shrewsbury Town and this
leaves us in the relegation zone and without a win in 12 league games.
Wrexham made an awful start to the game and matters were compounded when
Steve Evans collected his third red card of the season for the use of
the elbow and his five match ban will mean he will not be seen in a red
shirt until the end of March.
By this time we were already two goals down and Shrewsbury added a third
at the start of the second half but a thunderbolt from Danny Williams
breathed new life into us for a ten minute spell but that goal proved to
be a scant consolation and was in complete contrast to the whole Wrexham
performance.
Brian Carey made his customary changes to the line up and system with
Wrexham reverting back to a 3-5-2 and this meant Ryan Valentine did not
even make the bench. Jim Whitley made his first start in his loan spell
from Cardiff and this allowed Danny Williams to drop back into a back
three alongside Gareth and Steve Evans.
Neil Roberts returned to the team alongside Chris Llewellyn with Lee
McEvilly dropping to the bench and Scott Barron, who never even made the
bench in midweek, played at left wing back.
Despite all these changes and a pre match huddle it was the unchanged
Shrewsbury side that started on top and forced three corners in the
opening minutes of the game. The first came from a positive run by the
lively Asamoah as he skipped past Barron and Danny Williams down the
right before his cross was turned behind.
Wrexham managed to scramble the first and second corners behind and the
uneasy opening continued as we eventually cleared the third quality ball
into the box with a bit boot up-field from Steve Evans.
There was a brief rest bite at the other end of the filed as Mark Jones
finished a decent move with a shot on target from the outside of the
area but Shrewsbury were rewarded for their positive approach as they
took the lead with only eight minutes on the clock.
Asamoah this time popped up on the left wing and he was left in acres of
space as Lee Roche was committed up field. Despite Whitley and Roche
tracking back, Asamoah was able to curl in a perfect ball to the far
post that Danny Williams misjudged and Leo Fortune-West made to mistake
by burying his header past Ruddy from six yards out.
The best Wrexham could muster in reply was a swerving shot from Garrett
that the Shrewsbury keeper failed to hold onto and our only spell of
pressure in the first half resulted in three corners in quick succession
with a header from Steve Evans being tipped behind from the second of
Mark Jones’ deliveries.
Shrewsbury were always looking threatening on the break and Asamoah’s
pace was stretching the Wrexham defence with his runs down either
channel, and it was the striker who doubled Shrewsbury’s advantage seven
minutes before half time.
It was a simple ball played over the top and although Gareth Evans
looked to have the situation under control, he was brushed far too
easily off the ball by Asamoah who then skipped past Steve Evans but his
low shot should have been saved by Ruddy but he let the ball slip
underneath him.
Believe it or not, the situation got far worse for Wrexham five minutes
before half time when Steve Evans challenged with Fortune-West for the
ball but he went in with his elbow raised and collected the inevitable
red card – his third of the season – and this means Evans will miss the
next five games; making it ten games in total this season he has lost to
bad discipline.
A firework display at the start of the second half was, for some reason,
timed to meet Shrewsbury’s arrival back onto the pitch and it was the
away team who restarted with a bang when they put the game beyond any
doubt with a third six minutes following the restart.
David Edwards made a surging run down the left wing and after breaking
into the area his low cross found Asamoah but his shot was spilled by
Ruddy into the path of Fortune-West who converted with a tap in at the
far post.
Wrexham were now all over the place and it should have been four as
defenders were dragged into midfield and this allowed Shrewsbury to make
progress down their right wing but this time Wrexham escaped as nobody
was on hand to convert Asamoah’s low cross inside the six yard box.
The introduction of Mike Williams for Scott Barron on the hour mark did
at least spark some life back into Wrexham as he always wanted to get
forward from his left wing back position but it was a goal that came out
of nowhere from Danny Williams giving Wrexham renewed confidence.
Williams picked the ball up just outside the centre circle and after
many on the Kop shouted: ‘Shoot!’, he did just that and fired in a shot
from thirty plus yards that was heading for the top corner as soon as it
left his foot. A fantastic strike.
Shrewsbury were clearly rocked by the goal and Wrexham played with tempo
for the first time in the game. Mark Jones and Chris Llewellyn had shots
from the edge of the area deflected behind for corners and Llewellyn was
unlucky when he lost his footing after blocking a clearance from keeper
Chris MacKenzie.
Shrewsbury eventually regained their composure and stifled Wrexham once
more with the introduction of Carvill and McEvilly from the bench
failing to create any inroads on the score line. In fact it almost
finished 4-1 with the away side going close late on when Fortune-West
passed on his chance of a hat trick when he headed wide at the far post. |
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Match Reaction |
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Brian Carey: "It was very disappointing today. In the
opening period of the game we didn't' play on the front foot like we asked
them too and it was almost a 'should I, shouldn't I' sort of approach. That
costs us on the first goal and then the heads went down a bit. Both the
second and third goals were poor defending. The sending off is neither here
nor there, that was just a wrong decision but I'm not blaming the referee
for our defeat today. The manner in which we started has cost us along with
the 'should I, shouldn't I attitude' was very disappointing."
[Source:
Wrexham FC - click here for more]
Gary Peters: "The win means a lot to us and winning a
local derby is a big thing for us, but it doesn't matter how you win it. We
didn't particularly play well today, I thought we didn't pass it well but we
made good decisions, broke well and made the best of those. I was
disappointed that we let a goal in as I was trying to make a substitution at
the time, and that goal gave them a little bit of life and we shouldn't have
given them anything in the second half." [Source:
Shrewsbury Town FC - click here for more] |
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