Chesterfield 2

Peter Leven 7' Jack Lester 41'

Wrexham 1

Steve Evans 68'

Tuesday 01 January 2008

 

Kick Off @ 15:00



Wrexham

Starting XI:
01 Anthony Williams
05 Steve Evans
04 Shaun Pejic
15 Mike Williams
02 Simon Spender
29 Sam Aiston 46'
22 Connell Murtagh 29'
18 Levi Mackin
03 Ryan Valentine
09 Neil Roberts
11 Chris Llewellyn
Substitutes:
10 Michael Proctor 29'
13 Michael Jones (GK)
21 Marc Williams
25 Neil Taylor 46'
31 Wes Baines
Stats:
10 Shots on Goal
9 Shots on Target
1 Shots off Target
45% Possession
4 Fouls Conceded
9 Corners
1 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Chesterfield

Starting XI:
01 Barry Roche
04 Jamie Lowry
02 Janos Kovacs
15 Aaron Downes
11 Gregor Robertson
20 Adam Rooney 78'
16 Jamie Winter
08 Derek Niven 78'
19 Peter Leven
14 Jack Lester
07 Jamie Ward
Substitutes:
09 Adam Smith
12 Michael Jordan (GK)
17 Gareth Davies 78'
18 Alan O'Hare 78'
22 Wayne Allison
Stats:
12 Shots on Goal
8 Shots on Target
4 Shots off Target
55% Possession
7 Fouls Conceded
8 Corners
0 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes

Venue: Recreation Ground
Attendance: 4,293
Half Time: Chesterfield 2 Wrexham 0
Referee: Darren Deadman

Match Incidents

7' Peter Leven (Chesterfield)
41' Jack Lester (Chesterfield)
53' Neil Taylor (Wrexham)
68' Steve Evans (Wrexham)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast


BBC: Chesterfield 2-1 Wrexham


Chesterfield FC: Spireites 2 Red Dragons 1


TEAMtalk: Spireites quell lowly Dragons


Wrexham FC: Chesterfield 2 Wrexham 1 (Ft)


Wrexham MAD: Chesterfield 2 Wrexham 1

League Two Results

Accrington Stanley 0 Bradford 2
Chester 0 Grimsby 2
Chesterfield 2 Wrexham 1
Dag & Red 1 Brentford 2
Hereford 0 Notts County 0
Lincoln City 1 Bury 1
Milton Keynes Dons 1 Mansfield 0
Peterborough 2 Shrewsbury 1
Rochdale 3 Darlington 1
Rotherham 3 Macclesfield 0
Stockport 2 Morecambe 1
Wycombe 0 Barnet 0

League Two Table

    PLD GD PTS
1 MK Dons 24 27 54
2 Hereford 24 17 46
3 Rotherham 23 16 46
4 Chesterfield 23 16 43
5 Peterborough 24 14 43
6 Darlington 22 21 40
7 Wycombe 24 4 40
8 Morecambe 23 4 36
9 Rochdale 21 6 35
10 Chester 23 3 35
11 Shrewsbury 24 3 34
12 Stockport 24 0 33
13 Accrington 24 -9 32
14 Barnet 23 -6 29
15 Brentford 24 -11 29
16 Bradford 23 -4 27
17 Grimsby 24 -9 27
18 Bury 23 -4 24
19 Notts County 23 -9 23
20 Macclesfield 24 -13 23
21 Dag & Red 24 -19 21
22 Lincoln City 24 -17 19
23 Mansfield 22 -7 16
24 Wrexham 23 -23 15

Next Five Games

Wed 09 Jan: Llanelli (a) 19:00

Sat 12 Jan: Grimsby (a) 15:00

Tue 15 Jan: Mansfield (a) 19:45

Sat 19 Jan: MK Dons (h) 15:00

Sat 26 Jan: Hereford (a) 15:00

Match Report

Wrexham almost grabbed an unlikely point from a game they looked destined to lose when a Steve Evans header sparked a spirited fight back in the final third of the game.

By then though, Chesterfield should have been out of sight after defensive howlers gifted the home side a comfortable 2-0 half time lead and the Spireites should have gone on to extend their lead before Wrexham made an interesting end to this New Year’s Day encounter.

An absolute cock-up from goalkeeper Anthony Williams had gifted the home side a goal as early as the seventh minute and further bad defending from Steve Evans and Simon Spender allowed Chesterfield to double their advantage before the break.

But with Chesterfield failing to convert their chances in the second half, Steve Evans had pulled one back and Michael Proctor had two clean through opportunities saved at the death to deny Wrexham an unlikely point.

Unfortunately, the Wrexham players have to realise that they have to play for the opening hour of the game with the same tempo they played the final third to get anything out of this division, but it wasn’t until Brian Little moved Ryan Valentine back into midfield before half time that Wrexham finally began to compete in what was a one sided contest for most of the ninety minutes.

Brian Little took everybody by surprise with his team selection today by handing out first starts under his regime to Levi Mackin and Connell Murtagh in midfield and Ryan Valentine moved to wing back after an impressive display in the centre on the weekend.

This meant their was no room in the side for Michael Proctor as Chris Llewellyn moved up front and youngsters Neil Taylor and Wes Baines also made way with another surprise recall for Simon Spender at right wing back.

It was the home side who started the game on the front foot with Chesterfield forcing an early corner that drew a good save from Anthony Williams when he had to hold a shot from Adam Rooney.

But with no further threat coming from the Spireites, Anthony Williams gifted the home side the opening goal after only seven minuets when the Wrexham stopper failed to clear a simple back pass.

Instead, he only found Peter Leven forty yards out and despite him returning a dipping ball with some interest, Williams completely flapped at the ball and could only palm it up into the air on his line and the ball simply bounced over the line.

Wrexham were really struggling early on with Mackin and Murtagh finding it difficult to deal with the Chesterfield runners from midfield and the home side should have extended their lead twenty minutes in when Rooney and Niven failed to convert a low cross from Robinson at the far post.

But Chesterfield got lucky midway through the first half when keeper Roche collided with Neil Roberts and was lucky to escape with no further punishment as the Wrexham skipper required treatment for this unpunished foul.

Chesterfield continued to look the side most likely and the home side should have extended their advantage when Jack Lester played in the on loan Rooney inside of the area but Williams this time pulled off a good save.

Wrexham then lost the services of Connell Murtagh on the hour mark following clash of heads with Janos Kovacs and this meant Wrexham had to reshuffle with Neil Taylor replacing Murtagh and Ryan Valentine switching back into midfield.

Shaun Pejic was caught out twice in as many minutes with five minutes of the half left when Chesterfield played simple balls over the top but Jamie Ward, a former target of Wrexham, was wide with his first effort and Williams pulled off another good save with the second.

But Wrexham’s reprieve was short lived when another simple cross a minute later was not dealt with by Steve Evans and Simon Spender, and this allowed Jack Lester to measure a shot past Williams into the far corner of the net.

Wrexham made a second change of the afternoon during the half time break with Michael Proctor replacing Sam Aiston and this meant a further change in formation with Wrexham now deploying a three man attack.

Chesterfield again proved to be the team with the most attacking intent at the start of the second half and the home side should have extended their lead when Wrexham were caught out on the right but Lester could only divert a cross from Robertson over the bar at the near post.

But with half an hour remaining, Wrexham suddenly realised that they could get something out of this game and we halved the deficit midway though the second half completely out of the blue.

Mackin had a poor near post corner cleared behind but with his second attempt, Chris Llewellyn managed to stoop to flick the ball on for Steve Evans to head home unchallenged from within the six yard box.

The Wrexham fans behind the goal sensed a comeback and the players responded with a committed performance from this point on.

This forced Chesterfield into desperate defending and Kovacs was injured in the process of blocking a Llewellyn shot but Wrexham could not take advantage of the home side being down to ten men as Mackin failed to deliver a telling ball from the resulting corner.

The Chesterfield management, along with the home crowd, sensed the tide had turned in Wrexham’s favour and made two changes with ten minutes left, but the Spireites should have ended the game as a contest when Pejic made a hash of his clearance by playing Ward through on goal but Williams pulled off a smart save.

Chances fell to Proctor in the final ten minutes when Llewellyn sent him clean through but Roche deflected his shot behind for a corner, which Mike Williams went close to converting at the near post.

An even better chance came Proctor’s way with four minutes left when the angle was in his favour from a long ball over the top but this time the striker lacked any composure with his shot fired straight at Roche in the centre of the goal and Wrexham’s chance looked lost.

There was still time to Neil Roberts have a flick cleared off the line from a corner but it was case of a Wrexham starting the fight back too late as we fell to a sixth straight defeat.

Match Reaction

Brian Little: "Although we have fought back in the second half, we do tend to shoot ourselves in the foot at times. I do think they were above us in terms of playing the game, they had that on us, but we still do give away stupid goals. The first goal was just frightening really, it comes from a minute or two earlier when Taff was on the edge of his box and missed his kick. I could come out here and put a record on, as I seem to have been saying this a few times lately. We make a mistake and then we go all silly and nervous for a few minutes. It shouldn't be a real problem, as everyone makes mistakes, but ultimately we ended giving a goal away. Then for the second goal, we have three onto one, but try and win a ball we can't win, it ends up on the wrong side of the three of them and we end up 2-0 down! At half time, if I had told my team to go and play them off the park, I would be lying and nobody would believe me anyway. That almost got us something out of the game, but they have to work, not be frightened, be brave and while we can't kid ourselves, Chesterfield could have scored again, at least in the last 20 minutes we had two great chances." [Source: Wrexham FC - click here for more]