Wrexham |
Starting XI: |
12 |
Gavin Ward |
02 |
Simon Spender |
28 |
Phil Bolland |
05 |
Steve Evans
|
15 |
Mike Williams |
25 |
Neil Taylor |
09 |
Neil Roberts |
34 |
Danny Sonner
85' |
11 |
Chris Llewellyn |
39 |
Drewe Broughton
88' |
35 |
Stuart Nicholson
76' |
Substitutes: |
04 |
Shaun Pejic |
10 |
Michael Proctor
76'
|
29 |
Sam Aiston |
37 |
Jeff Whitley
85' |
38 |
Rob Duffy
88' |
Stats: |
11 |
Shots on Goal |
4 |
Shots on Target |
7 |
Shots off Target |
54% |
Possession |
14 |
Fouls Conceded |
3 |
Corners |
0 |
Yellow Cards |
0 |
Red Cards |
|
Darlington |
Starting XI: |
13 |
David Stockdale |
02 |
Neil Austin |
05 |
Stephen Foster
46' |
04 |
Alan White |
23 |
Ryan Valentine |
12 |
Julian Joachim |
14 |
Richard Ravenhill
59' |
08 |
Michael Cummins
|
18 |
Paul Mayo
59' |
20 |
Tommy Wright |
29 |
Kevin Gall |
Substitutes: |
06 |
Ian Miller
46' |
10 |
Clark Keltie
59' |
11 |
Robert Purdie |
15 |
Przemyslaw Kazimierczak (GK) |
16 |
Gregg Blundell
59' |
Stats: |
4 |
Shots on Goal |
2 |
Shots on Target |
2 |
Shots off Target |
46% |
Possession |
19 |
Fouls Conceded |
5 |
Corners |
2 |
Yellow Cards |
0 |
Red Cards |
|
Match Notes |
Venue: |
Racecourse Ground |
Attendance: |
4,013 |
Half Time: |
Wrexham 1 Darlington 0 |
Referee: |
Steven Cook |
|
Match Incidents |
20' |
|
Steve Evans (Wrexham) |
53' |
|
Richard Ravenhill (Darlington) |
58' |
|
Michael Cummins (Darlington) |
86' |
|
Michael Proctor (Wrexham) |
|
Match Reports |
WSA: Final Whistle
Podcast
BBC:
Wrexham 2-0 Darlington
TEAMtalk: Dragons stun Quakers with win
Wales
on Sunday: Wrexham's Steve head boy!
Wrexham FC: Wrexham 2 Darlington 0
Wrexham MAD: Wrexham 2 Darlington 0 |
League Two Results |
Accrington
Stanley 0 Wycombe 2
Barnet 0 Morecambe 1
Bury 1 Milton Keynes Dons 5
Chesterfield 1 Chester 1
Dag & Red 0 Stockport 1
Macclesfield 0 Bradford 1
Mansfield 2 Brentford 3
Notts County 1 Grimsby 1
Rochdale 0 Peterborough 2
Rotherham 0 Hereford 1
Shrewsbury 1 Lincoln City 2
Wrexham 2 Darlington 0 |
League Two Table |
1 |
MK Dons |
30 |
29 |
61 |
2 |
Darlington |
28 |
27 |
53 |
3 |
Rotherham |
29 |
15 |
53 |
4 |
Peterborough |
28 |
23 |
52 |
5 |
Hereford |
28 |
15 |
52 |
6 |
Wycombe |
30 |
9 |
50 |
7 |
Chesterfield |
30 |
16 |
48 |
8 |
Rochdale |
27 |
9 |
47 |
9 |
Morecambe |
30 |
2 |
47 |
10 |
Stockport |
28 |
4 |
43 |
11 |
Grimsby |
30 |
-6 |
39 |
12 |
Brentford |
28 |
-8 |
39 |
13 |
Bradford |
28 |
2 |
38 |
14 |
Shrewsbury |
30 |
-1 |
38 |
15 |
Chester |
29 |
-4 |
37 |
16 |
Barnet |
26 |
-5 |
35 |
17 |
Accrington |
29 |
-20 |
33 |
18 |
Notts County |
29 |
-12 |
29 |
19 |
Macclesfield |
29 |
-14 |
28 |
20 |
Lincoln City |
29 |
-15 |
28 |
21 |
Bury |
27 |
-12 |
25 |
22 |
Dag & Red |
29 |
-22 |
25 |
23 |
Wrexham |
28 |
-21 |
23 |
24 |
Mansfield |
27 |
-11 |
22 |
|
Next Five Games |
Sat 09 Feb: Peterborough (a) 15:00 Sat 16 Feb: MK
Dons (a) 15:00
Tue 19 Feb: Hereford (a) 19:45
Sat 23 Feb:
Grimsby (h) 15:00
Tue 26 Feb: Peterborough (h) 19:45 |
|
Match Report |
Wrexham climbed off the bottom of
the Football League with a 2-0 win over Darlington, courtesy of goals in
each half from the head of Steve Evans and the boot of Michael Proctor.
Although we road our luck when we sent league leaders MK Dons home empty
hand two weeks ago, nobody can deny we deserved the three points from
this game as we completely outplayed second placed Darlington.
Steve Evans converted Danny Sonner’s first half corner to give us the
advantage at half time and the Quakers only had one spell of pressure at
the start of the second half and after this storm had past, Wrexham went
onto to finish the game when Michael Proctor went through on goal.
Danny Sonner, who signed a contract until the end of the season in
midweek, was superb in the middle of the park with the game played at
his pace and he just shaded Neil Roberts and Steve Evans to the
man-of-the-match award.
Drewe Broughton caused the Darlington defence a whole host of problems
throughout the game with his physical approach and the constant running
of his striker partner, Stuart Nicholson, also kept the Quakers backline
on their toes.
The only changes from midweek came in defence with Neil Taylor replacing
the injured Carl Tremarco, Mike Williams in for the suspended Richard
Hope and Phil Bolland was back in for Shaun Pejic who had to settle for
a place of the bench that was minus a goalkeeper.
Despite all these changes in the back line, the defence looked
comfortable throughout and Steve Evans was back to his commanding self
by winning the majority of balls played in.
The match started in bright sunshine and it was a similar start to the
game from both sides with David Stockdale having to rush off his line in
the opening minute to smother the ball at the feet of Stuart Nicholson
who almost got on the end of Broughton’s flick on.
Darlington responded through Kevin Gall who had a shot blocked by the
Wrexham defence and Nicholson went close to grabbing his first goal for
Wrexham when his first time shot went straight at Stockdale following a
flowing move down the right.
Darlington cut open the Wrexham defence for really the only time in the
game down their left but thankfully the chance fell to centre-half Steve
Foster, who had continued his run forward, and Gavin Ward was able to
make the save.
Darlington went close again when Steve Evans misjudged the flight of the
ball and Gall fired over the bar but it was Wrexham who were celebrating
the first goal of the game with twenty minutes on the clock when Evans
powered home a header from Sonner’s inswinging corner.
Darlington were just starting to impose themselves on the game and the
timing of the goal was perfect for Wrexham but Darlington responded well
to going a goal down, although they failed to test Gavin Ward in the
Wrexham goal.
With the game approaching the half four mark, Nicholson should have done
better from another quality set play by Sonner when he put a free header
over the bar and a mix up between Steve Evans and Gavin ward almost let
Tommy Wright in but both players eventually managed to clear the ball
from danger.
Most of Wrexham’s free kicks were coming from fouls on Drewe Broughton
and Chris Llewellyn curled the ball narrowly over the bar after
Darlington had conceded another free kick.
Darlington started the second half like they had a bit of an ear bashing
from manager Dave Penney and for once Wrexham’s defending looked
desperate as a last ditched challenge from Mike Williams prevented the
Quakers finding the breakthrough.
Richard Ravenhill was lucky to escape with just a yellow card for a knee
high challenge on Neil Roberts and Michael Cummins followed him into the
book five minutes later for a lunge on Danny Sonner.
Darlington continued to press and Neil Taylor had to hack clear from
within the six yard box and Wrexham escaped when Gall could only fire
into the side netting from close range.
Darlington introduced their remaining two substitutes for the final half
hour of the game but Clark Keltie picked up an injury almost immediately
and did not contribute much more to the game.
Wrexham came back into the game as the half wore on and Simon Spender
was then unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty after Gall clearly
shoved him in the box.
Spender had even more bad luck minutes later when he was incorrectly
flagged offside after the instrumental Sonner played him in with a neat
through ball on the edge of the box.
Stuart Nicholson was replaced by Michael Proctor with fifteen minutes
and the substitute’s first two touches were decent opportunities on
goal.
Chris Llewellyn delivered a good cross from the left wing that Proctor
glanced wide and his next effort was a shot that was saved by Stockdale.
Darlington left themselves open at the back as they did away with full
backs for the final ten minutes but they failed to break through the
well organised Wrexham defence.
Jeff Whitley replaced man-of-the-match Sonner for the final five minutes
and soon after the game was secured when Proctor raced through onto
Llewellyn’s superb pass, and placed the ball past Stockdale to secure
the three points. |
Match Reaction |
Brian Little: "Today was very
pleasing. It was a very solid performance and I really thought that we
deserved to win. Gavin pulled one really good save off in the first half
and in fairness they had a couple of scrambles. They are good enough to
score goals against most people but our defending was really pleasing
today. Overall, I thought that we were strong and we played reasonably
well, we changed the system slightly and it worked for us. I am pleased
with the result but I am pleased with the performance more than anything
else. We are unbeaten in four games now as well so that is pleasing as
well. We don't want to get too carried away but that was a decent
performance." [Source:
Wrexham FC - click here for more] |
|