Peterborough United 4

Craig Mackail-Smith 2' 41' 53' Aaron Mclean 88'

First Round
Wrexham 1

Neil Roberts 66'

Saturday 10 November 2007

 

Kick Off @ 15:00

Wrexham
Starting XI:
01 Anthony Williams
02 Simon Spender
24 Gareth Evans
06 Richard Hope 46'
03 Ryan Valentine
16 Silvio Spann
28 Matty Collins 46'
26 Robbie Garrett
20 Matty Done
14 Eifion Williams 60'
11 Chris Llewellyn
Substitutes:
04 Shaun Pejic 46'
09 Neil Roberts 46'
10 Michael Proctor
21 Marc Williams 60'
25 Neil Taylor
Stats:
13 Shots on Goal
2 Shots on Target
11 Shots off Target
49% Possession
9 Fouls Conceded
6 Corners
0 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Peterborough United
Starting XI:
01 Mark Tyler
27 Claude Gnakpa
04 Craig Morgan
05 Chris Westwood
17 Jamie Day
10 George Boyd
08 Micah Hyde
11 Dean Keates 84'
18 Chris Whelpdale 80'
09 Aaron Mclean
12 Craig Mackail-Smith 83'
Substitutes:
02 Josh Low 80'
06 Charlie Lee 84'
07 Adam Newton
13 Shwan Jalal (GK)
23 Rene Howe 83'
Stats:
19 Shots on Goal
6 Shots on Target
13 Shots off Target
51% Possession
6 Fouls Conceded
3 Corners
0 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: London Road
Attendance: 4,266
Half Time: Posh 2 Wrexham 0
Referee: Mike Thorpe

Match Incidents
2' Craig Mackail-Smith (Posh)
40' Craig Mackail-Smith (Posh)
51' Craig Mackail-Smith (Posh)
66' Neil Roberts (Wrexham)
87' Aaron Mclean (Posh)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast

BBC: Peterborough 4-1 Wrexham

Peterborough United FC: Mackail-Smith Hat-trick Seals Posh Passage

TEAMtalk: Posh destroy Dragons in Cup

Wales on Sunday: Peterborough United 4 Wrexham 1

Wrexham FC: Peterborough 4 Wrexham 1

Wrexham MAD: Peterborough United 4 Wrexham 1

First Round Results
Hereford v Leeds (Friday)
Accrington Stanley 2 Huddersfield 3
Altrincham 1 Millwall 2
Barnet 2 Gillingham 1
Barrow 1 Bournemouth 1
Billericay 1 Swansea 2
Bradford 1 Chester 0
Bury 4 Workington 1
Cambridge Utd 2 Aldershot 1
Carlisle 1 Grimsby 1
Cheltenham 1 Brighton 1
Chesterfield 1 Tranmere 2
Crewe 2 Milton Keynes Dons 1
Darlington 1 Northampton 1
Eastbourne Borough 0 Weymouth 4
Exeter 4 Stevenage 0
Halifax 0 Burton Albion 4
Hampton & Richmond 0 Dag & Red 3
Harrogate Railway 2 Droylsden 0
Horsham 4 Maidenhead Utd 1

Leyton Orient 1 Bristol Rovers 1

Lincoln City 1 Nottm Forest 1
Luton 1 Brentford 1
Mansfield 3 Lewes 0
Morecambe 0 Port Vale 2
Notts County 3 Histon 0
Oldham 2 Doncaster 2
Oxford Utd 3 Northwich 1
Peterborough 4 Wrexham 1
Rushden & D'monds 3 Macclesfield 1
Southend 2 Rochdale 1
Stockport 1 Staines Town 1
Team Bath 0 Chasetown 2
Walsall 2 Shrewsbury 0
Ware 0 Kidderminster 2
Wycombe 1 Swindon 2
York 0 Havant and W 1
Forest Green v Rotherham (Sunday)
Gainsborough v Hartlepool (Sunday)
Torquay v Yeovil (Sunday)

Next Five Games

Sat 25 Nov: Chester (a) 12:00

Tue 04 Dec: Bury (a) 19:45

Sat 08 Dec: Dagenham (a) 15:00

Sat 15 Dec: Brentford (h) 15:00

Sat 22 Dec: Rotherham (a) 15:00

Match Report
Our participation in the FA Cup more or less ended after 85 seconds this season as Peterborough cruised into the second round of this season’s competition.

Confidence at Wrexham is so fragile at the moment that an early goal against us was always going to be an uphill task but the manner of defeat again showed the underlying problems at the Racecourse.

A change in manager cannot come to soon for a sorry Wrexham side that, at times, looked light years behind Peterborough and our passing today was just truly awful.

Peterborough looked like they would score for fun after their early opening goal but the home side failed to press home their advantage and despite a late first half comeback, when our only attempt came via Eifion Williams, Peterborough doubled their advantage at the end following slap stick goalkeeping from Anthony Williams.

The second half did not get any better as Peterborough extended their lead following more poor defending but Neil Roberts did give us a glimmer of hope when he grabbed a consolation before Peterborough grabbed what was a deserved fourth goal to inflict further embarrassment on a Wrexham side that struggled to string passes together all afternoon.

Wrexham remained unchanged from the side that recorded our first draw of the season against Wycombe in midweek but we were still in the dressing rooms as the home side took an early advantage.

They also had luck on their side when the booth officials were unsighted to notice a hand ball in the build up but the way we defended again caused concern.

Peterborough delivered the ball in early but it only looked like Richard Hope who was interested in winning the ball and he twice went for headers and managed to get the ball clear to the touch line.

Simon Spender stood off Boyd after the hand ball and just allowed him to float in a cross that Valentine offered no challenge on Craig Mackail-Smith who had the simple task to head home from six yards out.

A bad challenge from Mackail-Smith on Richard Hope when unpunished and this left the Wrexham skipper requiring treatment on the sidelines.

During this time, Peterborough broke down our right with ease as a cross from Claude Gnapka was only cleared to the lively Boyd who put his shot wide of the target.

We hardly offered anything up front in the opening quarter of the first half and it appeared that Peterborough could cut through our defence at will.

Goal scorer Mackail-Smith then found himself in space down the left channel but no one was on the end of his good cross as it drifted out past the far post, and the striker then saw a shot of his own smothered by Williams in the Wrexham goal.

Another attack from Boyd down the left had Spender turned inside out and Aaron MacLean should have made it two after Boyd had picked him out unmarked in the box but his effort went wide of the far post.

Our first meaningful effort on goal just came before the half hour mark but you have to take your chances when you are struggling at the other end of the pitch, but Wrexham were guilty of not taking two golden opportunities as the hosts finally looked vulnerable at the back.

Silvio Spann released Matty Done into acres of space down the left but the full back had tracked the thirty-five yard run from Done and managed to block the eventual shot from Done.

The second chance came five minutes later with Wrexham this time opening up the home defence down the right.

Spann was again instrumental in the build up as he sent Eifion Williams clean on goal but his shot was smothered by keeper Tyler who had made a smart save by diving low to his right.

At 1-0, Wrexham were still in the FA Cup tie and were finally causing problems for the home defence but, as ever, the self destruct button was pressed five minutes before half time as we gifted Peterborough an embarrassing second goal.

There looked no danger at all midway in our own half as Richard Hope was looking to clear as Mackail-Smith pursued him but what Anthony Williams was thinking when he ran from his area and just took out Hope with a scything challenge to leave Mackail-Smith the simple task to walk the ball into an empty net.

Believe it or not, it could have got worse before the half time whistle following more slap stick defending from the men in red as Chris Whelpdale fired wide and MacLean almost made it three with a well executed volley from the edge of the area, although the fact he was given acres of space inside the D to measure his shot just about summed up our first half performance.

Richard Hope, who was injured in the opening stages of the game, was forced off at half time and his place was taken by Shaun Pejic whilst Neil Roberts replaced the ineffective Matty Collins.

This tactical change meant Spann moved into midfield whilst Chris Llewellyn played out on the right with Roberts partnering Eifion Williams up front but it had no impact as Mackail-Smith completed his simple hat trick within six minutes of the restart.

Pejic was caught out on the half way line and he could only watch as Boyd collected the ball and fed Mackail-Smith who slid the ball past Williams who had left too much space at his hear post.

Peterborough could sense a rout here to mirror our 6-1 defeat at London Road in 2004 as we continued to offer no resilience at the back and fortunately Whelpdale failed to convert MacLean’s cross as it could easily have been four.

But our poor defending finally infected the home side as confusion between Morgan and Tyler allowed Neil Roberts to beet both players to the ball and the striker managed to steer the ball into an empty net.

Mackail-Smith almost made this goal a mere consolation when he headed over but our goal did spur us into life and a quality run from Llewellyn down the right drew a good save from Tyler who was forced to turn the ball behind for a corner.

But what happened next just reduced the whole ground to laughter as Spann slipped whilst taking a corner and the ball went straight out of play with Spann watching in embarrassment on the floor.

This was in front of the Wrexham fans but there was no anger from what happened, just laughter and this just about summed up our situation.

We had further chances when Simon Spender headed just over from a corner but more poor defending gifted Peterborough a fourth with three minutes left when MacLean was left wide open to score from within the penalty area.

There was still four minutes of injury time to be played and a incident during this just summed up the contrasting attitudes of both teams.

Peterborough had won easy but the ball fell to substitute Marc Williams on the volley but the Peterborough defender through himself at the ball to block it away.

Sadly, this sort of commitment was missing from Wrexham today with the players leaving the field with faces as red as their shirts, and without even acknowledging the away fans at the end.

Match Reaction
Brian Carey: “We were on top and Peterborough looked a little bit edgy,” he said of Wrexham’s early play. Our opportunity was there at that moment and I wasn’t happy at half-time because we had a couple of chances which we should have done a lot, lot better with. In situations like ours and at times like these you have got to make the most of those opportunities.” [Source: Wales on Sunday]