Wycombe Wanderers 2

Leon Knight 14' Scott McGleish 21'

Wrexham 1

Michael Proctor 53'

Tuesday 11 March 2008

 

Kick Off @ 19:45



Wrexham

Starting XI:
12 Gavin Ward
28 Phil Bolland 46'
06 Richard Hope 46'
15 Mike Williams
02 Simon Spender
37 Jeff Whitley 45'
11 Chris Llewellyn
36 Carl Tremarco
33 Paul Hall
39 Drewe Broughton
10 Michael Proctor
Substitutes:
01 Anthony Williams
24 Gareth Evans 46'
25 Neil Taylor 46'
29 Sam Aiston 45'
35 Stuart Nicholson
Stats:
11 Shots on Goal
7 Shots on Target
4 Shots off Target
44% Possession
13 Fouls Conceded
9 Corners
4 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Wycombe Wanderers

Starting XI:
34 Frank Fielding
04 Russell Martin
25 Sam Stockley
07 David McCracken
20 Leon Johnson
08 Stefan Oakes 66'
35 Tommy Doherty
15 Gary Holt
18 Craig Woodman
09 Leon Knight 81'
17 Scott McGleish 76'
Substitutes:
06 Mike Williamson 66'
11 Martin Bullock
16 John Sutton 76'
19 Jamie Young (GK)
44 Neil Lennon 81'
Stats:
5 Shots on Goal
3 Shots on Target
2 Shots off Target
56% Possession
9 Fouls Conceded
2 Corners
2 Yellow Cards
1 Red Cards

Match Notes

Venue: Adams Park
Attendance: 4,002
Half Time: Wycombe 2 Wrexham 0
Referee: Clive Penton

Match Incidents

07' Richard Hope (Wrexham)
14' Leon Knight (Wycombe)
21' Scott McGleish (Wycombe)
26' Phil Bolland (Wrexham)
26' Scott McGleish (Wycombe)
52' Tommy Doherty (Wycombe)
53' Michael Proctor (Wrexham)
57' Carl Tremarco (Wrexham)
79' Tommy Doherty (Wycombe)
90' Sam Aiston (Wrexham)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast


BBC: Wycombe 2-1 Wrexham


Daily Post: Wycombe 2 Wrexham 1


TEAMtalk: Ten-man Wycombe see off Dragons


Wrexham FC: Wycombe Wanderers 2 Wrexham 1


Wrexham MAD: Wycombe Wanderers 2 Wrexham 1


Wycombe Wanderers FC: Wycombe 2 Wrexham 1

League Two Results

Chesterfield 1 MK Dons 2 (Mon)
Brentford 1 Peterborough 2
Bury 3 Rotherham 0
Dag & Red 0 Macclesfield 1
Grimsby 4 Barnet 1
Mansfield 0 Hereford 1
Notts County 0 Lincoln City 1
Shrewsbury 0 Darlington 0
Stockport 2 Rochdale 0
Wycombe 2 Wrexham 1
Accrington 3 Morecambe 2 (Wed)
Chester 0 Bradford 1 (Wed)

League Two Table

    PLD GD PTS
1 Peterborough 37 35 77
2 MK Dons 36 34 75
3 Hereford 36 24 70
4 Darlington 36 30 69
5 Wycombe 37 12 63
6 Stockport 36 13 62
7 Rotherham 37 7 58
8 Chesterfield 37 15 57
9 Rochdale 34 7 53
10 Grimsby 37 0 52
11 Morecambe 36 -6 50
12 Brentford 37 -12 49
13 Bradford 35 1 47
14 Lincoln City 37 -10 46
15 Accrington 37 -25 45
16 Shrewsbury 36 -5 42
17 Bury 37 -6 42
18 Chester 37 -13 40
19 Dag & Red 37 -15 40
20 Barnet 34 -12 39
21 Notts County 36 -15 35
22 Macclesfield 37 -20 35
23 Mansfield 35 -17 30
24 Wrexham 34 -22 29

Next Five Games

Sat 15 Mar: Bury (h) 15:00

Sat 22 Mar: Brentford (a) 15:00

Mon 24 Mar: Dag & Redbridge (h) 15:00

Sat 29 Mar: Barnet (a) 15:00

Tues 01 Apr: Mansfield (a) 19:45

Match Report

Wrexham almost staged an unlikely comeback but a Michael Proctor second half goal was not enough to prevent a 2-1 defeat at play-off chasing Wycombe Wanderers.

The home side, with a strong wind in their favour, penned Wrexham back during the first half and looked odds on for a rout as they raced into a 2-0 lead after only twenty-one minutes.

The problem was that, despite the inclement weather, Wrexham gifted Wycombe both goals as first Leon knight and later top-scorer Scott McGleish capitalised on defensive mistakes.

McGleish had the opportunity to put the game beyond any doubt as he hit the bar late on in the first half but Wrexham responded after the break with the aid of three substitutions and the wind advantage.

Michael Proctor grabbed a goal back seven minutes after the restart and was later frustrated by Frank Fielding as he denied him from a free kick after the home side were reduced to ten men after Tommy Doherty collected his second yellow card of the evening.

Fielding did not know much about his late save from Paul Hall and the result leaves Wrexham six points adrift of safety after Macclesfield picked up all three points at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Brian Little named an unchanged side from the 2-0 victory at Chester on the weekend but Wrexham found themselves on the back foot early on as Gavin Ward was slow to collect a through ball with Phil Bolland struggling to hold off the lively Leon Knight.

Knight was an early menace for Wrexham, popping up on either flank, but a run through the middle resulted in a quick booking for Richard Hope after the Wrexham captain clipped the striker’s heals on the edge of the area.

Nothing came from the resulting free kick as Wycombe failed to test Ward early on but the Wrexham keeper was at fault when the home side opened the scoring after fourteen minutes.

Gavin Ward struggled with his clearances as he struck the ball into the strong wind and following an offside decision the experienced keeper could only pick out Knight midway in the Wrexham half.

Phill Bolland was unable to prevent a shot as Knight advanced to twenty yards from goal, but Ward got enough on the ball and should of palmed it way instead of into his own net.

Wrexham were really up against it seven minutes later when another Ward clearance failed to make any distance but Carl Tremarco was equally at fault when he cushioned his header straight into the path of McGleish and he rounded Ward with ease before slotting the ball into the empty net.

Wrexham were clearly shocked to find themselves two down with under a quarter of the game gone and it looked a case of damage limitation now as we had failed to register a shot on target by this point.

The frustrating part was that Wycombe were struggling to create anything from open play and this pattern of play continued until Wrexham made another mistake towards the end of the half.

This time we failed to challenge for a routine header on the edge of the area and when the ball dropped perfectly for McGleish, he should have done better than rattling the Wrexham cross bar before the ball was finally cleared.

Wrexham lost the services of Jeff Whitley on the stroke of half time and the midfielder was replaced by Sam Aiston but Brian Little went onto make two further changes for the start of the second half.

Phil Bolland joined Richard Hope in the book towards the end of the first half after clashing with McGleish, and both players made way to be replaced by Gareth Evans and Neil Taylor.

This resulted in change in formation to 4-4-2 with Neil Taylor operating well in midfield and Sam Aiston made a significant contribution on the left wing, whilst Evans did not put a foot wrong at the back.

Evans and Taylor made instant impacts with crunching challenges and this urgency had been lacking from Wrexham’s play in the opening forty five minutes of the game.

Wrexham, now aided with the wind in their favour, signalled their second half attacking intentions early on after Chris Llewellyn collected the ball on the edge of the area and was denied by a tip over save from Fielding.

Wrexham continued to frustrate the travelling support with short corners in the second half and the absence of Danny Sonner resulted in set play opportunities going begging due to a lack of quality of the ball in.

Wrexham did grab the early goal they required just seven minutes after the restart when Michael Proctor was well placed to slam the ball past Fielding after Gareth Evans managed to flick on a Tremarco free kick.

It was the turn of the home side to be clearly rattled following the goal and Sam Aiston was having a lot of joy against his full back down the Wrexham left.

But for all Wrexham’s territorial advantage in the second half, the Wycombe defence were a lot more resolute than Wrexham’s first half showing and managed to restrict the away side to half chances at best.

Wycombe were now resorting to wasting time as the final twenty minutes of the game approached but almost grabbed what would have been a crucial third when Craig Woodman found space down the left but Ward managed to block his shot away.

Aiston continued to terrorise Wycombe and Doherty was sent off for a second bookable offence with eleven minutes left when he pulled down the Wrexham winger, only for Fielding to pull off a superb near post save to deny Proctor from the resulting free kick.

Wrexham upped the tempo for the final ten minutes but the luck that graced us against Chester evaded us as Fielding some how deflected the ball over the bar after the ball broke to Hall on the edge of the area.

There was one chance left when Proctor had a free header during injury time but this went straight at Fielding and Wrexham were left to rue mistakes and missed opportunities as the final whistle sounded.

Match Reaction

Brian Little: "For every bit as good as we were in the second half, we were twice as bad in the first. It's a hard one for me to call, as that was a poor as we have been in a long time. Yes, we have had some games when we haven't played overly well, but I have not had a game where I think we could have worked harder, looked brighter and got amongst them. I'm not looking for excuses, but I think another 24 hours would have been nice for us to prepare for this game. And it looked like we needed a little bit of a runaround to get things going. That's about the only thing I can bring up if I'm looking for excuses, which I'm not. We needed to shake things up at half time, we needed to be brave and try something different. Both Richard and Phil had been booked, and I didn't want a sending off, so that gave me license to try something different." [Source: Wrexham FC - click here for more]

Paul Lambert: "I'm over the moon. To get the six points from the two home games is great and it was a massive three points.  We were so far ahead in the first half and we put ourselves under pressure after letting the goal in. To be fair to Wrexham they did well and the goal gave them an impetus to go forward." [Source: Wycombe Wanderers FC - click here for more]