Wrexham 1

Neil Roberts 71'

Milton Keynes Dons 0

 

Saturday 19 January 2008

 

Kick Off @ 15:00



Wrexham

Starting XI:
12 Gavin Ward
02 Simon Spender
28 Phil Bolland
05 Steve Evans
06 Richard Hope
36 Carl Tremarco
09 Neil Roberts
34 Danny Sonner
11 Chris Llewellyn
35 Stuart Nicholson 90'
33 Paul Hall 34'
Substitutes:
01 Anthony Williams
04 Shaun Pejic
10 Michael Proctor 34'
20 Matty Done
37 Jeff Whitley 90'
Stats:
3 Shots on Goal
1 Shots on Target
2 Shots off Target
50% Possession
16 Fouls Conceded
5 Corners
3 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

MK Dons

Starting XI:
12 Willy Gueret
21 Luke Howell 75'
05 Drissa Diallo
06 Sean O'Hanlon
03 Dean Lewington
14 Mark Wright
04 Keith Andrews
10 Colin Cameron 61'
20 Alan Navarro
23 Jemal Johnson 87'
16 Aaron WIlbraham
Substitutes:
08 Kevin Gallen 75'
11 Lloyd Dyer 61'
24 Matt Carbon 87'
29 Nathan Abbey (GK)
32 Jordan Hadfield
Stats:
7 Shots on Goal
1 Shots on Target
6 Shots off Target
50% Possession
10 Fouls Conceded
3 Corners
3 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes

Venue: Racecourse Ground
Attendance: 4,319
Half Time: Wrexham 0 MK Dons 0
Referee: Clive Oliver

Match Incidents

49' Steve Evans (Wrexham)
56' Stuart Nicholson (Wrexham)
64' Aaron Wilbraham (MK Dons)
79' Simon Spender (Wrexham)
71' Neil Roberts (Wrexham)
71' Willy Gueret (MK Dons)
83' Jermail Johnson (MK Dons)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast


BBC: Wrexham 1-0 MK Dons


MK Dons FC: Wrexham 1 MK Dons 0


TEAMtalk: Dragons shock Dons with win


Wales on Sunday: Fresh fire for brave Dragons


Wrexham FC: Wrexham 1 MK Dons 0


Wrexham MAD: Wrexham 1 Milton Keynes Dons 0

League Two Results

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

League Two Table

    PLD GD PTS
1 MK Dons 27 26 57
2 Rotherham 26 17 50
3 Darlington 25 28 49
4 Hereford 25 19 49
5 Peterborough 26 19 46
6 Wycombe 27 7 44
7 Chesterfield 26 13 43
8 Morecambe 27 1 42
9 Rochdale 24 6 41
10 Stockport 26 3 39
11 Shrewsbury 27 2 37
12 Chester 26 1 36
13 Brentford 26 -9 35
14 Grimsby 27 -7 34
15 Accrington Stanley 27 -17 33
16 Barnet 24 -5 32
17 Bradford 24 -1 30
18 Notts County 26 -12 26
19 Macclesfield 26 -13 26
20 Bury 24 -7 24
21 Lincoln City 26 -17 22
22 Dag & Red 26 -20 22
23 Mansfield 25 -11 19
24 Wrexham 25 -23 18

Next Five Games

Tue 29 Jan: Morecambe (a) 19:45

Sat 02 Feb: Darlington (h) 14:30

Sat 09 Feb: Peterborough (a) 15:00

Tue 12 Feb: Bradford (h) 19:45

Sat 16 Feb: MK Dons (a) 15:00

Match Report

Wrexham ended a run of eight straight defeats with an encouraging 1-0 victory over league leaders MK Dons courtesy of a delightful Neil Roberts chip in the second half.

In a game played on a heavy pitch, chances were few and far between but Wrexham coped better with the conditions as the game wore on and hardly gave the runaway league two leagues a sniff in the second half.

We did get a lucky break in the first half when Colin Cameron shot wide from close range but this was a rare clear opportunity for the Dons with Steve Evans a commanding figure at the heart of a five man defence.

The game looked like it was heading to a drab goalless draw but a rare moment of quality, which was in complete contrast to the game, with nineteen minutes left from Neil Roberts proved to be the difference come the final whistle.

Wrexham forced a corner down the right but the MK Dons looked to have defended it well until the clearance only found Roberts on the edge of the area.

Roberts shaped up to strike the ball but with Dons ‘keeper Willie Gueret six yards off his line, Roberts floated the ball over the crowd of players in the box and watched as it sailed over Gueret and the defender on the line into the net.

Gueret thought he was fouled when coming to claim the corner and took his protests to far and ending up in the book of referee Clive Oliver who had a stinker of a game.

Everything went the way of the away side until we got the vital goal and he somehow managed to six players in a game without a bad foul all afternoon.

It was a completely new line up for the Racecourse faithful to get familiar with as four players made their home debuts and another two making their first start in a Wrexham shirt.

Gavin Ward, Phil Bolland, Danny Sonner and Paul Hall all made their first Racecourse starts whilst Carl Tremarco and Stuart Nicholson made their debuts after signing for the club on Friday.

All six made a contribution to the improved performance with Danny Sonner showing what we have been missing in midfield this season with his composed display.

Ward and Bolland did everything that was required from them and the fact that Ward had a relatively quiet afternoon for a Wrexham goalkeeper this season demonstrated the much improved performance ahead of him.

Carl Tremarco looked solid in defence with the Dons struggling to create a chance from this wing all afternoon.

The one final element that you cannot buy is luck and we certainly rode ours after fifteen minutes of the game.

It had been quiet opening with both teams struggling to fashion any chances but the Dons did cut open the Wrexham defence following a surging run from Johnson down the Wrexham right.

He skipped past Spender with ease and delivered a low ball for Keith Andrews and his lay off was perfect for Cameron but he somehow fired wide from only eight yards out.

Apart from this chance, there were not many other opportunities on goal with the Dons blocking shots from Llewellyn and Nicholson from the edge of their area.

Paul Hall then went down awkwardly by the corner flag and had to be replaced thirty four minutes into his home debut by Michael Proctor with Wrexham continuing with the effective 5-3-2 formation.

Chances remained at a premium with Andrews firing a long range free kick just over the bar for the Dons and Steve Evans had two chances from corners but both of his headers went wide of the target.

There were no changes during the half time break from both sides and it was no surprise that the second half followed the same pattern as its predecessor.

Wrexham continued to battle well in midfield and this denied the Dons any time on the ball as possession remained fairly even throughout, although you sensed that the win was there for Wrexham if the breakthrough would come.

The home crowd responded to this with the players urged on with every opportunity and the deft chip from Neil Roberts with twenty minutes lifted the roof off the stands.

This sparked wild celebrations on and off the pitch and Wrexham had further chances to extend the lead when they caught the Dons on the break but the final ball was lacking.

The MK Dons responded by making two substitutions but despite their increased attacking options, they could not force an opening with the Wrexham defence holding strong.

Stuart Nicholson left the field to a standing ovation as Wrexham ran down the clock with Jeff Whitley making an emotional return after his well stated personal problems.

Chris Llewellyn was running the ball into the corner but noticed Neil Roberts free in the area and Gueret did well to block the header from Wrexham's goal scorer.

Danny Sonner showed all his experienced in the three minutes of injury time by playing the ball down to the corner flag and it wasn’t long for the final whistle to be greeted with huge cheers from the home crowd.

Match Reaction

Brian Little: "It was a great result but I don't want to really analyse the match too much at the moment. The result was the all important thing for us and even a point would have been a step in the right direction but it is a massive result for us and I am very, very pleased. We got a break at the time, and we got a couple of breaks around the goal, but in fairness I think that the determination to not let them score was evident. All round it was better than some of the things that we have produced up to now. It was an excellent goal, a quality goal; there were so many people in the box that the only way that he could get it from there was with a chip and more often than not that will go wide or over. It was a great goal, but Neil worked really well in his midfield role again today. From week to week he has been playing in different positions but he doesn't grumble he just gets on with it." [Source: Wrexham FC]

Paul Ince: "The pitch was shocking and it made it level playing field. It was a scrappy game, it could have easily ended nil-nil but the referee's made a disgraceful decision for the goal. The goal itself was a fantastic finish but the lad Bolland has jumped right into Willy and the referee has to see that. I thought in the second half he was poor. It's like a cow-field out there and the groundsman said he hasn't been on it for 19 days! It didn't allow us to play our football but we still created a great chance for Colin Cameron to score early one and he should have done. But the more the game went on the worse the pitch got and it was always going to be a mistake that won the game. That mistake came from the referee and we'll have to put it down to experience." [Source: MK Dons FC]