Wrexham 0

 

Grimsby Town 0

 

Saturday 23 February 2008

 

Kick Off @ 15:00

Wrexham
Starting XI:
12 Gavin Ward
02 Simon Spender
28 Phil Bolland
05 Steve Evans
15 Mike Williams
36 Carl Tremarco
34 Danny Sonner
37 Jeff Whitley 63'
11 Chris Llewellyn
39 Drewe Broughton 66'
35 Stuart Nicholson 66'
Substitutes:
01 Anthony Williams (GK)
06 Richard Hope
10 Michael Proctor 66'
29 Sam Aiston 63'
38 Rob Duffy 66'
Stats:
3 Shots on Goal
1 Shots on Target
2 Shots off Target
49% Possession
10 Fouls Conceded
2 Corners
1 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Grimsby Town
Starting XI:
01 Phillip Barnes
05 Ryan Bennett
06 Nick Fenton
25 Robert Atkinson
02 Jamie Clark
11 Danny Boshell
04 James Hunt
10 Ciaran Toner 46'
17 Nick Hegerty
07 Peter Till 68'
09 Danny North 80'
Substitutes:
08 Paul Bolland 46'
13 Gary Montgomery (GK)
15 Justin Whittle
18 Peter Bore 80'
19 Gary Jones 68'
Stats:
3 Shots on Goal
2 Shots on Target
1 Shots off Target
51% Possession
6 Fouls Conceded
1 Corners
2 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: Racecourse Ground
Attendance: 4,217
Half Time: Wrexham 0 Grimsby 0
Referee: Andy Haines

Match Incidents
82' Robert Atkinson (Grimsby)
84' Nick Fenton (Grimsby)
87' Rob Duffy (Wrexham)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast

BBC: Wrexham 0-0 Grimsby

Grimsby Town FC: Town Take A Point In Wrexham Stalemate

TEAMtalk: Dragons hold on for vital point

Wales on Sunday: Unbeaten Dragons languish at the bottom

Wrexham FC: Wrexham 0 Grimsby Town 0

Wrexham MAD: Wrexham 0 Grimsby Town 0

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

League Two Table
    PLD GD PTS
1 Milton Keynes Dons 33 31 66
2 Hereford 32 23 64
3 Darlington 32 29 62
4 Peterborough 32 28 62
5 Rotherham 33 12 57
6 Wycombe 34 10 57
7 Stockport 33 9 53
8 Chesterfield 34 12 51
9 Rochdale 31 6 50
10 Morecambe 33 0 50
11 Grimsby 34 -6 46
12 Brentford 32 -6 46
13 Bradford 31 2 41
14 Shrewsbury 33 -2 40
15 Chester 33 -8 40
16 Lincoln City 34 -9 40
17 Accrington Stanley 33 -26 36
18 Barnet 30 -10 35
19 Dag & Red 33 -16 34
20 Notts County 33 -14 33
21 Bury 32 -12 32
22 Macclesfield 34 -20 31
23 Mansfield 31 -12 28
24 Wrexham 30 -21 25

Next Five Games

Tue 26 Feb: Peterborough (h) 19:45

Sat 01 Mar: Mansfield (h) 15:00

Sun 09 Mar: Chester (a) 12:00

Tue 11 Mar: Wycombe (a) 19:45

Sat 15 Mar: Bury (h) 15:00

Match Report
Wrexham extended their unbeaten to run six games with a drab goalless draw at home to Grimsby.

The point edges us closer to safety and with only Dagenham & Redbridge collecting three points, we are now six points adrift of Macclesfield Town but with four games in hand.

Once of these games comes on Tuesday night when Darren Ferguson brings his Peterborough side to the Racecourse and Wrexham will require more creativity than today if we are going to collect the three points.

There were only two changes to the starting line up with Carl Tremarco replacing Neil Taylor but the loss of Neil Roberts to an ankle injury had the greatest impact.

Jeff Whitley took his place in midfield and with Roberts and Richard Hope not in the starting line up; Drewe Broughton was made captain in his last game before his loan spell from MK Dons ends.

Wrexham started like a team that had not played in the last two weeks with a high tempo opening ten minutes that had the Mariners on the back foot.

Drewe Broughton was winning plenty of balls forward and the work rate of Nicholson was keeping the Mariners defence busy.

Both strikers had early chances with Broughton firing straight at Phil Barnes and Nicholson looked to have got goal side of Fenton when collecting Llewellyn’s through ball but the defender managed to make a good tackle on the edge of the area.

Wrexham continued to make all the early running and Tremarco went close with a header after Nicholson’s right wing cross got caught up in the wind.

Wrexham could not keep this tempo up and Grimsby started to edge themselves into the game.

Their main attacking threat was the pace of Nick Hegarty down the left wing and Wrexham got lucky when Simon Spender glanced his cross goalwards but thankfully it drifted wide of the far post.

Gavin Ward was forced into making his first save of the game when good approach play from Grimsby opened up the Wrexham defence for really the only time and Ward took two attempts to gather a well struck shot from Ciaran Toner.

Wrexham won a free kick in first half injury time but the delivery from Danny Sonner lacked quality and this just about summed up what was an uneventful opening forty-five minutes.

Grimsby were forced into making a change during the half time break with Toner failing to recover from the knock he collected whilst shooting towards the end of the first half and he was replaced by Paul Bolland.

The second half was just as uninspiring as its predecessor with both teams struggling to cope with the windy conditions and a pitch covered in sand, which made controlling the ball difficult.

Twenty minutes passed without any shots on goal as both defences remained firmly on top and Brian Little used all three of his substitutes in as many minutes.

Sam Aiston replaced Jeff Whitley in midfield and a new strikeforce of Rob Duffy and Michael Proctor were introduced for Drewe Broughton and Stuart Nicholson.

This did give the crowd a much needed lift and Aiston, playing further forward with Sonner as the holding man, almost burst through into the box but Bennett did enough to clear.

No side was looking likely to break the deadlock and the only second half incidents of note were from referee Andy Haines who issued three yellow cards in the last ten minutes to Rob Duffy and Grimsby’s Fenton and Atkinson.

With the game drifting to a goalless finish, there was one last chance for Michael Proctor when he collected the ball twenty-five yards from goal and was unlucky as his shot curled narrowly over the bar with Barnes well beaten in the Grimsby goal.

The were positives that Wrexham can take from this game as our unbeaten run was extended to six games and this was also our third successive clean sheet but we could do with that extra cutting edge at the other end of the pitch, especially when we face teams with a well organised backline.

Match Reaction
Brian Little: "We had a similar problem against them about a month ago when we felt that the two teams pretty much cancelled each other out. For the first 25 minutes or so we played with the three strikers, but when we didn't score you could feel them getting the ball more in the middle of the park. We thought 'crikey' so we matched them up and try and grind out a result. Both teams were pretty much the same as the other, we were man for man all over the park and you just felt that if it was going to be won it would be similar to their place when it was going to be either a mistake or a special goal. It was just a hard-fought game and we worked against each other. The one little half a chance was to Michael Proctor, but it went about a foot or so too high. It was going to be something like that to win the game otherwise it was going to be a draw. I think that it was a hard fought game but probably the right result." [Source: Wrexham FC - click here for more]

Alan Buckley: "It was a very tough game in very difficult conditions, swirling wind. The pitch wasn't conducive to good football. I don't think we started well. For around quarter of an hour we invited pressure. From there on in we started to pass around about a bit, looked a bit dangerous, kept the ball better. If you look at what Barnsey's had to do we've had a comfortable afternoon. The same can be said of their goalkeeper as well." [Source: Grimsby Town FC - click here for more]