Wrexham 1

Neil Roberts 38'

Bradford City 1

Kyle Nix 49'

Saturday 26 January 2008

 

Kick Off @ 15:00

Wrexham
Starting XI:
12 Gavin Ward
02 Simon Spender
28 Phil Bolland 64'
05 Steve Evans
06 Richard Hope
36 Carl Tremarco
09 Neil Roberts
34 Danny Sonner
11 Chris Llewellyn
35 Stuart Nicholson 64'
39 Drewe Broughton
Substitutes:
01 Anthony Williams (GK)
04 Shaun Pejic
10 Michael Proctor 64'
37 Jeff Whitley 64'
38 Robert Duffy
Stats:
12 Shots on Goal
4 Shots on Target
8 Shots off Target
% Possession
10 Fouls Conceded
3 Corners
1 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Bradford City
Starting XI:
01 Donovan Ricketts
02 Darren Williams 46'
05 David Wetherall
12 Matthew Clarke
03 Paul Heckingbottom
15 Joe Colbeck
08 Eddie Johnson 66'
32 Lee Bullock
22 Kyle Nix
07 Omar Daley
09 Barry Conlon
Substitutes:
04 Paul Evans 66'
16 Simon Ainge
23 Willy Topp
30 Ben Saynor (GK)
33 Ben Starosta 46'
Stats:
5 Shots on Goal
3 Shots on Target
2 Shots off Target
% Possession
11 Fouls Conceded
7 Corners
1 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: Racecourse Ground
Attendance: 4,341
Half Time: Wrexham 1 Bradford 0
Referee: Keith Woolmer

Match Incidents
37' Neil Roberts (Wrexham)
49' Kyle Nix (Bradford)
54' Omar Daley (Bradford)
54' Neil Roberts (Wrexham)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast

BBC: Wrexham 1-1 Bradford

Bradford City FC: Wrexham 1 Bradford City 1

TEAMtalk: Dragons remain bottom after draw

Wales on Sunday: Wrexham stay bottom after draw

Wrexham FC: Wrexham 1 Bradford City 1

Wrexham MAD: Wrexham 1 Bradford City 1

League Two Results
Chester 0 Rotherham 1
Darlington 2 Macclesfield 2
Grimsby 1 Shrewsbury 1
Lincoln City 2 Dag & Red 0
Milton Keynes Dons 0 Rochdale 1
Morecambe 1 Notts County 1
Wrexham 1 Bradford 1
Wycombe 1 Chesterfield 1

League Two Table
    PLD GD PTS
1 MK Dons 28 25 57
2 Rotherham 27 18 53
3 Darlington 26 28 50
4 Hereford 26 15 49
5 Wycombe 28 8 47
6 Peterborough 26 19 46
7 Chesterfield 28 16 46
8 Rochdale 25 7 44
9 Morecambe 28 1 43
10 Stockport 26 3 39
11 Shrewsbury 28 2 38
12 Chester 27 0 36
13 Grimsby 28 -7 35
14 Brentford 26 -9 35
15 Accrington 27 -17 33
16 Bradford 26 -1 32
17 Barnet 24 -5 32
18 Notts County 27 -12 27
19 Macclesfield 27 -13 27
20 Bury 25 -7 25
21 Lincoln City 27 -15 25
22 Dag & Red 27 -22 22
23 Mansfield 25 -11 19
24 Wrexham 26 -23 19

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 picked up a well earned point in our bid for survival with Neil Roberts’ first half strike cancelled out by Bradford in the second half.

It was another improved performance from Brian Little’s new look Wrexham side and enough chances were created to grab the second goal but a point a piece was probably a fair result.

Wrexham were just edging into the game when Neil Roberts broke from midfield to grab his second goal in as many games when his shot looped in off the keeper.

The goal came seven minutes before half time but Wrexham could only hold on for four minutes after the restart when Nix’s shot took a wicked deflection to deceive Gavin Ward.

Bradford had the better of the game after their equaliser until Wrexham switched to 4-3-3 and this was when our best chances came but Ward had to pull off a smart save to deny Omar Daley who was still lucky to be on the pitch following a reckless challenge in the second half.

There was just one change to the starting line up with Drewe Broughton making his Wrexham debut up front and he took the place of Paul Hall who was sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Broughton give us a new dimension in attack with the noticeable difference being that we retained possession of the ball up front which meant there was less pressure on our three man defence.

Carl Tremarco was again outstanding in the left wing back position and there was no surprise when he was named man of the match but Steve Evans made a telling contribution by having the better of Barry Conlon, Bradford’s big striker.

This meant it was a relatively quiet afternoon for Gavin Ward in the Wrexham goal, although he did have a nervous start when he dropped a routine catch but managed to gather the ball before the Bradford striker could pounce.

This was the only goal mouth action of note in a quiet opening quarter to the game with Bradford packing out the midfield with only Conlon up front.

The first chance of the game came when Chris Llewellyn supplied a superb cross field pass for Neil Roberts to collect down the right and his cross was turned onto the bar by Broughton who was close to marking his debut with a goal.

Bradford should have grabbed the first goal of the game with half an hour gone when Wrexham failed to clear a corner and Conlon had a free header from eight yards out when the ball came back in but he could only glance the ball straight at Ward.

Wrexham continued to expose Bradford down their left and this time Nicholson got the better of Heckingbottom but his low cross just evaded Broughton at the near post.

Wrexham had a few nervous moments when indecision between Evans and Ward forced the defender to put behind for a corner and Daley used his space to skip past Spender but his final ball or shot let him down.

The opening goal came soon after with a defence splitting pass from Danny Sonner perfect for Neil Roberts but Ricketts looked as if he saved the well struck shot but the ball looped up and into the net with Nicholson and Broughton making sure the Bradford defender could not get back to clear.

Neil Roberts was forced to clear from his own line at the end of the half but Wrexham could not keep Bradford out following the restart with the visitors drawing level with four minutes of the second half gone.

It was a lucky goal from Nix as his shot from twenty yards took a wicked deflection off the boot of a Wrexham player as he looked to block the ball but this left Ward wrong footed as the ball drifted into the far side of the goal.

Minutes later and a bad challenge from Daley raised temperatures on the pitch when he lunged into Bolland. Neil Roberts completely lost it and all players came charging in with the end result being that Daley and Roberts ending up in the book.

Bradford did have the better of the game following their goal without ever troubling Ward and this forced Brian Little to make a double substitution with twenty five minutes left.

Jeff Whitley and Michael Proctor replaced Phil Bolland and Stuart Nicholson as Wrexham switched to 4-3-3 with Chris Llewellyn moving up front to be the third striker.

This move changed the direction of the game with Wrexham now looking dangerous and the team now most likely to go on to score the second goal.

Whitley had an immediate impact with his purposeful direct style of play almost ending up with a goal when his long range shot went narrowly over with Ricketts well beaten in the Bradford goal.

Steve Evans had two headers from successive corners but the second of these was put wide when he looked odds on to score and another chance went begging when Neil Roberts tried to beat one man too many instead of shooting from the edge of the area.

Ricketts almost gifted us the second goal when he took too long to deal with a back pass and Llewellyn dispossessed him but his failure to get the ball away allowed the Bradford defenders to crowd him out and save the blushes of their keeper.

There were also chances for Proctor at the death when he was clean through but his lack of pace was hopelessly exposed as the Bradford defender got back with a well timed challenge.

Bradford did have once chance at the death when Daley got past Spender and Ward pulled off a good save to turn his low shot around the post.

Bradford forced two corners late on in injury time but there were no scares for Wrexham and the draw was probably a fair result.

Match Reaction
Brian Little: "I think that at 1-0 up we had a system that was frustrating them. We were giving them quite a bit of possession in the full-back areas but they weren't really hurting us. Once they scored, and it was a poor goal, I don't think it was a mistake more a deflection which we couldn't really do much about. Once they scored they have then got the impetus to perhaps go on and win so it was important for us to change and to test them which might have won the game for us. I think it nearly worked for us. We have quite a bit of variation now, with a couple of big fellows in the team as forwards today so the temptation could have been to throw Rob on but big Drewe was doing quite well for us and we just thought that we might as well keep it pretty much the same until the end. I was pleased with so much about the game and I think that we were closer to winning it than perhaps losing it but at 1-0 we maybe could have got a second. At 1-1 we had a couple of decent half chances but then you get nervous and at the end Gavin has to pull off one really good save. They then get a couple of corners and a week or two ago one of them might have ended up in the back of the net." [Source: Wrexham FC - click here for more]