|
|
|
Match Report |
Wrexham served up one of their most
inept performances in many a year and a last minute penalty from Neil
Roberts was no consolation for the long suffering Racecourse crowd.
Thankfully this was the last home match of a season to forget and
started with our biggest gaff of the campaign as we gifted Accrington a
seventh minute.
Wrexham never looked like having the ability to break down the young
looking Accrington side and the visitors doubled their advantage before
the half hour mark.
Chris Llewellyn should have reduced the arrears in the second half but
Accrington put the game beyond any doubt with twenty minutes left and it
was no surprise that the final whistle was greeted with a chorus of
boos.
Brian Little again made changes to the side and this meant that none of
his eleven signings made the starting line up with only Gavin Ward
making the substitutes bench.
As expected, Michael Jones replaced Ward in goal and Gareth Evans, Andy
Flemming, Chris Llewellyn and Michael Carvill were also given the chance
to impress for the new season.
Sadly for the young keeper, what looked like a routine claim from
Grant’s header ended in a calamity own goal as Jones called for the ball
and as Shaun Pejic ducked, the ball rolled off his back and through the
embarrassed keeper’s legs before trickling into the net.
The own goal came after only seven minutes and the only threat from
Wrexham by that point was in the fourth minute when Chris Llewellyn
fired a shot wide of the target.
A flashpoint came after twenty minutes when Accrington midfielder Ian
Craney shoved Steve Evans into the Wrexham dugout as both players chased
the ball down.
Not surprisingly, Evans went after Craney for this and had to be
restrained by coaching staff and both players ended up in the book but
referee Mark Hayward awarded the free kick to the visitors.
This was the first of many strange decisions from the referee who was
just as bad as Wrexham and it will not be surprising if he is also
relegated out of the league, along with us, on this showing.
With Wrexham not looking likely to get back on level terms, Accrington
doubled their advantage and showed the gulf between the two sides in the
process.
Accrington are not a quality side but a goal looked inevitable when
Shaun Whalley skinned Steve Evans down the left touch line and after
Michael Jones could only parry his low cross back into the danger area,
full back Peter Cavanagh beat Matty Done to the loose ball for a simple
tap in.
Done put wide our best chance of the first half and it was no surprise
that Brian Little used the half time break to make changes to the side
with Neil Taylor and Wes Baynes replacing Steve Evans and Michael
Carvill.
The change did have an impact with Wrexham playing with more pace to our
game and Chris Llewellyn should have done better when he found himself
clean through from Gareth Evans’ long clearance but he fired the
bouncing ball high into the Kop from the edge of the area.
This miss proved costly as it would have at least put Accrington under
pressure and the visitors extended their advantage with eighteen minutes
left when Shaun Whalley sprung the offside trap and finished with a
quality shot from the outside of his right foot.
Accrington could have extended their lead even further, and a better
quality side would have done, when Harris was denied by Michael Jones
only for Paul Mullin to stab the rebound wide from five yards out.
Michael Jones saved well from Mullin and Accrington’s top scorer was
again denied from the resulting corner when Gareth Evans cleared his
header off the line.
Wrexham finally tested Kenny Arthur in the Accrington goal when a good
shot from Flemming bounced up at the keeper but he grabbed the ball at
the second attempt.
That was with five minutes left and Wrexham fans finally had something
to cheer about as the game entered four minutes of injury time.
A fantastic fifty yard run from Wes Baynes was finally brought to an end
with a trip from Phil Edwards inside of the area and Neil Roberts made
no mistake from the spot by sending Arthur the wrong way. |
|
Match Reaction |
| Brian Little: "We wanted to try and finish the
season at home better than that obviously. We haven't lost too many
games at home this year so it is disappointing really. The mistakes
again really set it off; the young keeper made a mistake and really from
there on in it got really difficult. We tried to encourage them at
half-time to be brave and just get out there. It was a great learning
day for them. In football it was a massive day in terms of 'if you are a
football player and you are in a team and you are losing 2-0 this is
what it is all about'. Are you big enough? Are you strong enough? We
just encouraged them to try and stand there, and get onto each other and
try and play instead of going into their shell. We had a couple of half
chances at 0-2 which might have seen us put them under a bit of pressure
and then the third goal again was another mistake. We have done three
mistakes we feel, the first one was a poor mistake, for the second one
two people were tackling on the sideline where you don't need to tackle,
you can just let them have the ball, and the third one we tried to play
offside when we have not done an offside session ever."
[Source:
Wrexham FC - click here for more] |
|
46'
46'
46'
46'
78'
78'