| Wrexham look to kick start their season with a
trip to fellow strugglers Notts County who are also on a run of four
straight defeats. The Magpies also have a
new man in charge after they parted company with Steve Thompson earlier
on this month after originally joining in the summer of 2006.
Thompson was replaced by former player Ian MacParland
but he was unable to produce the initial bounce of a new manager when
they lost to 2-0 at local rivals and bottom placed Mansfield last weekend.
MacParland left his coaching position at City rivals
Forest to join County after spending eight years in his player
career at Meadow Lane, scoring 68 League goals, and is the eighth manger
of County in only six years.
After witnessing his side fall to defeat at Mansfield,
MacParland has vowed to give each player a chance to prove themselves
but the new manager intends to introduce a passing style to their game.
County's only two wins in the league this season have
come at Meadow Lane with successive 1-0 wins over Dagenham and
Chesterfield during September but their form since then has dipped and
this ended in Thompson being relieved of his duties.
County's overall home record is not too bad with their
six games so far ending in an even number of wins, draws and defeats.
This means their goal difference at home is only minus one but it is a
different story on their travels where they are yet to win and are
conceding two goals per game on average.
Top scorer for the Magpies is midfielder Richard
Butcher with five goals so far this season and the former Peterborough
player has made a positive start to his career with County after only
last one season at London Road.
A familiar face in the Magpies rank is our former
striker Hector Sam. Sam joined County from Walsall on a free transfer
in time for the new season but has been mainly restricted to substitutes appearances
this season and has only registered one goal as a result.
Recent Encounters:
Our last win against Notts County was at Meadow Lane
back in 2004 when we left Nottingham with a 3-2 victory en route to our LDV
Vans Final win the following year.
Ironically, Hector Sam grabbed our winner in that game
but since then we lost out in controversial fashion to a late winner the
following season and we got nowhere near last season as we went down
2-1.
Our overall record in the league against the Magpies
sees us trailing narrowly on 15 wins compared to their 17 and the other
14 of our 36 games have ended in draws.
Team News:
Robbie Garrett makes a welcome return in midfield
after serving a one match ban against Barnet last week but Wrexham are
without the versatile Danny Williams who will be sidelined for another
two weeks as he recovers from a back injury.
Silvio Spann has been struggling with his hamstring in
midweek and there are also doubts over Michael Jones and Shaun Pejic
with back and foot injuries respectively.
Juan Ugarte has returned to training this week
following hamstring trouble but is not match fit and Ryan Valentine also
has the same problem after recovering from a groin strain.
Notts County's injury problems have started to ease
and Jay Smith and Lee Canoville are both back in the squad after
hamstring problems but Mike Edwards and on-loan striker Danny Crow are
among those still out.
Elsewhere in League Two:
MK Dons continue to the lead the way at the top of
League Two and will be looking to at least maintain their three point
advantage when they entertain Stockport who have made a stuttering start
to the season after narrowly missing out on the play off last time out.
Chester are the nearest rivals to the Dons and they
entertain eighth placed Wycombe whilst third placed Darlington are at
home to Chesterfield who are one place below them in the table.
Mansfield continue to prop up the table but their
first win in eight games last weekend has closed the gap to one point on
us and the Stags travel to Shrewsbury who are without a win in their
last six games following a good start to the season.
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