Morecambe Bay 2

Wayne Curtis 8' Neil Roberts 52' (og)

Wrexham 2

Danny Sonner 30' (p) Michael Proctor 79' (p)

Saturday 29 January 2008

 

Kick Off @ 19:45

Wrexham
Starting XI:
12 Gavin Ward
02 Simon Spender 67'
05 Steve Evans
04 Shaun Pejic
06 Richard Hope
36 Carl Tremarco 48'
09 Neil Roberts
34 Danny Sonner 46'
11 Chris Llewellyn
35 Stuart Nicholson
39 Drewe Broughton
Substitutes:
01 Anthony Williams (GK)
10 Michael Proctor 67'
25 Neil Taylor
28 Phil Bolland
37 Jeff Whitley 46'
Stats:
12 Shots on Goal
4 Shots on Target
8 Shots off Target
49% Possession
13 Fouls Conceded
3 Corners
3 Yellow Cards
1 Red Cards

Morecambe Bay
Starting XI:
32 Shwan Jalal
02 Adam Yates
04 David Artell
05 Jim Bentley
25 Danny Adams
11 Garry Thompson
06 Craig Stanley
16 Stuart Drummond
10 Carl Baker
21 Mathhew Blinkhorn
09 Wayne Curtis 77'
Substitutes:
07 Michael Twiss 77'
08 Gary Hunter
17 Jamie Burns
20 Jon Newby
30 Scott Davies (GK)
Stats:
17 Shots on Goal
8 Shots on Target
9 Shots off Target
51% Possession
10 Fouls Conceded
4 Corners
1 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: Racecourse Ground
Attendance: 2,421
Half Time: Morecambe 1 Wrexham 1
Referee: Andy Hall

Match Incidents
07' Wayne Curtis (Morecambe)
35' Carl Tremarco (Wrexham)
30' Danny Sonner (Wrexham)
52' Neil Roberts (Wrexham)
67' Adam Yates (Morecambe)
75' Richard Hope (Wrexham)
79' Michael Proctor (Wrexham)
90' Richard Hope (Wrexham)
90' Richard Hope (Wrexham)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast

BBC: Morecambe 2-2 Wrexham

Daily Post: Morecambe 2 Wrexham 2

Evening Leader: Morecambe 2 Wrexham 2

TEAMtalk: Dragons keep cool to earn point

Wrexham FC: Morecambe 2 Wrexham 2

Wrexham MAD: Morecambe 2 Wrexham 2

League Two Results
Bradford 4 Shrewsbury 2
Brentford 0 Notts County 0
Chester 0 Rochdale 4
Darlington 1 Accrington 0
Grimsby 1 Bury 0
Lincoln City 1 Mansfield 2
MK Dons 1 Macclesfield 1
Morecambe 2 Wrexham 2
Peterborough 3 Rotherham 1
Stockport 2 Chesterfield 2
Wycombe 0 Dag & Red 1
Hereford 1 Barnet 2 (Wednesday)

League Two Table
    PLD GD PTS
1 MK Dons 29 25 58
2 Darlington 27 29 53
3 Rotherham 28 16 53
4 Peterborough 27 21 49
5 Hereford 27 14 49
6 Chesterfield 29 16 47
7 Rochdale 26 11 47
8 Wycombe 29 7 47
9 Morecambe 29 1 44
10 Stockport 27 3 40
11 Shrewsbury 29 0 38
12 Grimsby 29 -6 38
13 Chester 28 -4 36
14 Brentford 27 -9 36
15 Bradford 27 1 35
16 Barnet 25 -4 35
17 Accrington 28 -18 33
18 Notts County 28 -12 28
19 Macclesfield 28 -13 28
20 Bury 26 -8 25
21 Lincoln City 28 -16 25
22 Dag & Red 28 -21 25
23 Mansfield 26 -10 22
24 Wrexham 27 -23 20

Next Five Games

Sat 02 Feb: Darlington (h) 14:30

Sat 09 Feb: Peterborough (a) 15:00

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

Tue 19 Feb: Hereford (a) 19:45

Fri 22 Feb: Grimsby (h) 19:45

Match Report
It was a case of one point gained rather than two dropped in our first visit to Morecambe as penalties in each half from Danny Sonner and Michael Proctor were enough to pick up a valuable point.

This was not enough to see us climb off the foot of the table as results elsewhere went against us and it was another spirited display from Brian Little's team, although the loss of Carl Tremarco and Danny Sonner to injury, along with a late sending off for Richard Hope, were the only down points of the night.

True, the performance was not as good as in the previous two games, but the fact that Morecambe twice held the lead was not enough to damper a spirited performance from a Wrexham side that now at least look like picking up points when not playing well.

Morecambe’s goals came from a close range conversion from Wayne Curtis in the first half and a Neil Roberts own goal following half time, and you sensed Morecombe were going to extend their second half advantage before Wrexham pegged them back from the spot.

Both penalties looked fair decisions from the vantage point of the away end with Stuart Nicholson dumped to the ground for the first spot kick and later Drewe Broughton was impeded when attempting to meet a Jeff Whitley corner.

Both penalties were despatched with relative ease by Sonner and Proctor and this at least brought to an end a run of three misses from the spot in the league this season.

There was only one change to the starting line up from the weekend with Shaun Pejic replacing Phil Bolland and this meant Steve Evans switching from his influential role in the centre to the right side of defence.

The Wrexham defence did not look as solid as the last two games with Carl Tremarco oddly off form but this could have been explained by his second half injury.

Morecombe were full of pace and movement up front and this paid dividends after only seven minutes when the Shrimps grabbed the first goal of the game.

Carl Baker got the better of Tremarco and Richard Hope down the Morecombe right and after Shaun Pejic, Steve Evans and Gavin Ward watched his ball travel across the six yard box, Wayne Curtis had the rather simple task to score from close range at the far post.

Tremarco was again caught out four minutes later when he failed to deal with a simple high ball forward but escaped when Matt Blinkhorn could only fire wide from inside of the area.

Wrexham were struggling to register any shots on target but Nicholson should have done better with a header from Sonner’s corner with twenty minutes gone but at least the Wrexham defence were now containing Morecombe’s play.

And with thirty minutes gone Wrexham were handed a life line from the spot when Nicholson was pulled down in the box following a good lay off from Broughton and Danny Sonner made no mistake with his free shot from twelve yards.

Morecombe almost scored from the restart when Thompson found the side netting as the Wrexham defence were again undone by a simple long ball.

Our equaliser did come against the run of play but Wrexham almost took the lead minutes later when superb control and a run from Llewellyn ended with his low shot beating Shwan Jalal in the Morecambe goal but the ball struck the foot of the far post.

The ball rebounded straight to Drewe Broughton but Jalal did well to recover and turn his shot behind for a corner.

Wrexham’s goal lived a charmed life as first half injury time approached and it was no real surprise to see Jeff Whitley introduced for the start of the second half at the expense of goal scorer Sonner but soon after Tremarco was replaced by Neil Taylor after failing to shrug off an injury.

Taylor was forced on the back foot almost immediately and was lucky to escape without conceding a penalty as Thompson went over when clean through but Wrexham did not escape much longer as Morecombe regained their advantage seven minutes after the restart.

It was another bad goal for Wrexham to concede when Neil Roberts got his clearance completely wrong and found the back of his own net from Baker’s low cross.

Wrexham struggled following the own goal and the best we could muster was a poor Neil Roberts free kick after Broughton was fouled but Roberts could only strike at the base of the wall.

Gavin Ward was quickly off his line to deny Baker who was clean through after Thompson’s pass opened up the Wrexham defence and it was no real surprise when Brian little switched to 4-3-3 for the final quarter of the game when Michael Proctor replaced Simon Spender.

This changed meant Shaun Pejic was playing at right back and his distribution let him down when in a good position to cross but he did come to Wrexham’s rescue at the other end when he blocked a shot from Drummond in the six yard box after Ward could only parry the initial ball in.

Wrexham’s second life line came with eleven minutes left when Drewe Broughton was impeded when attempting to reach Whitley’s corner and substitute Proctor despatched the ball with ease.

Wrexham got the luck you need to escape these relegation battles when Stanley somehow missed an open goal from a knock down but the loss of Richard Hope to a second yellow card in injury time ended what was a positive, if at some times lucky, night on a sour note.

Match Reaction
Brian Little: "We didn't play very well, but this was definitely one of those games where the result was more important than the performance. We also made it hard for ourselves by conceding early in each half, but overall I wasn't very happy with the way we played. For sure I'd settle for points every time, but I just thought we got pulled around a little bit too much today, especially so at the back. We were always a little bit of an accident waiting to happen, but even so it's a great result and that's the nice thing about it. There were a couple of decisions which went our way, which I thought were the right decisions, and if anyone is arguing that they weren't penalties, then I would have to disagree as I genuinely thought they were. Overall we did do some silly things, but we didn't give in. Again we changed the team to be positive in the second half, Michael [Proctor] has gone on, looked positive and scored the second penalty. That doesn't say they weren't the stronger side on the night. We couldn't deal with their forwards, so we were always under pressure defensively and we never looked comfortable." [Source: Wrexham FC - click here for more]