Wrexham 0

 

Stockport County 1

Anthony Elding 59'

Saturday 29 December 2007

 

Kick Off @ 15:00



Wrexham

Starting XI:
01 Anthony Williams
05 Steve Evans
04 Shaun Pejic
15 Mike Williams
31 Wes Baines
29 Sam Aiston
03 Ryan Valentine
11 Chris Llewellyn
25 Neil Taylor
09 Neil Roberts 71'
10 Michael Proctor 64'
Substitutes:
07 Mark Jones
13 Michael Jones (GK)
21 Marc Williams 71'
23 Michael Carvill 64'
24 Gareth Evans
Stats:
4 Shots on Goal
1 Shots on Target
3 Shots off Target
51% Possession
13 Fouls Conceded
5 Corners
2 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Stockport County

Starting XI:
26 Conrad Logan
04 Jason Taylor
15 Michael Raynes
05 Gareth Owen
03 Michael Rose
07 David Poole 46'
28 Paul Turnball
08 Gary Dicker
17 Anthony Pilkington
20 Liam Dickinson
31 Adam Proudlock 46'
Substitutes:
09 Anthony Elding 46'
11 Adam Griffin 46'
16 James Tunnicliffe
18 Greg Tansey
19 Paul Tierney
Stats:
4 Shots on Goal
2 Shots on Target
2 Shots off Target
49% Possession
9 Fouls Conceded
8 Corners
1 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes

Venue: Racecourse Ground
Attendance: 4,287
Half Time: Wrexham 0 Stockport 0
Referee: Richard Beeby

Match Incidents

27' Neil Taylor (Wrexham)
37' Chris Llewellyn (Wrexham)
59' Anthony Elding (Stockport)
89' Adam Griffin (Stockport)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast


BBC: Wrexham 0-1 Stockport


Stockport County FC: Wrexham 0 County 1


TEAMtalk: Super-sub Elding slays Dragons


Wales on Sunday: Valentine penalty miss costly for Dragons


Wrexham FC: Wrexham 0 Stockport County 1


Wrexham MAD: Wrexham 0 Stockport County 1

League Two Results

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

League Two Table

    PLD GD PTS
1 MK Dons 23 26 51
2 Hereford 23 17 45
3 Rotherham 22 13 43
4 Darlington 21 23 40
5 Chesterfield 22 15 40
6 Peterborough 23 13 40
7 Wycombe 23 4 39
8 Morecambe 22 5 36
9 Chester 22 5 35
10 Shrewsbury 23 4 34
11 Rochdale 20 4 32
12 Accrington Stanley 23 -7 32
13 Stockport 23 -1 30
14 Barnet 22 -6 28
15 Brentford 23 -12 26
16 Bradford 22 -6 24
17 Grimsby 23 -11 24
18 Bury 22 -4 23
19 Macclesfield 23 -10 23
20 Notts County 22 -9 22
21 Dag & Red 23 -18 21
22 Lincoln City 23 -17 18
23 Mansfield 21 -6 16
24 Wrexham 22 -22 15

Next Five Games

Tue 01 Jan: Chesterfield (a) 15:00

Wed 09 Jan: Llanelli (a) 19:00

Sat 12 Jan: Grimsby (a) 15:00

Tue 15 Jan: Mansfield (a) 19:45

Sat 19 Jan: MK Dons (h) 15:00

Match Report

Wrexham fell to their fifth straight defeat and will start the New Year bottom of the table after Stockport scored the only goal of the game in the second half.

Wrexham only had one opportunity following Anthony Elding’s strike for the visitors but Ryan Valentine’s spot kick was the third Wrexham penalty to be saved at the Racecourse this season.

It was a much improved first half performance from the Boxing Day defeat to Rochdale with Sam Aiston and Chris Llewellyn making positive runs forward and Ryan Valentine looking assured in the holding midfield position.

Stockport upped the temp in their game after the break and Wrexham again had no answer after falling behind to a goal that again left question marks about our defending.

There were three changes from the Rochdale game with Richard Hope, Silvio Spann and Mark Jones missing out and Wes Baines, Shaun Pejic and Mike Williams recalled as Wrexham reverted to a 3-5-2 formation.

Wrexham were playing into the wind in the first half on what was an awful Racecourse pitch that cut up in all areas of the ground but Wrexham got to grips with the pitch better than their rivals.

An early free kick from Michael Proctor was fired into the wall and Neil Roberts did well to set up Chris Llewellyn from the edge of the area but his well struck shot was only a few feet over.

Stockport failed to create anything in the opening half hour of the game and with Wrexham also failing to hit the target, it was a quiet start for both keepers who only had routine saves and catches to take.

The best the visitors could muster during the first half came after they finally forced some pressure on the Wrexham defence with a succession of short corners that the red shirts failed to pick up

Stockport’s chance came from one of these corners when the ball was played low to David Poole on the edge of the area but he failed to keep his shot down and the ball sailed into the Kop behind Williams’ goal.

There was one chance left in the first half for Wrexham following a scramble in the Stockport area.

Both sets of players were struggling to get any contact on the ball in the slippery conditions and when the ball finally broke to Sam Aiston, the on loan midfielder fluffed his shot and the ball trickled through to a relieved Logan in the Stockport goal.

With Stockport offering very little up front, it was no surprise to see Stockport manager Jim Gannon make changes for the visitors during half time with top scorer Anthony Elding and Adam Griffin replacing Adam Proudlock and David Poole.

But it was Wrexham who should have opened the scoring immediately following the restart when Neil Roberts should have done a lot better from Michael Proctor’s cross, but the Wrexham skipper headed straight at Logan from close range.

Stockport responded with a couple of corners and opened the scoring as the game approached the hour mark.

The move was started and finished by Anthony Elding who set Adam Griffin away down the right.

Griffin created the space to deliver a cross but Pejic directed his header down instead of away and Elding got the better of Baines to fire the ball low past Williams into the bottom corner of the net.

Wrexham replaced Michael Proctor with Mike Carvill five minutes following the goal and our best chance came after Neil Roberts won a free kick that Neil Taylor delivered into the box but Steve Evans glanced his header wide.

There was one further change from Wrexham with Marc Williams replacing Neil Roberts and it was the substitute who won the penalty when the linesman flagged across his chest after Michael Raynes blocked Williams’ cross with his hand.

To be honest, none of the other players went near the ball for the spot kick and the responsibility fell to Valentine but his effort lacked any pace and Logan made a comfortable save by diving low dive to his left.

It was almost over two minutes later when Stockport looked like they were going to double their advantage but Wes Baynes was well positioned at the back post to clear Adam Griffin’s shot off the line.

Wrexham pushed Steve Evans up front for the final stages of the game without any success and Neil Taylor came to the rescue of Mike Williams in injury time with a goal saving tackle on Liam Dickinson after he had dispossessed Mike Williams and rounded Anthony Williams in the Wrexham goal.

There was no boos at the final whistle, more frustration as Wrexham did enough today to at least take a point out of the game but 2007, a year to forget with only ten league victories all year, is finally over.

Match Reaction

Brian Little: I think that we should have got a result today but that is the first time that I have been able to say that for a while. Obviously I'm very disappointed because I think that we could have won. We had a great chance at the start of the second half and we've missed a penalty obviously, and the goal that we conceded was in one of those infamous five minute mad spells that we have. I think young Wes made a mistake on the edge of the box and then for five minutes we were all over the place. For the rest of the game we were okay, Stockport have done okay but we held them. From the sidelines you get bitter and twisted, I don't know why! All of a sudden we have made a mistake and we don't know how to put it right but really there was nothing to put right because at the time it was still 0-0. The goal today was a disappointment to me based on the fact that I think that we were okay, and then we role our sleeves up again and have another go. Today it was better because I can stand here and say that we should have got something out of the game which has now always been the case." [Source: Wrexham FC - click here for more]

Jim Gannon: "They (the substitutes) injected a bit of life into us. We knew we needed to be solid in the second half and defend in our shape and we knew those two would provide an extension. No disrespect to Adam and David but they didn't do enough in the first half and they didn't look like they were going to contribute in the second half in the manner that we wanted So I think it was the right substitutions at the right time and they made a difference. I think throughout the second half they looked a threat and it was excellent for the two of them to be involved in the goal. It was a magnificent result for us." [Source: Stockport County FC]