Pale Dragons draw blank

By Mark Currie, Daily Post

14/10/02

WREXHAM'S failure to find the net for the first time this season against Leyton Orient at the Racecourse on Saturday was tempered by the fact that the Dragons extended their unbeaten third division run to seven matches.

And manager Denis Smith, who was without the suspended Carlos Edwards before losing a second wing-back, Shaun Holmes, to international duty for Northern Ireland, has never been an advocate of negative thinking, preferring instead to regard a glass as half full rather than half empty.

"It was a bad day at the office and it was not a game you would rave about, but it doesn't surprise me after the week we've had," he admitted.

"I think people were thinking we'd turn Orient over, considering we haven't failed to score in a league game and they had let a lot of goals in.

"But today, possibly, we found out why they were one of the pre-season favourites for honours. Games aren't going to be easy and we are not going to walk over teams all the time but there were pluses."

Deprived of both Edwards and Holmes, Smith drafted in the less than fully-fit Paul Edwards and pushed Jim Whitley back from midfield into the right wing-back role. Central defenders Dan Bennett and Steve Roberts returned after injury, as did striker Lee Jones, making his first start since the middle of August.

"I thought Lee Jones did well for me and it was good to see him back," said the Dragons' boss. "He's got a game under his belt and his movement was good. When we get used to that, perhaps we will create a few more chances.

"Obviously we missed Carlos because we didn't have that pace wide. We had Paul Edwards but he was far from 100per cent fit and I was the only one who said he was fit to play. It didn't really suit Jim (Whitley) and we missed him in midfield. All at once we saw their midfielders breaking free into our box and you don't see that when Jim's playing in there.

"They've obviously watched us and they were pulling wide on to our wide players early and what we've got to realise is that the gaps are between the centre backs and the full backs."

Smith was not too harsh on substitute Hector Sam, who missed the chance of the match a minute after replacing Jones.

"Hector had two very good chances, especially the first one," he added. "When he's gone round the 'keeper if you are going to miss, you miss the far side of the goal but that's Hector. He does the hard things well and the easy things sometimes not so well.

"I thought Trunds did well when he came on and worked hard. And on the chances he had, Andy (Morrell) would normally have had a couple of goals, but that's football.

"The disappointing thing is we wanted the three points today because everyone expected that. The last thing anyone anticipated was a 0-0 draw but sometimes you have to accept it.

"We've gone seven games undefeated now and considering the amount of injuries and the other factors, we've not been able to do anything in the week. Jim's not played at the back since last year, Paul Edwards hasn't trained and the two centre backs have not played. Steve Thomas hasn't played too many games either."

And Smith acknowledge the contribution from goalkeeper Andy Dibble, whose saves kept Wrexham's unbeaten run intact. "That's what he's there for and I'm pleased with him," he said. "We possibly would have had three points last week if he had stayed on but he's taken a lot of bumps and bangs. He's a major influence in the team and that's five or six clean sheets we've had so we are defending better and we could have had more."