It's time to make our points, lads
12 December 2004
By Chris Wathan
Wrexham's
sidelined skipper Brian Carey reckons the next six games will dictate the Red
Dragons' season.
But the Cork-born centre-back has backed his team-mates to ensure administration
is not followed by relegation in 2006.
Veteran Carey has been a helpless spectator as his side plummeted into the
bottom three last week on the basis of Football League regulations rather than
shoddy results.
Racecourse directors have taken the fight back to the courts in an effort to
have the docked ten points replaced.
For now though, Wrexham's League One future lies in the hands of the men in red
rather than the suits - and Carey reckons they've got what it takes.
"If things stay as they are - and you have got to accept that could happen - the
next half a dozen games will dictate our season," said the Red Devil turned Red
Dragon.
"After that we will know either way whether we are going to be in a relegation
dog fight or not. It's going to be difficult; it could go right down to the
wire.
"But I think, whatever happens, the players here are capable of not letting it
get to that stage. We are capable, but we've got to prove it now."
Carey was for so long the voice of the players when the financial troubles first
reared their ugly head - a series of missing wage packets signalling the start
of a bleak period in the club's 130-year-history.
But a niggling knee injury has prevented the former Leicester stopper uniting
his men on the pitch, a loose bit of bone restricting him to 12 outings all
season.
A minor operation followed but the 36-year-old is still missing from the Wrexham
first team and has been since October.
"It's coming along," he said. "I'm going back to see the surgeon tomorrow to see
what he says and we'll take it from there.
"I don't like to set dates for myself; you only set yourself up for
disappointments that way.
"I don't think what's gone on has made a difference to my frustrations.
"It's never a good time to be injured.
"But hopefully I can be back doing my bit sooner rather than later."
If the docking stands, manager Denis Smith will need the man who has given more
than eight years service to the North Walians more than ever. But Carey admitted
he is hopeful the decision is overturned, claiming the rule punishes the wrong
people.
He said: "It's wrong to punish the players for what's happened; they're the
innocent parties in all of this.
"We are at the wrong end of the league through no fault of our own and I
definitely think this points issue needs a rethink.
"And the supporters suffer too. They are now following a team in the bottom when
we should be challenging for a play-off place.
"It's not as if this has been done deliberately. The last couple of years the
club has been practically run into the ground."
The recent win over Stockport showed that the fighting spirit needed to stave
off the drop is there in abundance, prompting the suggestion the players might
have gained motivation from the against-all-odds scenario they suddenly find
themselves involved in.
But the theory that the Red Dragons have more fire in their belly than usual is
quickly dismissed by the man with the armband.
"I can't see how this whole thing has galvanised the players," he said. "Yes the
players have stuck together through all this and they will continue to do so -
they have to - but they were beforehand.
"They are giving their all for the team and they will keep on doing that.
"You won't be able to ask for any extra effort."
But whatever the New Year should bring for the proud club, Carey insists the
circumstances won't stop the side focussing on the job in hand.
"We know things aren't great but from the players' point of view we have got to
separate the two issues," Carey said.
"The team is doing OK and the club is getting on with things.
"Everybody's different and it's difficult to speak for everyone but I do feel
once you cross that white line it's out of your mind, once you're on the pitch
the game there and then is all that matters."