Daily Post

Wrexham 1, Hartlepool 5

By Mark Currie, Daily Post

20 December 2004

Players look round after conceding one of the five goals against Hartlepool on Saturday

CHRISTMAS came early for Hartlepool United on Saturday as they were gifted a sackful of goals at the Racecourse and repaid Wrexham's generosity by inflicting the worst home defeat of Denis Smith's three-year reign.

The Dragons boss and his players have worked hard in recent months to counter the damaging off-field evidence of a club in crisis, but two defensively naive performances in a week suggest they are struggling to cope with the additional pressure piled upon them by the recent 10-point penalty.

Smith's assertion that, with a fully-fit squad, Wrexham are too good to go down is not the message being sent out to the other League One clubs. Successive heavy defeats seem to indicate the forthcoming festive programme promises to be more a test of confidence in the camp than he would have liked.

And Pool's emphatic success in notching up only their second away win will be seized upon by rivals in Bradford, Chesterfield, Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday as a clear sign all is not well in one corner of North Wales.

Although the late withdrawal due to sickness of midfield enforcer Scott Green was an unwanted pre-match setback, the line-up beaten 3-0 at Milton Keynes the previous week was reinforced by the return of captain Darren Ferguson and utility man Jim Whitley.

But with hindsight Whitley - who took over from teenage wing-back Simon Spender - might have been better deployed alongside his skipper in the engine room where another youngster, Levi Mackin, struggled to make any sort of impact.

The former Manchester City man, back in action for the first time since being sidelined with a thigh injury 10 weeks ago, summed up the Dragons' woeful first-half performance as horrendous.

"You couldn't believe that result," he said. "I think they had five shots and scored four times in the first half and, to be honest, I haven't a clue what went wrong.

"I think because we had a lot of the ball we felt we could score a few goals and everyone was pushing on. If they were a decent team I'm sure we would have kept our shape at the back.

"There were individual errors but they are not normally a problem if other players are filling in. Because we were pushing on, we found ourselves short at the back.

MATCH STATS

WREXHAM: Dibble; Morgan, Roberts, Lawrence; Whitley (Spender 77), Mackin, Ferguson (Mark Jones 77), Llewellyn, Holt; Ugarte (Armstrong 67), Sam. Subs: Michael Jones, Smith.

HARTLEPOOL UNITED: Konstantopolous; Ross, Westwood, Nelson, Robertson; Sweeney, Tinkler, Porter (Appleby 58), Humphreys; Boyd (Strachan 88), Williams (Istead 90). Subs: Brackstone, Provett.

REFEREE: Paul Danson

ATT: 3,582

MAN OF THE MATCH: Andy Holt - The pick of a poor bunch

YOUR VIEW... What the fans say

Mark GriffithsMark Griffiths:

What was all that about? Like last week, we looked okay when we had the ball - when we got it to 2--1 I honestly thought we'd get a draw at least.

But if goals change games, giving away five soft ones through silly mistakes changes a game a heck of a lot. To be fair, the players kept going.


"The lads knew we were back in it at 2-1 but just one big ball and we were in trouble again. That was unnecessary because there was a lot of time left but our discipline was not good.

"It was probably our worst defensive performance of the season so now we have to go back to the drawing board."

If Saturday's display in the opening 45 minutes was a shambles, it was particularly traumatic for young defender Craig Morgan, who had been given only his second start of the season in place of the suspended Shaun Pejic.

No better or worse than many of his colleagues, the Wales under-21 international had one of those afternoons when he suffered unduly from major cause-and-effect errors, which altered the fluctuating first-half fortunes of both teams.

The rot set in after just eight minutes when United, in the shape of leading scorer Adam Boyd, broke down the right. Seemingly boxed in at the corner flag by Morgan, the striker somehow squeezed past his marker and looked up to see an unmarked Ritchie Humphreys well-placed to sidefoot his sub-sequent pass past Andy Dibble.

Two minutes later Morgan was the closest defender to Anthony Sweeney, whose shot on the turn took a deflection off the defender, although on that occasion the goalkeeper was well-placed to turn the ball over.

But there was more embarrassment for the hosts in the 18th minute when Sweeney, with a great first-touch from Joel Porter's early ball, dissected the space between Morgan and Steve Roberts and drove a powerful effort through Dibble's outstretched hands for 2-0.

Despite the scoreline, Wrexham were enjoying greater possession and fought their way back into contention within seven minutes. Ferguson's free-kick was flicked to the back post by Dennis Lawrence and Morgan's controlled header into the six-yard box was turned in by Juan Ugarte for his first league goal at the Racecourse.

Three minutes later the lively Spaniard went close again, but Chris West-wood was in the right place to complete a goalline clearance and the visitors rocked their opponents with two breakaway goals in as many minutes.

The unfortunate Morgan was at fault for Porter's 35th-minute strike, dallying over-long on the ball and all too easily robbed by Boyd. He put his team-mate into acres of unguarded space, to finish. Wrexham's woes were summed up almost immediately afterwards when Whitley slipped on the greasy surface and Humphreys was able to run on and put the fourth goal on a plate for Boyd.

The home side needed an early second-half response to give themselves any chance of making a game of it but it was Pool who had the first opportunity, Hugh Robertson firing a 25-yard free kick just wide.

The Dragons, with Andy Holt a tireless worker on the left flank, generally huffed and puffed to little effect against opposition who closed ranks in front of their penalty area. Hector Sam, who was anonymous in the opening period, livened up and, after Chris Llewellyn headed too high from his cross, the Trinidad international turned well but saw his goalbound shot deflected for a corner.

Having contributed to his side's first half set-piece, Lawrence rose well to meet Ferguson's flag-kick, but Australian goalkeeper Demetrios Konstantopolous managed to hold the ball on the line. And Michael Nelson's well-timed challenge denied Ugarte after 62 minutes, Holt's shot from the rebound again being saved.

That - despite their overwhelming territorial supremacy - was the sum total of Wrexham's threat, underlining their lack of confidence in front of the target and put into even sharper focus by Hartlepool's fifth goal on 72 minutes.

Bangor-born striker Eifion Williams muscled Morgan off the ball and, with the home defence once again hopelessly stretched, Sweeney notched up his second of the afternoon.

Little wonder then United boss Neale Cooper was in bubbly mood after the game.

"Our away form has been a monkey on our back but today's was a great result and the lads got what they deserved," he said..

"It's a massive achievement to have beaten a good team 5-1. They were all great strikes, but even at 4-1 I didn't think it was all over and I just told the lads to keep it tight and the chances would come."