Daily Post

Smith breathes fire into Dragons' cause

Mark Currie
By Mark Currie, Daily Post

26/11/04

Denis SmithWREXHAM enter a critical week both on and off the field of play with manager Denis Smith facing a herculean task in lifting the morale of his wafer-thin squad.

Tomorrow's League One trip to Huddersfield Town, now indisputably a relegation battle, is followed by important cup dates at Chester City on Tuesday and Scunthorpe United next Friday, the day on which the club could go into administration.

The Racecourse boss is resigned to losing another key player at the McAlpine Stadium tomorrow, with defender Steve Roberts struggling to overcome a hamstring injury sustained during the midweek 1-0 defeat at Torquay United.

Adding to his worries, captain Darren Ferguson, defender Simon Spender and striker Juan Ugarte were all unable to train yesterday, instead receiving treatment for minor knocks picked up at Plainmoor. However it seems likely that new signing Scott Green will play.

"Hopefully those three will be okay at the weekend because there's only so much I can do," said Smith..

"The importance of the next three games in terms of the club's future cannot be stressed highly enough if we want to show that Wrexham is worth saving.

"We need nothing less than three points against Huddersfield, the LDV Vans Trophy game at Chester speaks for itself and then on Friday we've got an opportunity at Scunthorpe to put ourselves back in to the national spotlight if we go through to the third round of the FA Cup."

On the back of four straight league defeats, Wrexham's prospects would not seem to be that good but Smith said no one at the club could afford to feel sorry for themselves.

"We have got to start getting results and I'm prepared to sacrifice the level of performance as long as we achieve that," he added.

"At the moment I've got three potential starting line-ups for Huddersfield because, while I can accept most things, I didn't feel we got 100% from certain players during the first half against Torquay.

"I've told everyone in no uncertain terms what I thought about that because when it happens we are not fulfilling our half of the bargain in respect of those supporters who pay to watch us play. I don't want players who are going to feel sorry for them-selves." "At the moment, I'm questioning every decision I make, looking at what we may be doing wrong in training and even considering changing the system we play."

The Racecourse boss said midfielder Jim Whitley and goal-keeper Andy Dibble were back in training for the first time yesterday but revealed that defender Brian Carey has suffered a slight setback after undergoing minor knee surgery at the end of last month, while former Chester City midfielder, Alex Smith, may need a cartilage operation.

Unless a buyer comes forward, the club's impending administration will further restrict Smith's chances of squad-strengthening and he said talks on signing Spaniard Ugarte until the end of the season were ongoing.