Cod Almighty | Match Report

by Mike Worden

8 January 2011

Wrexham 2 Grimsby Town 0

With high hopes from the maulings of Mansfield and the mighty Histon, Town had a good following in North Wales. Flags were hung from the upper tier of the Main Stand where the 300 or so were gathering. The stands behind both goals were closed, one the Kop permanently for a grand new housing development and the other because the plumbers had not been able to fix the burst water pipes in the toilets. Such is life at the Racecourse these days, a fantastic Wrexham Village mixed development planned at one end signalling a bright new future for the ground and the club whilst at the other end the club has to call upon the goodwill of a local Dragon supporting plumber from nearby Buckley to, unsuccessfully as it turns out, patch up the leaking pipes in the toilets in his spare time. Mind you having been in those bogs on many occasions, they make the ones at the back of the Main Stand at Blundell Park look like the Ritz and should have been closed years ago.

A frost still remained on the parts of the pitch as Town ran out. In blue they lined up with Arthur in goal, a back four of Ridley, Wood, Atkinson and former Wrexham favourite Kempson, a midfield of Bore, Cummins, Coulson and Sinclair, with Connell and Peacock up front. Ademeno's knee went getting off the bus so he was out of contention meaning the bleach blonde Scot would have to put his dodgy legs to the test from the kick off.

From the outset it was the home side who took the initiative with the leggy Mathias Pogba looking dangerous running onto through balls from midfield. Fortunately he seemed to no idea of the offside rule nor how to kick straight. Town's attacking threats were limited but Connell was given a chance to repeat his Mansfield set piece prowess when Peacock was fouled on the edge of the box. Unfortunately though he hit it straight at the wall, and signalled the start of a disappointing afternoon for the flu hit striker. Town's best opportunities seemed to be when Bore went forward with the ball and showed some nice touches and turns. Nothing came of them but they were nice anyway. Harris found his shooting boots with a great shot from far out which Arthur tipped over the bar with the ball flying off into the empty stand behind. Although not very good in the final third, Wrexham's dominance of the midfield was setting up chance after chance which was looking on the balance of probabilities alone, to result in a goal at some point. The home side's England u19 international right back Curtis Obeng was booked for an horrendous tackle on Bradley Wood just in front of the dugouts and was shown the yellow card.

Creative thinking by Woods over his half time cup of tea saw Town take up a new formation with Peacock dropping to a defensive midfield position with Connell playing behind the two new strikers of Bore and Coulson. Was this a tactical decision or was it to rest those tiring Peacock legs? Coulson did reasonably well initially but it's not the wisest thing to pump high balls to a five foot seven striker. Coulson managed to put over a cross for Bore whose overhead kick went wide. The ineffective Dean Sinclair was replaced by Mark Hudson on 58 minutes. Connell had a chance when good work between Coulson and Ridley resulted in the left back floating a great ball into the box, but the striker's header was weak and drifted well wide of Maxwell's post. That this was one of the few chances Town had shows just what a poor display it was. The only real other chance of any note was Peacock's ambitious volley from way out which sailed high over the bar.

Bradley Wood had been booed by the home crowd ever since the Obeng challenge with the Welsh folk claiming he made the most of it. No surprise therefore when Wood found himself in the book, for a fairly innocuous challenge on the halfway line.

Wrexham attacked down the left and Andy Mangan collected the ball and ran towards the box. Wood shadowed him well enough to prevent a shot, but Mangan slid a ball sideways for unmarked Harris to run onto and shoot past Kempson and Arthur into the bottom left hand corner. Nobody had run with Harris, Kempson should have done better in closing him down, and Arthur seemed slow getting down, possibly being unsighted by Kempson.

Eagle came on for Wood and Bore dropped back to right back but Wrexham got a second when a nice free kick move saw Obeng put in a teasing cross which Morrell met totally unmarked to head past Arthur. Easy stuff. Poor defending. Dixon came on for Connell as the formation changed again, but the game was gone. Town fans started to drift away. Flags were taken down and neatly folded up before the final whistle.

A very poor display and some very poor individual performances. Town looked second best in every department and consequently its difficult to pick a man of the match. Peacock lasted the whole game which deserves some recognition, but hardly moved from his berth all second half. However given some people blaming him for the second goal, when it was actually Atkinson who was marking space, and for having to put up with the constant booing from the home fans, it goes to Darren Kempson.