Four in Four

Can Michael Proctor save us? Hopefully his scoring form can continue-the last Wrexham player to score in four consecutive games for us was Mark Jones at the start of last season.

The constant impression Proctor gves is that he's something of a mercurial player. In and out of games and, as the season progresses, in and out of form. However, there's always a sense that he'll turn up with something-he's perhaps the one player we have who is likely to come up with the unexpected, the decisive.

The facts back that up. Quite apart from this little run of goals, he came on as sub in our last five games, managing just ninety-eight minutes in the process, and scored another two goals. The figures continue to back him up, and belie any notion that he is inconsistent, when you look at his record in a Wrexham shirt. Fourteen goals in thirty-one starts, pretty much a goal every other game, is a pretty tasty strike rate considering the fact that the highest position we've held since he arrived is nineteenth if you disregard a one week anomaly after two games this season when we were eighth by virtue of his two goals against Morecambe.

One of the things I like most about Proctor, quite apart from his goals, is his intelligence. he holds the ball up and brings others into play with his measured passing and good vision, and with Brian Little bringing in the likes of Paul Hall and Sam Aiston Proctor now has players with experience whose movement is more likely to be on his wavelength. Both hall and Aiston are comfortable playing out to in or in to out when they're on the flanks, and if you offer Proctor movement there's a good chance he'll spot you and find you.

Likewise Drewe Broughton is a valuable foil for Proctor. I love a big target man, as you might have noticed from my constant harking back to Jim Steel! Little's choice of big bruiser up front hasn't disappointed me! Broughton doesn't just win his fair share in the air, he causes ripples of disruption around him. Have you noticed how many centre backs have poor games when they're marking him, most notably Darlington's Steve Foster, one of the best defenders in the lower divisions who couldn't stop fouling him and had to be withdrawn at half time.

Broughton creates plenty of loose balls and holds it up well too, and the more scraps there are for Proctor to latch onto the more he should score.

Well I feel optimistic now-I didn't know five hundred words ago that I'd made us sound like a promotion side!