Sunday 31 May 2009

Quality in Short Supply

If you want an indication of how disappointing last season was-oh go on, you know you do!-then the Non League Paper is currently in the process of offering it.

It's the bible of the non-league game: if anyone's entitled to draw conclusions from the Conference season it's them. Today's issue takes us half way through a series which runs through the outstanding performers of the last campaign-so far they've had the best twenty strikers and goalkeepers of the non-league game.

Thus far we've had just one player in the lists-Marc Williams coming in at number fourteen on the lists of strikers. The thing is, not only do I not disagree-Williams would, I'm sure, have been higher if he hadn't got injured-but I can't really see another Wrexham player who would be sure to feature in the upcoming lists of the best midfielders and defenders.

Perhaps Andy Fleming or Ryan Flynn will be in the elite in the middle of the park (perhaps Nathan Fairhurst might have pushed for a spot too if Andy Crofts hadn't taken his place). Beyond them I'm struggling. When we can't get more than one or two players in the best eighty players of the division, you could hardly describe it as a year to be proud of.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Retained List Watch

Under contract:
Kyle Critchell
Carl Tremarco
Darran Kempson
Tom Kearney
Simon Brown
Nat Brown
Silvio Spann
Michael Proctor
Sam Williamson
Steve Abbott
Chris Maxwell
Obi Anoruo
Neil Taylor
Andy Fleming
Marc Williams
Kai Edwards
Jamie McCluskey

Signings: Nathan Fairhurst

Out of contract:
Aurelien Collin
Ashley Westwood
John Curtis
Wes Baynes

Offered contract:
Mike Williams
Matt Jansen
Mansour Assoumani

Released:
Gavin Ward
Anthony Williams
Simon Spender
Chris Marriott
Christian Gyan
Jeff Louis
Sam Aiston
Patrick Suffo
Levi Mackin
Shaun Whalley

Thursday 14 May 2009

Fair Play to Fairhurst

All credit to Nathan Fairhurst-he's shown an attitude you don't seem to find too often in the modern game.

We tend to see players putting their short term advancement first these days-hell, Cristiano Ronaldo couldn't cope with losing thirty minutes of me-time against Manchester City last Sunday, could he?

So to see Nathan Fairhurst reject a contract with Preston in order to get first team football three divisions lower is quite something. He talks, most logically, about taking a step backwards in order to take a step forwards in the future, and in doing so illustrates that he has the sort of cool head we need as we continue to look for a way out of the turmoil.

But his signature is important for reasons far beyond that. For me the crucial factor which destabilised our promotion push was when Fairhurst's excellent partnership with Andy Fleming was disrupted to accommodate Andy Crofts.

Fairhurst had really settled into the role and was playing well when he was dropped-in fact the way he was marginalised made me worry that we were destroying our hopes of signing him permanently-a concern which grew when Crofts missed the last two games of the season but Tom Kearney was selected ahead of Fairhurst!

Still, Fairhurst has signed the dotted line, and he may prove to be Saunders' greatest coup. He spoke soon after he arrived of convincing the on-loan players to stay even though they were too good for The Conference. While his temporary signings represented his best pieces of business, I think it's fair to say that by the time the dust had settled on the campaign, Fairhurst was the on-loan player who looked most like he ought to be playing at a higher level. In signing him, Saunders has got the pre-season off to an excellent start.

Retained List Watch

Under contract:
Kyle Critchell
Carl Tremarco
Darran Kempson
Tom Kearney
Simon Brown
Nat Brown
Silvio Spann
Michael Proctor
Sam Williamson
Steve Abbott
Chris Maxwell
Obi Anoruo
Neil Taylor
Andy Fleming
Marc Williams
Kai Edwards
Jamie McCluskey

Signings:
Nathan Fairhurst

Out of contract:
Shaun Whalley
Levi Mackin
Aurelien Collin
Ashley Westwood
John Curtis
Wes Baynes

Offered contract:
Mike Williams
Matt Jansen
Mansour Assoumani

Released:
Gavin Ward
Anthony Williams
Simon Spender
Chris Marriott
Christian Gyan
Jeff Louis
Sam Aiston
Patrick Suffo

Monday 11 May 2009

No Chester Derby Next Season?

So were we premature anticipating a renewal of hostilities with our chums from over the border?

There's a real chance Chester could be offered a reprieve after they were relegated to The Conference; in fact, reading between the lines it seems a very likely outcome.

The issue is the financial disaster which has overcome Darlington. It's sounding horribly like The Quakers will go under, or at the very least won't be able to satisfy the Football League that they have a route out of administration planned in time to be included in League Two next season.

Their meltdown perhaps isn't an immense surprise considering the way they were catapulted outside their comfort zone by former owner George Reynolds, with their pursuit of Faustino Asprilla and Paul Gascoigne and the building of their white elephant of a stadium. It now looks like they'll pay the ultimate price.

Should they go out of business the highest level a phoenix club woud be allowed to start in would be the Conference North; should they survive, time is running short to avoid demotion anyway, as the Football League will be keen to avoid starting the season with another basket case on their hands after starting the last season with three sides suffering a massive handicap.

Mind you, two of those sides still managed to finish above Chester, who suffered the most abject of campaigns. As they might well have to start next season ten points behind the rest of the field anyway, the Football League would be saddled with an uncompetitive team anyway!

Of course, no story involving Stephen Vaughan would be complete without a bizarre plot twist. I'm not sure what to say about the possibility of Vaughan buying The Quakers. Suffice to say it would be a shock if something as odd as that didn't happen at some point.

FA Trophy Final Slideshow

He's Still Got It!

Matt Jansen on Soccer AM


Matt Jansen talks about his accident and, obliquely, the future on Soccer AM last Saturday.

Derbyshire's Greek Odyssey


I wrote earlier this year of Matt Derbyshire's move to Olympiakos, and how wonderfully has it turned out!
And how striking, as he plays a key role in the outcome of the domestic season in a country which, until last year, were European champions, to ponder the enormous divergence in our paths since he left The Racecourse!
Have a look at his decisive intervention in a remarkably dramatic Greek Cup Final, and then sit back and enjoy the fantastically chaotic penalty shoot-out that followed it.
Oh, and try to regret a pang of depression as you do!

Friday 8 May 2009

Pejic Takes Wembley!

Well, having got myself excited earlier this season about the thought of Wrexham getting to Wembley in the F.A. Trophy, I wasn't about to deny myself the experience, so my lad and I went to Wembley yesterday to see what we missed out on. And we missed out on something great!


The F.A. Trophy Final. the non-league showpiece, is a real day out for both sides and anyone else who has more than a passing acquaintance with them-how else can you explain 27,000 fans turning out to watch two sides whose combined attendance is more like 4,000?


It also accounted for the high volume of day-trippers in the crowd and, without wanting to sound like I'm being critical because the atmosphere was fantastic, there was a sense of being in the midst of people enjoying a good day out as much as the football-the sense of tension was diluted and at one point my view of a dangerous cross into the goalmouth was obscured by the man in front of me jumping up to wave to a friend who'd just phoned him!


But it would be churlish to focus on that. The atmosphere was great, the game entertaining, and the York Ultras made it feel like an occasion, setting smoke bombs off and admirably still jumping around behind the goal immediately after Stevenage had opened the scoring.


Of course, of particular interest to me was the large contingent of York players with links to Wrexham. There was no sign of Christian Smith, Adam Smith or Simon Brown, but three familiar faces were in the starting eleven.


Mike Ingham, in goal, had a solid game, making one particularly sharp save and having no chance with either of Borough's goals while Levi Mackin worked hard and economically in midfield, not managing to turn the game in City's favour but looking tidy enough. The star performance came from Pejic though.


When I saw he was starting at left back I assumed it was yet another example of Martin Foyle's genius! However, he looked rather good. He got forward well-in fact he was unlucky to put a twenty-five yarder wide on one of his surprisingly confident forays forward on his wrong flank and linked well with Adam Boyes, York's impressive 18-year-old prodigy who has spent part of this season on trial at Old Trafford.


Furthermore, defensively he did well, making a crucial clearance off the line and meeting plenty of crosses into the York area. You know what I'm going to say next-are all the defenders we're left with at the moment better than Pej?


The over-riding feeling was that I'd had a great day out at Wembley-next season I want another one, with Wrexham!

Jeffo Had To Go For Deffo!

Has a Wrexham player ever divided opinion like Jeff Louis?

On the one hand his lack of energy exasperated fans and pundit alike-in the press box the ex-players who work in the media universally criticise him. Likewise his attitude, as the bald facts of his itinerant career suggest, has been open to question to say the least.

On the other, he was our top scorer, scored eighteen and shared in a prolific partnership with Marc Williams. Can we afford to jettison a player who has been so prolific, the only target man we've got?

I'm afraid the answer is a resounding "yes". Louis put Dean Saunders in a position where he had no choice.

Louis' erratic behaviour off the pitch won't be missed by the coaching staff. Ostensibly it might appear that this season has seen a turning point in this respect: this is the first time he's seen a full season out with one team since 2002-3, at Oxford!

However, that doesn't tell the whole story. His bizarre behaviour at Woking, which I inadvertantly had a ringside seat for as I cleared away my equipment in a deserted ground, was an insight into what it's like to handle such a wayward talent, and any manager is likely to draw a line in the sand and say enough's enough eventually.

It's a shame as he showed in the first two thirds of the season that he had the wherewithal to be an effective Conference striker, although his horrendous dip in form after Marc Williams' injury suggested either that Williams made him look better than he was with his energetic efforts, or Louis struggled to take responsibility as the senior striker.

His self-serving attitude was perhaps summed up in the Non League Paper last Sunday, just two days before his departure from North Wales. Asked to name the best XI he'd played with he named only one Wrexham player: himself.

Well, he'll have plenty of scope to tell the managers of southern teams how great his favourite player is this summer, although without wanting to trigger another FA inquiry into dubious betting patterns in the Conference, I advise a stampede to the bookies to wager on Louis scoring against us for Hayes or Grays next season!

Wrexham Calendar