Unleashing The Beast!

As smart moves go, signing Mark Creighton was right up there. Not only because he's a proper lower division centre back, but because he seems to have unleashed Marvin Andrews' inner beast!

It tickled me, when I was talking to Creighton after his debut at York, to hear him say that normally he's the centre back attacking the ball, but for the first thirty minutes of that game he just stood back and watched Andrews do it! It was Andrews' best performance in a Wrexham shirt-heck, it was as good a performance as I've seen any Wrexham defender put in for quite some time! And he was in similar form last Saturday!

There are, I'm sure, many reasons for this. Considering the fact that Andrews barely played in the eighteen months before he came to us, he has beared up remarkably well. You could see the ring-rust, and he'd suddenly make errors out of the blue (a certain penalty at Kettering springs to mind!) Perhaps that has worked itself out of his system now; certainly he's looking impressive.

Don't play down the importance in Andrews' form of his professionalism either. Saunders has often looked to bring in players with a good pedigree who, through age or injury, are drifting down the divisions. It's a high risk strategy that often leads to a Lamine Sakho or a Matt Jansen. It's no coincidence that of these signings, the three who appear to have committed themselves most professionally to their game, Andrews, Frank Sinclair and Gareth Taylor, who have been successful.

However, don't underestimate the importance of Creighton's arrival in Andrews' renaissance. Is it a coincidence that, when we bring in the sort of centre back who attacks the ball, dominates centre forwards and organises well, that his partner finds the best form of the season? That's not at all meant to be a criticism of the defenders Andrews has previously lined up with, but there's no doubt that he and Creighton look like an excellent fit.