Touchy Fergie!

I know I'm supposed to take one game at a time, but I can't help looking forwards a couple of weeks to the return to The Racecourse of Darren Ferguson!

It would have been quite an event in itself, but after what happened a fortnight ago at London Road, I can't wait! We added Ferguson to our list of hard-nut managers we've annoyed as he followed Paul Ince's lead with what can only be described as a strop after the match.

Before I continue my diatribe I must inject some perspective. Ferguson is one of the greatest players ever to play for Wrexham and was perfectly entitled to be disappointed that the offer to manage us was not forthcoming. None of that excuses his comically petulant behaviour yesterday though!

Basically, before the game Fergie tried to play mind games like his Dad does, but they didn't work. He might have succeeded in getting under the skins of a few people previously, but Brian Little's sang froid looks a terribly difficult thing to disturb.

He might have expected us to roll over and die for him again, but we weren't willing to make a birthday present of the match to him this time!

Ferguson was furious last November that comments he'd made had been interpreted as an attack on Brian Carey, but his remarks in the lead-up to the goalless draw made me wonder how badly he'd been misrepresented. They suggested that he has learned how to stir things up before a game from his Dad. All week he'd claimed that he knew what would happen in the match. They'd play all the football and we'd just lump it long. Oddly enough he stuck to that line after the game, despite the fact that we'd played a lot of good football. Didn't Rooster's scouting tell him that Roberts can pass the ball, or that Sonner is the closest thing we've had to Ferguson since the genuine article left?

Ferguson emerged for the press conference with a black cloud spewing out thunder just above his head. Having already kicked the ball onto the prostrate Chris Llewellyn's head and mouthed at Steve Evans and Neil Roberts during the match, quite apart from any argy-bargy in the tunnel he might have involved himself in, he was still in a state of high dudgeon. As questions were asked of him he ground his teeth furiously, his temples throbbing. His answers always came back to one thing; how we played and how he'd known all along that was exactly what we'd do! Well he knew everything we were going to do beforehand why on earth didn't he come up with an effective strategy to combat it?

Perhaps it was also the Ferguson family instinct for self-preservation kicking in when he focussed so squarely on the incident between Steve Evans and their goalkeeper. After all, it was only once United's adrenaline got pumping and the crowd woke up following the altercation that they actually injected some tempo into their game and started to look threatening. Ferguson's tactical preparations had managed to make his side look second best to a side which would end the game bottom of League Two for the first seventy-five minutes. No wonder he looked to deflect attention from the first hour and a quarter of the game!

Just like seeing Paul Ince stomp off after we beat MK Dons, it was highly amusing to see us get under the skin of someone who loves to do that to others. Fergie was a legend; maybe he would have been a great manager for us, but he'll lose a lot of friends if he continues like this. But then that's not why he's in the game.

Posh's Odd Recruitment Policy!

What do Craig Morgan and Chris Llewellyn have in common? They're both good players, but they both consistently have off days at Peterborough, so the Posh try to sign them!

They succeeded with Morgan, of course, who had a absolute nightmare in our 6-1 loss there and was almost as dodgy when we drew 2-2 there the season after, though to be fair he did play the first twenty minutes in the unfamiliar position of right back.

Likewise, I thought Llewellyn looked rather disaffected when we played at Peterborough last November, but that didn't put Darren Ferguson off sniffing around him again during the transfer window.

Or was Llewellyn's performance at London Road typical of him? Out of nowhere he made an incredible run, from the edge of our box to theirs, before lashing in a superb shot which the keeper just about deflected round the post.

Llewellyn has never been consistent, but has often come up with flashes of brilliance, and has the capacity to step up to the plate when required, as we saw at the end of last season when his form went into a lengthy dip but he performed heroics on the last day against Boston.

Why a side clearly investing heavily in players to help them establish themselves in League One pursue an erratic player so enthusiastically can only be explained by what Kevin Russell and Ferguson know of Llewellyn from working with him. Which perhaps is the highest compliment of all.

Fergie Mind Games

Is little Darren taking the lead from his Dad? Last November when we played Peterborough in the cup, he came out with those infamous comments about how he should have been offered the Wrexham job and would have done a better job than Brian Carey, which he was furious about as he said he'd been taken out of context.

I accepted his explanation, but before today's game he's on about how they'll play football while we'll just thump it long. Same again? I suspect focussing on the job in hand is how to handle it!