500th Post!!!!

Does the Mirror Reflect Jansen's State of Mind?

The Mirror threw Wrexham's fans into some confusion on their way to Histon with the revelation that Matt Jansen appeared to have retired!

Terry Darracott certainly didn't confirm the matter that he's hung up his boots after the match, saying he'd be out for about three weeks, so was he playing the question with a straight bat or is there nothing to it?

Perhaps the article's misleading us, The opening paragraph seems to make claims that the actual comments of Jansen don't back up. So was it a case of a journalist making a mountain out of a molehill, or were things said off the record which he wasn't able to quote but was able to imply? Or is it simply a case of a national journalist seeing playing for Wrexham as tantamount to retirement?

I spoke to a few people who have the inside line at The Racecourse this afternoon, and the story surprised all of them. That, plus the impression the article gives me, suggests to me that Jansen will be with us until the end of the season, but will probably retire then. Which is hardly a million miles from what seemed a likely outcome when he arrived is it?

Histon Podcast

The Supporters Association podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Terry Darracott, Gunnar Neilsen, Steve Abbott and Obi Anoruo.

A Game of Three Teams

I wrote a piece for The Leader a couple of weeks ago drawing attention to some uncanny parallels between how their season has unravelled and our similar fortunes. The comparison has led to me pondering our situation further.

There's a school of thought, which to a great extent I subscribe to, that teams eventually settle where they should be, despite fluctuations in form throughout the season. So if, say, Wigan Athletic are a mid-table team, that doesn't mean they'll settle into a pattern of win one game, draw the next, then lose the next, and stick with that throughout the season. Instead they'll have good runs and bad runs, accompanied by media over-reaction as the media draw daft conclusions based on a brief run of form.

Admittedly, sometimes teams maintain their good run and over-achieve, or can't pull out of a tailspin, but generally I'd say things even out and by the final table most teams end up where they ought to be.

That's why Villa's current loss of form isn't a great surprise. To me, they've always felt like they're about sixth best in the Premiership, after the big four and Everton. Their winning streak elevated them way above that position, and the media got carried away by claiming they were the next big team. Now things have fallen away they're getting the opposite sort of speculation. But by the end of the season, they'll probably be in sixth or thereabouts. It was a hell of a ride, but in the final analysis they ended up where they ought to be.

So the question is, where is Wrexham's natural place? Where should we end up the season. Frankly, I don't know-it seems to me that we're one of those few teams that defy this rationale. The reason I can't look at us and make a judgement as to where they ought to finish is that we've had three different teams this season. The first, which Brian Little compiled in the belief they'd take us up, was a mid-table side:

Ward
Spender Kempson N Brown Tremarco
Critchell Kearney Mackin Aiston
Louis Whalley

Then Dean Saunders arrived, dismantled that side and built one which was on a par with Burton Albion:

Ward
Baynes Westwood Williams Williamson
Brown Fleming Fairhurst Woolfe
Louis Williams

But around the transfer window he reshaped it, and we've fallen off that standard:

Williams
Curtis Westwood Collin Williamson
Aiston Crofts Fleming Flynn
Louis Jansen

So how do you work out where our place is in the great scheme of things when we've had three different sides of vastly varying quality? Roll on the days when we can enjoy a bit of stability; not that I have a clue when that will be!

Plucky Little Wrexham!

Don't you just love being patronised?

Apparently Dean Saunders is the next manager of Wales and we're just a testing ground for the FAW. Funny that, because the bloke doesn't seem to give you that impression!

Saunders looks like he's fully committed to improving us, rather than using us for his own ends-perhaps this story's more about the national media's angle than anything else.

There's certainly a rather patronising air to it: I'm afraid we're not all country bumpkins up here! We might be a Conference side, but our players are still professional and not star-struck amateurs!

The actual issue raised by the piece is relevant, and there are interesting questions to be answered in reference to Saunders' dual role. Sadly, this article doesn't attempt to address them though.

No Saunders, No Fun!

With the play-off push in tatters, the most annoying thing about being without Dean Saunders this week is that I got tickets for my lad, my Dad and I to watch the masters footy in Liverpool tomorrow night, but our glorious leader won't be there to stick a few in for Wales!

My lad loves watching the masters on Sky, so he's still really up for it, but having Deano would have been the icing on the cake. Still, I suppose Ian Rush might get a game now though!

Stradey On!

Is my annoyance at the Welsh F.A. looking to give Llanelli's rugby stadium some senior Welsh internationals just a kneejerk reaction?

I can't deny that a lifetime of seeing the Welsh agenda set by the south, both politically and on the media, has left me with a chip on my shoulder, and perhaps we should look favourably at any new venue. However, I find it a little worrying that the FAW are so keen to leap, slavering, into committing to yet another South Walian venue. As the article points out, the experience of hosting games at Swansea's new ground has been disappointing, and the Millennium Stadium's pitch is a cause for concern. However, the crumbs that have been thrown our way in recent years have been well supported, and the BBC's article treats us as something of an aside.

If they're just talking about the odd friendly, I'll just be a little miffed, but if they're going to give a designated rugby stadium in the south with a slightly smaller capacity than us a full international, I suspect I'll start feeling my paranoia's got some substance to it. After all, The Racecourse has everything the Millennium Stadium has, including a ropey playing surface!

Wrexham Fans Turn Up Trumps Again

Well, I was wrong! All credit to the faithful fans who came out again in impressive numbers for the Kidderminster. What a shame they were rewarded with such a cruel outcome.

Kidderminster Podcast

The Supporters Association podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Dean Saunders.

Spot The Fan

The level of support we've enjoyed this season has been magnificent, but I feel I ought to get down to the bookies and slap the mortgage on us registering our lowest league crowd of the season on Monday!

After what the loyal fans saw on Saturday, and with there unlikely to be all that many away fans, so the figure of 2,405 that turned up against Forest Green looks in danger.

Truly Badly Crawley

I've enjoyed the non league experience this season, which is a good thing as it looks like I'll be getting a second dose next season. Opposing clubs have been an absolute delight, their demeanour on and off the pitch regularly being a pleasant change from what one finds at a lot of our usual Football League opponents.

Until Crawley.

I can honestly say, in thirty-one years of watching Wrexham home and away, from Championship to Conference, with Europe thrown in, that I've never seen a more unpleasant team. It wasn't necessarily their on-pitch demeanour, although wasting time after fifteen minutes and incurring three clear red cards was hardly angelic, but the fact that they were clearly following the example and instructions of their management team.

The Non League Paper constantly carries frustrated complaints on their letters page about the behaviour of Steve Evans and Paul Raynor, and they showed us just why they're held in such low regard by everyone who cares for football. Constant abusive dissent, even when decisions went their way. Kicking the ball away when Wrexham players went to fetch it. Trying to get opponents booked. Very very ugly. I'm just glad my little lad, who has a season ticket but wasn't able to attend the game, didn't see it.

The other grim thing about the game was the officiating. The standard of refereeing, sadly, is the one thing that I wouldn't miss about the non league game, and when a weak official is bullied like this the consequences are inevitable. Apart from the red cards, one of which was a disgraceful studs-in-the-ribs assault on Ryan Flynn, what a concidence that the victim was our best player!) he failed to give two clear penalties, probably because he was petrified of what abuse he'd receive if he did. A strong referee would have decimated Crawley.

Of course, the opposition's antics and the referee's ineptitude partially obscured the fact that it was a woeful performance by Wrexham. Crawley came to do a number on Wrexham and the officials, succeeded. Perhaps the fact that neither were good enough to stop them was the real problem.

Crawley Podcast

The Supporters Association Podcast is now up at http://www.wrexhamfan.co.uk/ featuring Dean Saunders, Ryan Flynn and John Curtis.

Crunch Time

Well the excitement of getting back to winning ways on Tuesday has passed - the looks on the faces of the players, excellent support and the press was something to behold - a mixture of relief, relief and more relief! Today is another day however and a fresh challenge that unfortunately we are now going to face as the season draws to a conclusion of two games in three days. We have a big enough squad on paper but all to often wheCrunch n Dean has tried to give squad players a chance in cup games they have not come up to the mark. Matt Jansen is unlikely to manage two games in such a short period and our striking options are probably the most limited of all the departments. The keepers are much of a muchness. we have cover for defence and midfield but up front we are still a bit lightweight without the ginger ninja Marc Williams. So as we need the squad to pull together and drive us on to promotion the question is where will the goals come from? Hopefully by 10pm on Monday my concerns will have been ill founded and we will have six points in the bag against our play off rivals. Come on you Reds.......

Decisions Decisions

Two huge games in three days: there's a new challenge for Dean Saunders to get his teeth into, and there are plenty of conundrums to consider.

A word I keep using in commentary of late is "intensity", especially since our results have slipped, and that has made me reassess one of the ideas I've clung onto in the face of fashion and popular opinion. I've got to accept that rotation's an essential part of modern football.

The reason I've drawn that conclusion is that the intensity (there's that word again) has fallen off in recent weeks, and we've paid the price. It's an inevitable consequence, I suppose, of playing a high pressure pressing game with a side which relies heavily on young on-loan players. Indeed, they are the key components in playing that way.

Don't get me wrong: I think it was the right way to go about sorting out the situation Saunders inherited, but it was always likely that the youngsters would tire, and that's why I have to accept that rotation's necessary.

Ive always baulked at rotation, my formative years as a fan being spent watching settled teams succeed. Like Michael Palin's son in the episode of "Ripping Yarns" who is forced to memorise all the youth teams of Barnstoneworth United from the 1920s, I can parrot off the regular starting eleven of the successful sides of my youth:

Davies, Evans, Roberts, Davis, Dwyer, Shinton, Sutton, Thomas, Cartwright, McNeil, Whittle.

Clemence, Neal, Hansen, Thompson, A Kennedy(sorry Joey-you were before my time!!), Case, McDermott, Souness, R Kennedy, Dalglish, Johnson

See? Sad isn't it?

So I'm hardwired to feel that's the path to glory. Trouble is you only have to look at the old games on ESPN to realise that, while football back then was frantic, there was much more chance for a breather, which isn't that surprising as if we believe the mythology the players' pre-match routine was to drink a vat of booze the evening before, then set new standards in romantic conquest al night before consuming a herd of steaks for lunch!

Football has changed, the pace has increased and is now relentless, so rotation has become necessary, which should play into our hands. We certainly have a bigger squad than most other Conference sides, and while they're not all viable options (remember, Brian Little bought some of them!) we've still got enough depth to rotate to an extent.

The double header throws up an interesting test of Saunders' use of the squad. He rested Andy Fleming on Tuesday, but how will he switch things around this time? Does Fleming return at the expense of Nathan Fairhurst, who was very unlucky to lose his place when Andy Crofts came in just as he was running into form, and hasn't let us down when given rare chances since.

Likewise, will he risk Sam Williamson and Wes Baynes, both of whom are not fully fit, or Ashley Westwood, who is also carrying a knock and will probably struggle with playing two games a week for the rest of the season. Does Louis come back, and does he have the legs for two games in three days, a decision which will have to be made with the fitness of Matt Jansen also a consideration. And in a different sort of decision, does Anthony Williams, who did very well against Forest Green and Woking, survive his erratic performance against Northwich?

These are all tough decisionswith major consequences. Saunders' conclusions could go a long way towards whether we get into the play-offs this season. Still, that's what he's paid for!