Rotation Frustration

Brian Carey and Steve Weaver got a lot of experience last season of lifting their team up from the floor after a crushing blow. Considering the nature of Tuesday's defeat to Aston Villa they'll have to use those skills again before tomorrow's game.
There's no disgrace in losing to a Premiership side. After all, the result obscures the fact that for the first half hour we were the better side, and in the opening five minutes of the second half, when the score was still 1-0, we forced Stuart Taylor into two good saves. If either of those shots had gone in it would have been game on!
However, once Villa got their second you knew the game was over, and that was when the damage was done.
The nature of the line-ups made a big impact on what happened next. Often a side will take its foot off the pedal once it's in the comfort zone against a lower division side, but the eleven Martin O'Neill picked was never going to do that. He'd made six changes from the team that beat Fulham last Saturday, but that wasn't a reserve side he put out.
Instead, he'd packed his side with players hungry to impress and get a chance of a run in the first team, so rather than relax they pushed on, looking to impress the boss. Look at Shaun Maloney, who's been talking of moving on to get more time on the pitch this week, and has sent a message to his boss in the form of three goals, or Marlon Harewood, an expensive Summer signing who'd only made one brief substitute appearance before Tuesday, and kept going until he'd got his first goal late on. The result of such hunger was a margin of victory of five goals.
Of course, the fact that Wrexham prioritised the Hereford match also had an effect. Would the midfield have been able to withstand the impressive muscular athleticism of Nigel Reo-Coker and Isaiah Osbourne better with Danny Williams in their midst? Would the presence of Neil Roberts have given support to the admirable Michael Proctor? Would Matty Done have exposed stand-in right-back Craig Gardner with his explosive pace? We'll never know, although to be fair some of them were carrying knocks.
The key thing is how we kick on from here, a sentiment which has been alarmingly common amongst Wrexham fans over the last year. Carey and Weaver have succeeded in getting the side to react positively to knock-backs since they took charge. The low point of last season was surely that cruel home defeat to Notts County through an injury time own goal by Simon Spender, but we bounced back to win our next three games, two of them away to sides that reached the play-offs. That's how inspirational Carey and Weaver can be and they've got a much stronger squad now. We need to see that they've worked their magic again this week!

Carey The Genius

Brian Carey was right to urge caution after the fine victory at Port Vale on Tuesday; after all, one swallow doesn't make a Summer, and smashing Sheffield Wednesday at the same stage last season hardly led to great things did it? But it was great wasn't it?

The greatest delight of it was its unexpected nature. It looked a tough task anyway, but when I saw that Carey had picked Michael Jones in goal and Levi Mackin in midfield it was clear where his priorities lie. Or so I thought.

Both youngsters have been rotting in the reserves over the last season and were in need of a boost, but giving them one by throwing them into an away tie against a higher division team looked like putting their interests ahead of the team. They emphatically proved that to not be the case.

The important thing with Jones is to remember how young he is-just nineteen. Goalkeepers are generally thought to mature in their thirties, so he's still over ten years off his peak! In 2020 he should be pretty tasty! However, goalkeeping is about confidence, and nurturing young keepers requires careful consideration for the damage a bad experience can inflict. Remember how a traumatic experience at Peterborough destroyed Paul Whitfield? It came hot on the heels of an LDV tie at Stockport in which he conceded five goals, and we never saw him again. Jones let in five at Edgeley Park last season as well, and his other appearance was in the shock defeat at Newport, so his selection could have backfired. However, it emphatically didn't; two superb second half saves marked a flawless performance, and Jones took a major step forward in the maturing process.

Mackin is also an interesting case. It's four seasons now since he made his debut, and a lot of fans feel that he hasn't kicked on from a promising start. This season might well be make-or-break for him, and rotting in the reserves is hardly a recipe for success. However, Tuesday showed that this might just be his year! He was energetic and, after looking a bit tentative in the first half, really grew into the match. His passing got crisper and he started getting his head up and playing ambitious balls over the top to the nippy forwards who turned the game in our favour.

It's a question of confidence with Mackin, I suspect. Sometimes when a young lad is new to the scene it's hard to push himself forwards and take a leading role. As the tie wore on, Mackin did exactly that, and in doing so finally established himself as a serious option for Carey.

All credit to Carey for seeing that. Obviously a manager gets to see more than us. Sometimes fans get frustrated when a player is persevered with despite a lack of success in the first team, but remember that the coaching staff will get the full picture on them. Performances in training and the reserves might mark a player out as having something which those who just watch the first team haven't seen. On the other hand, you might argue that if a player doesn't deliver in the first team, then there's no point in waiting for it to happen. I remember a lad I played with who, in training, was one of the most gifted players in a strong side. However, in matches he went to pieces and the creative flair he undoubtedly had was completely obscured. Eventually giving him games in all sorts of outlandish positions in the hope that he would settle, he was reluctantly jettisoned. Thankfully, Mackin responded the other way, and as a result has just given his career a huge boost, and Brian Carey an extra option.