The Mystery of the Cup

Isn't it wonderful to live in a world where technology allows us to obtain all sorts of arcane information in a mere moment, and modern corporations are committed to transparancy? Well, you do if you're in The Premiership.

I've been trying to work out who we could draw in the FA Cup tomorrow, and it's impossible! There's absolutely nothing on the internet telling you whether the sides that won in the third qualifying round over the weekend will be in the northern or southern sections of the draw, or which Blue Square Premier sides are in our half.

The FA's website has lots of information, but no answers on who we're going into the draw with. After spending ages trying to work it out, I decided to ask Wrexham's secretary Geraint Parry, working on the basis that he knows absolutely EVERYTHING. But he hadn't been given a definitive list from the FA either!

His list tallied with what I suspected would be our half of the draw (I did eventually find a website which said which of the weekend's games had been in the northern half, although Geraint pointed out that sometimes the FA will take teams from one half and put it into the other in the next round!)

We reckon there'll be twelve teams from the Blue Square Bet Premier for us to avoid;
Gateshead
Darlington
Barrow
Southport
Fleetwood
York City
Grimsby Town
Altrincham
Mansfield Town
Wrexham
Tamworth
Kidderminster Harriers

However, the way the draw has been split hasn't been too cruel to us: most of the sides at the top of the table are in the southern section. As for the other clubs, it looks like these are the sides who'll go into the draw with us, with the sides who are going to be in a replay in bold.

One league below us:

AFC Telford United

Guiseley

Workington

Eastwood Town

Nuneaton Town

Solihull Moors

Droylsden

Corby Town

Stalybridge Celtic

Vauxhall Motors

Redditch United

Two leagues below us:

Buxton

FC United of Manchester

North Ferriby United

Frickley Athletic

FC Halifax

Three leagues below us:

Mossley

Barwell

Newcastle Town

Sheffield

Three leagues below us:
Lincoln Moors Railway
Tipton Town

Four leagues below us:
Radcliffe Olympic

Fancy Lincoln Moors Railway at home?

Swindon Podcast

The Swindon podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Dean Saunders, Wes Baynes, Gareth Taylor and Swindon skipper Gordon Greer.

Things are definitely on the up!

Since the poor performance against Salisbury at the beginning of October we have gone 6 games unbeaten winning 4 and drawing 2 against the 2nd and 3rd side in the league on their grounds. This has to signify things are definitely on the up!
Two FA Cup bananas overcome albeit on both occasions with late goals and possibly the best 90 minutes all round performance against high flying Kettering. This has to signify things are definitely on the up!!
Four clean sheets in those six games and we have only failed to score in one of them. The manager has at last admitted something that has been glaringly obvious that we need another striker to help out Gareth Taylor but added to that Matty Wolfenden and Sam Russell are almost back to full fitness with Wolfy knocking in goals for the reserves. This has to signify things are definitely on the up!!!
Any one need any more reasons why we should all get down to The Racecourse and get behind the lads?

Oh and one final point good luck to our old mate Jeff "I was f***ing knackered" Louis in yet another move - this time to Rushden. He must have now had more clubs than an afternoon four ball between them!!

Things are definitely on the up!!!!

Steve

Efficency Over Beauty

I can't begin to tell you how uplifted I was at Kettering by our performance, or indeed how deflated I was for a spell in the second half last Saturday when I suspected it was all a dream!

Had I imagined the flowing footballl we had produced against one of the division's best sides, who were topping the form table going into the match?

It started to feel that way for a bit in the second half. I could understand why we found it hard to break Lowestoft down in the first forty-five minutes. They set themselves up to spoil, and we were faced with breaking down a stubborn side which left one man up while the rest were strewn as a series of speedbumps in our path. That's hard to play against, and I felt we'd create enough chances to get a breakthrough if we persevered.

The second half made me worry though. Lowestoft surprisingly came out to play-Ady Gallagher, their co-manager, said afterwards that he'd not wanted them to be so cautious at the outset and had sent them out to make amends after the break.

They were certainly eager, and deserve plaudits for the effort they put in. However, they really ought to have been put to the sword in those circumstances. Pushing on, they naturally left more gaps at the back, more space to run into behind them. I felt we should have been able to rip into them, but we didn't.

So I admit that, while commentating, I started feeling a little concerned. Thankfully we got the breakthrough and avoided the five hour trek to the furthest eastern outpost of the British Isles. But we needed an 89^th minute fluke to do it. Still, talking to Neil Taylor after the game put things into perspective. He rightly pointed out that we needed to be patient, and in the end that approach had borne dividends.

And at least we’re getting a stroke of luck these days-how many years has it been that we’ve been on the receiving end of such misfortunes? A string of unconvincing wins will do me just fine.

Lowestoft Podcast

The Lowestoft podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Dean Saunders, Gareth Taylor, Neil Taylor and Ade Gallagher.

Parking The Bus

Even if we hadn't won yesterday, at least we would have made an impact on Halifax!

We managed to stop traffic for a fair distance around the ground when the team coach grounded itself in the entrance to the club car park!

Apparently the coach driver was told to back in by a steward and found hinself high and dry as a result!

I suppose Wes Baynes did that to their team a couple of hours later, plucking victory from a match which looked destined to remain goalless, ad although I spent the game feeling frustrated that we never really looked like turning the advantage we had in terms of quality and stamina into goals, a day later I can look at it with a bit more perspective.

The fact is that we did score at a remarkably opportune time to snatch the win, we did defend very robustly, and we did find a player capable of doing something out of the ordinary. Perhaps most crucially, we took on a very tough tie against a side who are in remarkable form-15 consecutive wins anyone?-and a vociferous crowd, and came out on top. And it's a few years since we've looked capable of doing that as we've tended to crumble under that sort of pressure.

So on reflection we ought to feel very pleased with what happened in Halifax. Apart from our parking.

Wemberlee, Wemberlee!!

The travelling Red Army set off for West Yorkshire tomorrow to face another ex league club who have fallen on hard times in FC Halifax Town. The FC prefix points to the fact that the side we are facing tomorrow at The Shay are another of the so called phoenix sides that are around these days. Neil Aspin's men are on a great run of form with 15 yes FIFTEEN consecutive wins in all competitions and are undefeated in 19 games this season winning 18 of them.

OK it is a level three tiers below Wrexham but a win is a win is a win and you can only beat the teams you come up against. Saunders men had a succesful trip to Hertfordshire on Tuesday with what Mark quite correctly called their best result of the season. Wrexham showed spirit, organisation and resilience at the Lamex and they are going to need more of the same tomorrow.

The question arises do we need a good cup run because unless we can make some money out of say a draw with Leeds, Norwich, Southampton or Charlton our best hope of success will surely come later in the year with the FA Trophy. But this is THE cup and we have a great tradition and also we desperately need confidence brought about by not losing and preferably winning football matches. Our main aim has to be improving our league position but a cup run can be a welcome distraction so I for one would like to see us replicate the great cup runs of the Flynn era.
Steve

Fixture Delight!

There might not be a game on Saturday, but does this weekend marks a watershed in our season already? I'm not being daft; I know nothing is decided at this point of the season, and the drive back to Rushden reminded me to be cautious. You can't listen to a procession of twits on radio phone-ins handing the title to Chelsea and writing Manchester United off after one game without being reminded that nothing is won in August. However, I do think we're already reached a key juncture in our season.

I heard something bizarre the other week; the Conference fixtures are not compiled by computer, but by one person! Apart from the terrific waste of time and effort, the thing that struck me was how open to accusations of favouritism the Conference is. When I read our opening four fixtures, I wondered if we'd done anything to offend the fixtures man! Four genuine promotion contenders were lined up to test our credentials just as Brian Little was looking to bed down a brand new line-up; it looked like just the sort of test a club which, as Little admitted last season, was used to defeat, didn't need.

However, we're through them now and, on paper at least, have a few games which look rather more winnable. If we're to kick on and establish ourselves at the top end of the table this is where we'll do it, I feel. We've got to learn to bully the small teams, frankly. Getting into a winning habit is something we haven't experienced for a few years, but we'll get a chance to do exactly that now.

The most lop-sided element of our fixtures is our home programme, though. We have a tough run at home until mid-October; our first seven home games are all against sides who start the season looking to be part of the promotion race. After that things change dramatically. In fact, the visit of Cambridge in January is the only visit by one of the sides considered to be contenders at the start of the season.

Dai Davies said in The Leader's season preview that he felt home form would be the key to our success this season, and he's right. The geographic isolation which will make following the side something of an expedition also offers us an opportunity to establish The Racecourse as a fortress. Already a trip to North Wales seems to be a big deal for most of the other Conference sides. We're viewed as a big club, and a trip to an international venue, the second biggest in the history of the Conference after Carlilse's Brunton Park, is a big deal for them. It's our job to make coming here feel like an ordeal rather than a big day out! I enjoyed reading the Tony Adams' version of Arsenal's defeat to us in his autobiography, as it made Wrexham sound like some grim, isolated outpost in the back of beyond whose inhabitants strike fear into careless travellers who accidentally wander into their territory.

I don't know if he watches “The League of Gentlemen”, but his description of Wrexham made Royston Vesey, the macabre, grotesque outpost which proclaims “You'll Never Leave” on the signpost welcoming you into the town, sound pretty tame. And that's fine by me! If teams are scared of coming to North Wales, if they see us as unwelcoming types who'll send them home with their tails between their legs, if that helps us to ruthlessly take full points off a succession of opponents, then that's fine by me!

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooops

I learned at the weekend that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

One of my favourite moments last season was in a game between Darlington and Bury. A Darlo player crosses the ball into the goalmouth and, in trying to hook the ball over his shoulder to safety, a defender slams it into his own face so hard it bounces into the net. It was an instant blooper DVD classic, but we set the bar a notch higher on Saturday!

The moment Richard Hope and Anthony Williams ran into each other I knew we'd get onto “Match of the Day” that night! Seven intervening hours having anaesthetised the impact of the incident somewhat, I could only smile as Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer mocked us.

However, the next night the BBC did some research and dug out Silvio Spann's howler too! Spann's slip as he took a corner, spooning the ball into the away end, surely set a new standard; we'd provided two classic foul-ups in one match! Danny Baker must rue leaving the gaffe compilation DVD market too soon! Didn't he know we were about to give the genre a much needed shot in the arm?

Nothing's new in football though. My favourite howler was a Darren Wright own goal at Crewe, where he bent the ball past a stranded Mike Salmon into the top corner. That is until we signed the true master of disaster: goalkeeper Vince O'Keefe.

His greatest moment came at Mansfield. We had a free kick on the edge of our own area, a situation which you'd think even O'Keefe could negotiate safely. However, as Phil Hardy tapped the ball to him, O'Keefe decided to look away, the ball went through his legs and a striker walked the ball into the empty net!

That one made it onto the comedy DVDs. A less celebrated but more bizarre incident occurred in a home game against Hereford. A Wrexham attack broke down and the ball was booted up the pitch. There were no outfield players in Wrexham's half as the ball trickled towards O'Keefe, who waited for it on the edge of the area. Again, an innocuous situation, but with O'Keefe danger was always just around the corner! Presumably bored of waiting for the ball to arrive, or misguidedly thinking he was helping the game to flow, he stepped out of the box, picked the ball up, and stepped back into the area! Fantastically, he was filled with indignation when the referee had the temerity to blow for handball!

There were many other classics in his repertoire. I recall him punching a cross into his own net with terrific gusto at Wigan, and scoring a superb own goal against Cambridge: United packed the near post for a corner but overhit the flag-kick. However, O'Keefe caught the ball to his chest, staggered and slowly fell backwards into his own net, all the time clutching it ball tightly as if it were a baby!

At least we haven't hit those depths. Yet.