A Midfield Scene From Wrexham v MK Dons
I miss the mud that helped us beat MK Dons and Darlington, and I want it back!
When it was sopping wet and cutting up against MK Dons and
Darlington we seemed to thrive on it. Dry, rutted and smothered in sand today it just wouldn't let us play football and we struggled to piece our game together. If it doesn't improve soon we could find it a real handicap as we try to haul ourselves to safety.
Unable to pass as we would have wished, with touch players like Jeff Whitley and Danny
Sonner struggling to come to terms with the surface, it was all a bit ugly and we were forced to launch more and more long stuff at
Drewe Broughton.
That's not necessarily a bad idea as
Broughton is a monster of a target man and will always create crumbs for players near him to feed off. However, it didn't click properly today in that respect either. I think a big part of the reason for this was the absence of Neil Roberts. We missed his whole-hearted commitment in midfield, as a few rousing lunges from him got the crowd going against
Darlington and MK Dons, setting the tone early on. Not only was his tigerish effort missed though, but he is able to get up and support
Broughton, trying to latch onto the loose balls he creates.
Sonner and Whitley are very good footballers, but they are not box-to-box midfielders, and quite apart from their natures as footballers, you can't ask either of them to try to get beyond
Broughton due to age on
Sonner's part and lack of match fitness in Whitley's.
So it just wouldn't all hang together today. Still, don't worry too much about it. It wasn't a performance, but it was a point, and every one we win might be crucial by the end of the season. Wouldn't the table look a lot better if we had scraped three extra draws from that awful succession of early season defeats we suffered earlier in the season?
Our games against Hereford,
Rotherham,
Barnet,
Stockport and
Shrewsbury all followed similar paths: we were drawing 0-0 at half time, and at the very least were the equal of our opponents. However, in the second half we conceded and, despite the fact that the other side didn't really show a great deal out of the ordinary, we were unable to respond and were beaten. Imagine if we'd drawn half of them; we'd be well and truly in the mix. So don't worry about dropping two points today; they're all small steps in the right direction.
I'm feeling a little embarrassed by the amusement I initially felt when I read this. Richard Hope being released after just seven fames for Grimsby can hardly be much of a shock to us.
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