Hayes Podcast

The Hayes podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Dean Saunders and Declan Walker.

Paying The Price For Hayes?

I suggested a couple of weeks ago in my leader column that Dean Saunders, in being absent for the Hayes match, had damaged the relationship between him and the supporters, who are uneasy at the thought of a manager who doesn't hold his club as his only priority. Looking at the reaction to the game last night, I'd say that damage was evident after the Forest Green game.

Fans at the game were angry, although Wes Baynes' late goal took the sting out of their protests at the final whistle; on Red Passion they were furious, demanding Saunders ought to go. I'd argue that this reaction is an manifestation of how upset the supporters were three weeks ago.

Yes, the performance was poor yesterday; Forest Green looked to be a very poor side, and in the first half we certainly couldn't claim to be any better than them; we created nothing. We imposed ourselves upon them after the break, but without a great deal of quality, and needed a daft foul by a player who ought to have been sent off already to win the game in the 89^th minute. However, I'm not sure that the game in itself would warrant such an outpouring of anger.

Look at it in context. Since we lost to Hayes we've drawn at Histon, a performance which has divided fans when measuring its merits, and put in two good performances without getting the reward we deserved. You really couldn't complain about the way we played against Kidderminster or Swindon, so yesterday was the first chance the hard core of home fans, and let's be honest, that's what we're down to right now, to vent their anger at Saunders since the Hayes debacle.

I'm struggling to think of a worse game of football I've ever seen than yesterday's first half, but if you take in the bigger picture, I suspect the vitriol aimed at Saunders was a little harsh. After all, we'd just put in two good performances (maybe three) in a row, and he did act decisively at half time yesterday, throwing on two subs and switching to 4-3-1-2 in a move which brought about an improvement and, ultimately, three points.

Yet damage was done against Hayes, and yesterday was a chance to express that.

The Pressure Can Swallow You Up.......

I was recently reading a quote from Chris Hargreaves who was in the Torquay squad that achieved the dream of regaining league status last year.

He said "You'r suddenly thinking that if you don't do well in the next few games, people will write you off and your careers over. If you aren't winning at half time there are likely to be boos and that doesn't help. That's a big fear to hang over your head and while it's a big driving force to make sure you do well, it can swallow you up and very good players drift out of the game".

After the reaction against Hayes & Yeading as we go into a run of three home games that was thought provoking for me and an insight into a players psyche. Before the fans start booing the players and the manager, and I don't deny anyone who has paid their money the right to do so, but perhaps we should consider that by getting rid of our frustrations are we actually making the situation worse?

Steve

Carey Shouldn't Carry The Can

Saturday’s performance was rank, no two ways about it. I was asked afterwards if I’d put it in my worst ten Wrexham performances. I’d put it in my top one. It was embarrassing.

However, one of the things which upset me most about last Saturday’s fiasco was that Brian Carey was left carrying the can. It wasn’t Carey’s team, but he had to come out and face the music afterwards, and had to address the question of where Dean Saunders was when, quite frankly, it wasn’t his question to answer.

What Saunders decides to do when an under strength Wales have a hastily-arranged friendly, and what the board decide he ought to do in those circumstances, is up to them. It’s not down to Carey.

Carey’s time as manager had to end when it did, and the decision to appoint him has been cast into further relief lately with the sacking of Darren Ferguson, the man passed over for the job. That’s all irrelevant right now though. The past is the past. What is relevant is that Carey, an outstanding servant of the club and a thoroughly genuine and decent man who feels Wrexham’s suffering very deeply, was thrust into a ridiculous situation last Saturday.

It made me think of a farcical state of affairs which, bizarrely, is commonplace in one of Europe’s top leagues. Incredibly, and uniquely in Italy as far as I’m aware, managers remain under contract to their clubs after they’re sacked, until they get a new job. Therefore, if their successor is sacked before they find a new employer, they are contractually obliged to stand in as caretaker at the club that dismissed them!

Carey was in the same daft position. The bottom line is that it wasn’t his side which played so utterly abysmally against Hayes and Yeading. Or should I say it wasn’t his team which made Hayes and Yeading, who were in the Conference South last season and had won just three out of seventeen games previous to last weekend, look like a team of world-beaters. But he was left to carry the can.

I’m not going to be a slavish apologist for Carey; I can’t pretend I agreed with every decision he made. Particularly, I couldn’t work out why, with one substitution already made, he opted to change his left back at half time when nothing was happening creatively, meaning either Adrian Cieslewicz or Marc Williams wouldn’t be coming on later to turn the game.

However, his hands were tied to an extent. The bench he was given featured a goalkeeper for only the fourth time this season, so it was an outfield option down. This was a particularly surprising decision bearing in mind that we were fielding a player who, a week earlier, was unfit with a hamstring injury. Silvio Spann lasted just over half an hour and his options were further reduced.

So yes, it was awful. Yes, Carey made calls I didn’t agree with. But at least he was there to make them.