Prolific Wrexham Strikers Shocker!

We might be struggling to score goals, but the players we farm out to the League of Wales seem to be finding the net pretty easily.

Steve Abbott got another two for TNS at the weekend, to continue his successful start for them, while Obi Anoruo hit the net for Newtown as well.

Abbot has hit five goals in his six games for TNS and, from what I can see from the highlights on S4C, is playing as a traditional centre forward rather than in the attacking midfield role Dean Saunders bought him for. I must admit that some dubious League of Wales defending has contributed to some of his goals, not least against Airbus a couple of weeks ago when his initial inability to put an easy chance away was compensated for by the defence's even greater ineptitude at clearing the ball!

I'm not sure what Abbott's goals tell us. Any player in scoring form is not to be sniffed at, although it might be argued that the defences he'll come up against while on loan are rather more porous than those in The Conference.

Still, it'd be interesting to have an insight into Saunders' thinking over Abbott. has he farmed him out to gain confidence from first team play? Or has he decided he made a mistake in making Abbott his first transfer and is looking to put him in the shop window, as he did with Darran Kempson, Carl Tremarco, Nat Brown and others?

Obi, on the other hand, surely has a future at the Racecourse and is just being sent out to get experience. He certainly looks to be taking the opportunity with both hands as he marked his debut with a goal in Newtown's first win of the season and followed it up by opening the scoring at Llanelli on Saturday with a well-taken one-on-one. Hopefully Anoruo can fill his boots and return to us ready to make an impression, Soon!

Histon Podcast

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

Williams Loss Leaves Gaping Hole

On Saturday morning I was chatting to a few friends about how desperately we needed to bring in a striker as we were rather short on options. Little did we know how dire the situation would become just a few hours later!
The loss of Marc Williams is an immense blow. For me, he's the runaway candidate for player of the season at this point, but quite apart from that, we are indeed horribly threadbare when it comes to attacking options.
With Michael Proctor clearly not rated by Dean Saunders, Shaun Whalley shipped out on loan for the same reason and Patrick Suffo having at best an hour in him, the Wrexham manager's options are rather limited.
The problem is that, as I understand it, Saunders has been as aware of the problem for as long as we have been; of course he has! He's been aggressively pursuing new strikers, but has yet to find one who is willing to come to us and is of a high enough standard to actually improve the squad. If that's the case, the chances of him finding the right man in a matter of days seems rather slim!
So what of the other options available to him? A change of system's obviously a possibility, but would that be wise when a youthful side seems pretty much in the groove of playing 4-4-2, and Jeff Louis-a striker who it appears requires careful guidance-is used to having a partner? I've heard talk of Silvio Spann being tried out on training behind a solo striker, which is perhaps the one position on the pitch you'd feel comfortable playing him as you'd be able to tell him to forget his defensive reponsibilities to an extent, although I'd have thought that would work best with a striker making darting runs in front of him for him to hit. Like Marc Williams.
The other possibility, of course, is the forgotten man of The Racecourse, Steve Abbott. He appears to be most comfortable in the hole and was brought in to boost our goals total from midfield, but has faded from view. I wonder if Saunders will give serious thought to throwing him into the void?
Otherwise, we could always fall back on this guy!!!!