Evel K-leavel

Wrexham have released a player with more match-winning ability than any other at their disposal; so why am I so glad? Lee McEvilly was our most destructive, disruptive player; feel free to interpret that however you want. There can be no doubt that, when he felt like it, he was an awesome attacking force, capable of destroying opposing defences on his own. However, Brian Carey is wisely culling players who perform when in the mood in favour of good men to have in the changing room like Michael Proctor and Anthony Williams. I cut McEvilly slack for longer than most but Carey's right: we've been waiting for two years for McEvilly to find fitness and consisent form. He has the ability to take us up, but it just wasn't going to happen.

Promising Signs!

As the signings have come rolling in I've been wondering why we didn't seem to be pursuing a full back.

After all, the release of Lee Roche left us with just three full backs in the whole squad-two youngsters who, though promising, have yet to play a full season as a first team regular (Simon Spender and Mike Williams) and a versatile two-sided player in Ryan Valentine who was a bit up and down last season.

Now I've seen last week's friendlies I think I get it.

Neil Taylor looks tasty. Yet to make his debut, we shouldn't get carried away, but he looks feisty and keen to get forward. He wasn't scared of David Bentley on Tuesday-quite the reverse-and had the confidence to join in play, no sure thing in a kid. Keep it up lad!

Trial and Error

So what of the triallists? I don't like to judge players after forty-five minutes of a meaningless game, but they didn't look too bad.

It's interesting hearing everyone else's opinions as no one seems to agree about them. For what it's worth, Mohammed was the pick for me. He was quick and took his goal beautifully-anyone who can dump Brad Friedel on his backside and walk round him must have something going for him! Mind you, he faded badly; hardly what you want to see when he only came on at half time!

The press were very keen on Simms, but I reserve judgement. He reminded me of Steve Bull in the way he approached the game: a big, awkward trier and very direct of not particularly strong technically. He did well to set up Mohammed's goal though; the way he surged through the middle owed a little to luck, but the way he slid Mohammed in when the experienced Henchoz seemed to be guiding him harmlessly into the channel suggested he has something about him.

As for Kanaclic, I didn't think he looked bad, although he cetainly didn't seem to grab many people's attention. He's only eighteen and looks quick and technical. Whether he'd hurt teams is a different matter, of course, but if we can get him on an eighteen-year-old's wages he might be worth consideration.

A word of warning though: this time last year we were slavering for Denis Smith to find the funds to bring in a layer who had impressed in the pre-season games. We signed him, but has Josh Johnson been value for money yet?

Psycho!

The Liverpool game was a friendly and therefore virtually meaningless-let's not forget that. However, it did contain many reasons to feel optimistic about next season.

The goal poaching of Eifion Williams is prime among them. He took his supremely well: the first was dispatched cooly when plenty of Wrexham players past and present would have snatched at it; the second was a sublime piece of opportunistic finishing which you just can't teach. Let's hope Brian Carey has found his Gary Bennett!

Confused.com

I'm confused. I like the look of Brian Carey's Summer dealings, but I've been burnt before. Recently.

After seven unbeaten games at the start of last season I felt more confident tham I'd ever felt that I was watching a side destined for promotion, and look at what happened!

So despite the fact that Carey has pruned wisely (especially in goal!) and bought well, despite the admirable resolve he infused into the team during the run-in, I'm still wary.

Typical Wrexham fan-I got confident once and I'll never make that mistake again!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a day! I woke up at six because I just couldn't sleep, and went through the longest morning of my life!

At half time I was wishing it was all a bad dream though! God, it was horrble. I just stood there, willing the second half to start. I wasn't the only one, I think-the announcements got no response at all-everyone seemed stunned. At one point there was a tiny ripple of applause from the Sainsbury's Stand and I was immediately looking across hoping to see the players come out-I just couldn't wait to see if we could respond. And fair play to them-they did!

Plenty of history was made too: Valentine deserves a medal for taking the most important dead ball kick a Wrexham player has ever had to take, and Proctor scored what we assume is the last goal in front of The Kop in its current state.

History is made up of memories as well as milestones though, and Llewellyn's lost shirt saga was priceless. In the tunnel after the game he was wearing the shirt the fan gave him-it was much too small for him and he didn't look like he could lift his arms up!

Boston Coverage

Here are our videos and podcast of the big day!

Podcast
Chris Llewellyn video
Brian Carey video
Ryan Valentine video
Michael Poctor video
Neil Roberts video
vlog
Final Whistle Celebrations
Player of the Season presentations
National Anthem
Chris Llewellyn goal celebrations
Michael Proctor goal celebrations

Can't sleep!!!!!

Two days to go! There are too many scary thoughts running round in my head, but the bottom line remains that Macclesfield and Boston would both gladly swap positions with us-and squads for that matter! Still, there's naturally a lot of fear out there! Plenty of fans I know don't want to talk about the game, and one particularly staunch die'hard I know says he has his ticket but he isn't going!

Save The Turf

Here's our video report on the campaign to save the Turf Hotel.

Positivity

It's time to be postive! Worrying won't help the team, and won't get us through the longest week of our footy lives either! Think positive! Macc and Boston fans would gladly swap places with us in the table!

Well they played the welsh anthem in the ground as i arrived-very welcoming! I'm worried about the fact that bury won here last week-they'll have been slaughtered by Richard Money and be determined not to let a team from the bottom of the table do that again. I feel it could feel very similar to last Tuesday-the big away support might have to buoy us up to withstand an early onslaught. Hope the result's the same as well! I feel we can do this-Walsall are clearly a good side, but looking at the teams are they any better than us man for man?

Told you!!

I'm psychic, me! God, that was good!!!

Get on the Good Foot!

Let's be positive about tonight! If we sit back and wait for things to happen we'll be punished, but in the last two games we haven't done that, and if we get on the front foot we can have a night to remember (Eep! I sound a bit like a foot fetishist there!)

If we'd played this game on the rearranged date we wouldn't have had Steve Evans, Danny Williams or Neil Rovberts available. Now we've got that solid spine to the team, and we should be well equipped for a derby scrap.

Okay, they were much better than us at The Racecurse, but that was when Brian Carey was still finding his feet, and Steve Evans was sent off in the first half too.

Plus, their pitch is in awful shape, and as they're in the play-offs I reckon that should work in our favour-it'll introduce a random factor to compensate for the fact that they're better than us!

Also, their form has been as patchy as their pitch, and they're under presure too.

Someone's going to crack tonight. Let's make sure we get at them from the start to ensure it's not us!