Wrexham -Match Thread

I don't really get this one, after the sending off Rovers still protected Macca but had the best chances. Wrexham created nothing all night and didn't look to have pops from range at all. Let's remember Wrexham had a one on one and the player tried to take it past Macca instead of the early shot. Odd, odd game that Rovers could and very nearly did sneak in what would have then been called the perfect away performance.

Could have won it as well, only one team created chances after the sending off.

Hmmm....Well that was a really odd game.  I think we should be pretty happy with a point there - it was a good point rather than a bad one given the amount that went wrong for us in that match.  I think both teams had their gameplans completely wiped out by circumstances and in the end were probably happy to take the point. In truth though it was a pretty poor spectacle.  It was cold and my return train was very late - so I can't say I had a great experience.  However, the Racecourse was quite a tidy ground if they could get their act together, and get control back of their massive terraced end they could probably generate a good atmosphere there again.  Plus people would probably go just for the experience of standing on that terrace which would be the largest remaining one in the country.

In the first half I thought we were just poor to be honest.  We did very little and they had all the momentum.  Our passing game was non-existent and we seemed to be lacking in spark and energy.  In midfield we seemed to be particularly off the pace which was disapointing - we just weren't winning or controlling enough of the ball.  They had enough of it to create better chances than they did and they'll definitely feel that they should have scored.  They wasted at least 2 golden opportunities and they shaved the bar a few times. We just weren't at the races really.  We did nothing going forward at all and Blisset was completely isolated up front and being asked to do way too much.  Then the injuries happened and that took all the flow out of the half.  LDV wasn't clattered by their player - he came out of a tackle, lost his balance and appeared to roll his ankle over the ball; it was a freak injury.  Mildenhall's was also freak and came from poor defensive play selling him down the river - I hope it's nothing serious cos I think he's key to our chances this season.  Obviously, at that point I'd have taken the draw then and there.  But then their bloke put in an insane challenge on Taylor and kind of evened up the score.  I mean it was like a weird experiment - who wins out of a team with no goalie and a team that's down to 10.  As it was both teams played very tentatively and the 2nd half was kind of a non-event save for a short period each side had where they put on some pressure.  They had a couple of free kicks (and in truth on another day the Ref could have given a penalty for what was poor play from Blisset) and we hit the bar and had a couple of other chances we should have done better with.  But in general it was odd - you'd have thought they would have peppered Mcchrystal and we would have tried to get it wide and hold onto the ball.  As it happened neither of those things occurred.  I think Mcchrystal only had 1 actual save to make in the second half and we were too narrow and boxed in for most of the half.  It just degenerated into a midfield clogging fest with neither side prepared to commit men forward.  Still given our record at the Racecourse and how bad our luck was in the game we have to be pretty pleased to walk away with a point.  I felt the team had an off night but kept battling and was determined to keep the ball away from Mcchrystal.  There's certainly no doubting how solid we are but our creativity was pretty much zilch but perhaps understandable when our attacking gameplan was clearly derailed by the early injury to LDV meaning Balanta had to come on too early and clearly doesn't currently have the match fitness to play that long.  Then Mildenhall injury further decreased our attacking options off the bench and I think Clarke bought Blisset off partly because he was concerned the ref was looking to red card him to even things up - which would have been very harsh because I didn't think he deserved the booking.

Mildenhall - 6.  Had a solid game until injured.  If he needs an operation Lee Brown should pay for it - 2 hospital balls and the second one literally was.
Brown - 4.  Thought he had a terrible night - couldn't put a foot right all game.
Parkes - 7.  Good in every aspect apart from distribution.  Bullied their forwards into ineffectiveness.
Mcchrystal - 10! How can you not give maximum mark to a non-goalie who gets a clean sheet? (do the statto's know if he gets officially credited with it or not?).  Though both our defence and their forwards made his job easier than it probably should have been.
Trotman - 6.  Looked a bit rusty, but very strong and generally made good decisions.  Both he and Parkes did a good job of keeping the ball away from Mcchrystal and holding a fairly high line.
Lockyer - 7.  Was excellent - very calm, very assured and his pace gets us out of some tricky situations.
Sinclair - 5.  Didn't have a great game.  Struggled to influence the match in either half.  Wasn't his usual terrier like self.
Mansell - 6.  A bit better but again struggled to influence the game early on.  Came into it much more in the second half and his defensive performance was key to us limiting their attacking chances.
Monkhouse - 6.  Solid, did his basic job but didn't look like creating all that much to be honest.
Balanta - 5.  Didn't look like he had the match fitness to play that long.  Come the end it was like we were playing with 10 as well because he couldn't really keep up with the game and the whole second half he was peripheral.  Although having said that when he did get himself on the ball in attacking positions he looked our most dangerous threat.  But too often he was behind the play when an attacking wide player should be ahead of it.  We just asked him to do too much last night - he's clearly not quite ready yet.
Taylor 6.  Again decent stuff outside the box - but had 2 reasonable half chances and was nowhere close with either of them.  I also just don't think his movement in the box is good enough to create chances for himself.  I don't see him peeling off or doing darting near post runs.  Which is a shame because his link play and movement in the build-up is always good and he battles and works hard.  It's as if no one ever taught him how to be a striker.
Blisset 6.  We gave him an absolutely thankless task.  Spent the night trying to chase down hopeless balls with no support at all for most of the time as Taylor was dropped back into midfield.  So he worked really hard but never really looked a threat - I don't think that was any fault of his though.  Lucky not to give a penalty away - the referee bottled that decision; I think it was 50/50 whether it was a foul kind of thing you get at home but not away but it was careless and dangerous from Blisset no doubt about it.  Having given it though it was clearly in the box - now I think the ref could have given a penalty or he could have given an indirect free kick in the box (high foot I suppose can be interpreted as obstructon) but what he gave seemed like an attempt at compromise.  Nevertheless I thought Blisset was a bit lucky.  He looked absolutely spent when he came off.
Wall - 7.  Was quite surprised by Wall.  I was expecting someone who was basically a body but he came on and showed he could play a bit with the ball on the ground.  I thought he galvanised us and the period after he came on was our best spell of the match.  Hit the bar with a great free kick too.  There was definitely promise there.
Clarke - 7. I know some will probably criticise him for not being more attacking when they were down to 10 but he'd been dealt a terrible hand. Outfielder in goal, a key attacking player injured, only 1 sub left to influence the game and a lot of leggy, knackered players.  I'm sure in his ideal game plan we used all 3 subs between 60-70 minutes to inject legs into a team playing its second game in a week.  We weren't able to do that so I think he did a good job under the circumstances really.

  ?

You've put that well. Having seen (and paused) the video, I now want to correct my view from last night! Sometimes when the victim falls into the area, it seems that the offence must have taken place there. But it was mighty close. And on another day...

(Hope this doesn't start a 4-page discussion of whether it was a pen, a la Barnet).