Wrexham's dreams of a trip to Wembley in the F.A. Trophy ended in massive anticlimax, the holders running out emphatic winners despite the gap between the two sides in the league table. A 3-1 loss was a fair reflection of how the game went after a grim Wrexham performance in which you'd struggle to find anyone who did themselves justice.
Despite being restored to full strength after a hybrid side under-performed on Saturday, Wrexham were second best in the first half, and only a lack of quality in the box for Ebbsfleet allowed them off the hook. There was a real let-off early on when Ashley Westwood was caught in possession on the edge of the box by Stacey Long who had a clear run on goal but shot straight at Gavin Ward. This was a pattern which would be repeated in the first hour, with clear-cut opening being driven straight at the Wrexham keeper, but the visitors would eventually pay for allowing United so many sights of goal.
With the middle totally unable to get a proper grasp of the game, a ten minute spell midway through the half when Wrexham had the better of possession, but created nothing, would in hindsight prove to be their best period of the match. It summed up the performance when, deep into the half, Wrexham won their first corner, but Jon Brown promptly curled it out of play!
Perhaps things might have been different if referee Beck, who hardly covered himself with glory at The Racecourse, had given the red card which an awful over the top tackle by Martin on Andy Fleming deserved, or acted when Leon Crooks fouled Marc Williams as he ran through the middle-it probably merited a yellow rather than a red, but the offender wasn't even spoken to! No doubt Aurelien Collin allowed himself a wry smile at those decisions!
The half ended with chances at both ends. Guiseppe Sole made a bit of space for himself on the edge of the area and curled his shot over and with the last kick of the half Brown clipped a free kick over the wall and just wide.
The second half began in the same manner, with a neat 1-2 on the edge of the box allowing Neil Barrett to shoot straight at Ward, but in the 51st minute, completely against the run of play, Wrexham were gifted a goal. Given their inability to create it was appropriate that the breakthrough was due to poor defending. Westwood hoisted a high ball into the box, straight onto the head of Sasha Opinal who, with all the time in the world, tried to nod the ball back to his keeper but inexplicably gave it straight to Jeff Louis, who slotted home the easy chance.
Ebbsfleet responded well though, Long running clear but again shooting too straight under pressure. The breakthrough had to come, but it was a messy one. A lucky rebound allowed Sole to break clear in the left channel and his shot trickled inside the right past despite Ward getting a hand on it.
Immediately Brown was replaced by Nathan Fairhurst and Wrexham switched to a 4-3-1-2, with Ryan Flynn playing behind the strikers, but it didn't help the midfield to turn the tide, and within a minute Ebbsfleet ought to have taken the lead. Once more Barrett broke into the box, and this time Andrew Crofts scythed him down. The referee correctly pointed to the spot but a poor effort by Luke Moore was saved low to his left by Ward.
It was immediately apparent that the miss would merely be a temporary reprieve. Wrexham had to withstand enormous pressure afterwards, surviving more by luck than judgement. Ward made an excellent save low to his left from a Moore shot, then dropped into the crowd. Opinal's shot from close range was going just wide, but not knowing whether it was goalbound, Louis cleared it back to him and his second shot was cleared off the line by Fairhurst.
Wrexham couldn't get out of the defending third and the breakthrough had to come. With fifteen minutes left Michael Gash forced Mike Williams into a weak clearance and Moore made up for his penalty gaffe by lashing a terrific shot in from the edge of the area.
Patrick Suffo and Jamie McCluskey were thrown on for Flynn and Fleming in an attempt to pull things round, but there was no sign of a revival and with seven minutes left any lingering hopes were extinguished. A superb strike by Martin from distance after being set up by Long moved a lot in the air although Ward might have been disappointed not to have got a hand to it.
With the tie out of reach and United perhaps relaxing for the first time in the tie, the third goal signalled a brief spell in which for the first time Wrexham carried a threat. Marc Williams headed a corner just over from six yards. It would have been a consolation though, as this game is already over, in the last minute a Crooks misheader fell to McCluskey unmarked six yards out, but his toe poke hit the keeper who pounced on it as it trickled towards the line, and within seconds a crazy scramble in the Ebbsfleet box saw both Louis and Marc Williams try to get onto a through ball, but in a tangle of legs the keeper manages to grab hold of it.
It was the desperate flailing of a drowning man though. The inevitable was soon confirmed by the final whistle and the side which had been superior in both sides had appropriately triumphed. One of the few pieces of consolation which can be clung onto is that it was a good job we hadn't been playing our scheduled game against Kidderminster instead, as a performance like this would undoubtedly have meant we dropped three valuable points.
