The Stevenage result might have been more eye-catching, the way they bounched back at Rushden after the York failure more heartening, but in many ways this was when Brian Little's new Wrexham side came of age. Debutant Kyle Critchell caught the eye on the right side of midfield,Levi Mackin gave the clearest indication yet of why Brian Little has so much faith in him, and crucially Jeff Louis suddenly showed what Little saw in him.
There was nothing subtle in Louis' work; for neatness and economy one had to look to Kearney and Critchell. However, the bludgeon can be an effective weapon too, and for the first time he was able to menace a defence, using his physique to good effect and capped an aggressive performance with a fine injury time goal to cap the victory and make amends for a missed penalty. And he still had time to turn the Setanta airwaves blue before the final whistle!
However, it was Oxford who started the better side, but it was Louis who began to turn things around with a clever header from fifteen yards which hit the bar. The rebound fell to Shaun Whalley at close range but he was unable to score as Jake Cole made the first of a string of crucial saves, landing at his feet and smothering his first time strike.
Within a minute Cole was beaten, Critchell's powerful drive just passing the wrong side of his right post, before the key point of the game in the eleventh minute. A Louis flick on allowed Whalley to use his pace to get goalside of Luke Foster who hauled him down in the box. His reward was a penalty award, a red card and a very public dressing down by his manager, but the spot kick would not be capitalised
upon. Louis thrashed the penalty straight down the middle and Cole was able to push the poor effort away.
The pattern of the rest of the half was monotonous, if gripping. Wrexham completely dominated affairs, but somehow failed to get more than one goal. The procession began when Steve Evans flicked the ball on for Louis to tee up Levi Mackin, whose twenty five yard rocket whizzed just past the post. It would not be the last screamer Mackin would hit in a performance which served to illustrate his growing value to the team.
Then Critchell set up Louis, who turned explosively past his man but blasted the ball narrowly over, before Tremarco did tremendously well to outpace the speedy Levi Reid and cross into the box, where Critchell brought logic to a scramble with a shot which curled narrowly wide. Once again Critchell went close when a good Sam
Aiston cross was flicked neatly on by Whalley to the far pst, where Critchell put the ball over on the stretch from six yards out.
There was one more near miss, Spender's cross allowing Louis to hit a shot which was deflected narrowly wide, before the breakthrough came in spectacular manner. Kearney swept in a corner from the right which, as it dipped, was met by Steve Evans with a fearsome header which planted the ball inside the left post.
Wrexham continued to press on, an accurate Mackin cross met by the head of Louis, whose glancing contact drew an acrobatic catch from Cole, and just before the break Darran Kempson maintained the pattern of spectacular Wrexham shooting with a thirty yarder which just missed the target.
The question at half time was whether Wrexham would come to regret not finishing the game off by the break, as they clearly ought to have done. Indeed, Oxford were massively improved after the break, having reorganised themselves and looking more competitive with a 3-4-2 formation. The hard-working strike duo of James Constable and Yemi Odubade combined to allow the latter a chance to shoot but his powerful effort was too close to Gavin Ward. Lewis Haldane also tested the keeper with a free kick which was spectacularly clawed past the post, but Wrexham numerical superiority meant they were enjoying lenghty spells of domination. Mackin twice launched terrific strikes from the edge of the box, drawing fine saves from Cole, a fine burst of combination play between Whalley, Critchell and Louis ended in the latter shooting just wide from the edge of the box, and Kempson scraped a post with a firm header from a Kearney corner.
It seemed Wrexham would pay the price for their profligact half way through the second half when individual errors allowed United two glorious chances in the space of a minute. First Evans, who was not totally secure despite his goal, allowed Constable past him to go clear on goal but he slotted his shot just wide, then the otherwide impeccable Carl Tremarco allowed Haldane to nip in front of him to go one-on-one with Ward, but the keeper was quick off his line to parry his powerful shot.
There was one more threat to come from Oxford when Haldane hit another fierce strike from the edge of the area which would surely have left Ward with no chance but was spectacularly blocked by Critchell, who subsequently needed treatment to his face.
From then on it was Wrexham who picked Oxford off. Substitute Neil Taylor's driven cross was diverted wide from six yards by Louis before, in the last minute, he earned a memorable reward for his efforts. Picking the ball up on the half way line he carried it to the edge of the box, beat the last defender and drilled a fine shot inside the far post with the outside of his right boot. He was immediately replaced by Simon Brown, who nearly scored with his first touch when a Whalley cross fell narrowly outside his reach, but the result was already assured. Wrexham had come out of a tough four-game opening period of the season with seven points, second place in the table and a sense that they had a platform to build from.
