Having sent an impressive message out to the rest of The Conference last Saturday, Wrexham undid all that good work with a performance at York which put their hopes of league success into stark context. With the Setanta viewers waiting to see how good the side which crushed Stevenage really is, Wrexham were one-dimensional and second best to the home side in every department.
Frustratingly they nearly held on for a draw, and forced City's keeper into a couple of very good second half saves, but it wouldn't have been a fair reflection of how the game panned out if they had escaped with a point.
Apart from the enforced replacement of Levi Mackin with Christian Smith, Little stuck to a winning side, and that seemed to sow the seeds of failure. Havign spoken before the Stevenage game of playing a more conservative side at York, with more defensive wide midfielders, he persisted with wingers Simon Brown and Sam Aiston and saw his side constantly exploited down the flanks by the running of York's forwards.
The only reason Wrexham weathered the opening twenty-five minutes was a second consecutive match in which their opponents failed to take their chances: Daniel McBreen stabbed a Ben Purkiss cross wide from six yards out; Simon Rusk and Ben Wilkinson both narrowly missed the target from the edge of the
Throughout this period Wrexham hardly helped themselves. Irrespective of Tom Kearney's inablility to get a grip on midfield, they appeared disinclined to get the ball down and try to draw City's sting. Constantly possession was swiftly donated straight back to them as a result of a rather one-dimensional approach. Plan A was to hoof the ball onto Jeff Louis' head, and worryingly the only Plan B we had was to hoof it onto Shaun
Whalley's head instead!
Little's response to York domination was effective. Pulling Whalley back onto the left flank and tucking Aiston inside he switched to 4-5-1 and not only did City's chances dry up, but Wrexham started to threaten for the first time. Whalley cut in from the flank and lashed a terrific dipping shot which just cleared the bar with Artur Krysiak well beaten, and an Aiston cross was glanced wide from six yards out by Louis.
The balance seemed to tip further in the visitors' favour two minutes before the break when City's impressive Polish keeper injured himself as he jumped with Simon Brown and had to go off. As he had been drafted in on loan rather than give his replacement Josh Mimms a chance, one might have assumed the substitute was ripe for exploitation, and an odd incident in injury time suggested that would be the case, when Darran Kempson beat him to a Kearney free kick only for the referee to blow for half time a la Clive Thomas as the ball ricocheted loose. However, Mimms would show his shot-stopping ability to good effect after the break.
Not that he had much to do in the opening quarter of an hour of the second half as York regained their grip on the game, although they only created one clearcut opportunity, when McBreen passed up a second close range chance when Purkiss' free kick was nodded to him by Greaves. York were nearly made to pay for their profligacy when a half-cleared set piece fell to Aiston on the edge of the area, and his powerful shot on the turn looked destined for the bottom corner until Mimms thrust out a hand to make a fine save.
The resulting corner was cleared to the half way line, where Craig Farrell picked it up but carelessly played the ball back to Aiston, who carried the ball into the box before going down under the challenge of last defender David McGurk. The excellent travelling contingent howled for a penalty but Aiston was rather more sheepish; plainly he ran into his man.
A foretaste of Wrexham's undoing was offered when Greaves won yet another header in the box, beating Ward to a long ball but failing to direct the ball under the bar, although there was one final moment of hope before the inevitable, appropriate conclusion, as Wrexham nearly got the nasty business of the goal of the season out of the way early. A corner was cleared to Carl Tremarco, who took the ball on his chest thirty yards out and lashed in a terrific volley which was spectacularly parried by Mimms as the ball moved away from him in the air.
The screw turned immediately as Wrexham's defence, now lacking the impressive Nat Brown who succumber to a groin pull, came under increased pressure. Ward had to match Mimms' save when Wilkinson hit a rocket from twenty five yards, but was helpless in the 73rd minute when his defence's marking broke down allowing Greaves a free header from six yards out which he wasn't about to squander.
Simon Brown immediately responded with a shot from the edge of the box which went narrowly wide, but the replacement of Louis with Marc Williams did not have the desired effect as Wrexham's attacking edge was completely blunted. No criticism of the substitute is intended; Louis had been ineffective so the shorter Williams had no chance of capitalising on the same long ball service.
Instead York continued to threaten, and Ward had to make a second good tip round the post from Rusk's twenty-yarder. Ward and his back four had battled gamely, Aiston and Whalley had threatened sporadically, but Wrexham had been second best in every department, and learned an early lesson about The Conference.
Substitutions:
Wrexham
S Evans for N Brown 70
Baynes for S Brown 81
Marc Williams for Louis 81
York City
Mimms for Krysiak 43
Henderson for Brodie 63
Sodje for McBreen 81
Yellow Cards:
Wrexham
Tremarco
York City
McGurk, McBreen
Red Cards:
-
