Does Dean Saunders have the Midas touch? In his first two games not only has he enjoyed Wrexham's first back-to-back victories for eighteen months, both augmented by injury time goals, but he also marked his home debut with his keeper making a superb double save from a penalty, a teenage debutant scoring the goal of the season and his surprise choice as skipper, another teen, score the first goal of his career. Saunders must think this management lark's a doddle!
A bumper crowd, the biggest in The Conference so far this season, came out to welcome the new manager and they were rewarded with the best football that had been seen at The Racecourse for some time.
Saunders' selection for the game raised a few eyebrows. Admittedly he couldn't keep the same side as won at Forest Green as Nat Brown had phoned in sick, but he also chose to leave out Shaun Whalley and the unfortunate Levi Mackin, with debutant Joe Allen and Silvio Spann coming in. Spann divides Wrexham fans like no other player, but if Saunders can harness his ability he'll be onto something, and Spann responded to the new broom with his best performance in a Wrexham shirt, offering a sporadic threat down the right. Indeed, he signalled his intent rather clumsily early on, sliding in from a long way out in the first twenty seconds to commit a foul which really ought to have brought a yellow card.
The challenge didn't just show Spann was keen to show he was going to get involved; it was also the first manifestation of a feisty midfield performance. As at Forest Green Wrexham worked very hard in the middle of the pitch, hassling the opposition at every turn, with Spann and Neil Taylor taking very advanced positions in the flank and often arriving in the box with the strikers, another progressive element of how Saunders set his side up which contrasted starkly with Little's approach.
The Dragons were swiftly on top, with Jeff Louis a key figure. A Carl Tremarco cross allowed Jeff Louis to use his strength, muscling a defender away before planting a firm header towards the bottom left corner, Mike Ingham denying him with a good take. Louis then won a flick on to allow Taylor to feed Spann, whose rasping twenty-five yarder was tipped over, and from the corner the big target man met Wes Baynes' excellent delivery with a header from six yards out which he put over the bar. Another fine corner from Baynes brought Wrexham as close as they would get to a breakthrough in the first half when Steve Evans met the ball six yards out with a firm header which was blocked on the line at the far post.
Alongside Louis, Marc Williams was typically energetic and he forced Ingham into action again after a typical interception by Fleming allowed him to run at the heart of the York defence before slamming in a shot from the edge of the area which the keeper did well to hold low to his left.
The only real response York had managed in this time came when a mishit into the Wrexham box by Ben Wilkinson was met by Daniel McBreen fifteen yards out. It was the sort of chance a predatory striker buries, but McBreen, who had missed a number of good chances when the sides met in August, shanked it horribly wide.
Having dominated the half, Wrexham could have been caught out at the end, indeed they ought to have done, but Simon Russell squandered two almost identical opportunites. In the last minute of the half he was fed in the left channel by ??? Farrell but pulled his shot badly wide, and within a minute he was given an even better chance when McBreen threaded the ball through the defence but hit the same spot in the advertising hoardings.
York enjoyed their best spell of the match at the start of the second half, and Russell came desperately close to opening the scoring with a shot from fifteen yards which was hit into the ground and skipped through the crowd before Ward tipped it acrobatically round the left post.
Wastefulness in front of goal has been the main obstacle in York's path this season, and they were in the middle of a spell which was a microcosm of their season in this respect. Even more profligate than Russell was Farrell, and he squandered a glorious chance when the ball was pulled back to him fifteen yards out, slashing it well over the bar. That was just a warm-up for his defining moment though.
A ball over the top of Wrexham's defence sent Farrell racing into the box and Mike Williams clumsily hauled him to the ground. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot generously failing to show Williams a card, and it looked like Wrexham would concede the first goal of the game for a remarkable tenth game in a row. However, Farrell's well struck penalty was parried low to his left by Ward and when the rebound was slammed back in by the off balance penalty taker Ward excelled himself, leaping back up to save that too.
During this spell Wrexham had been struggling to create, their only effort coming from the York corner which followed Ward's save from Russell: it was cleared to the isolated Spann who broke down the right and, in the absence of support lashed in a twenty-five yarder which Ingham could only push into the ground, the ball squirting back up and just wide of the post.
The penalty miss changed the entire dynamic of the game though, as Wrexham seemed to take heart while Yorl folded, and within five minutes Wrexham were ahead. Allen nipped in to win the ball in midfield, worked a neat ball to the edge of the area and when he received a return pass from Marc Williams he lashed a sensational strike into the top right corner.
Within moments of the restart York could have hauled themselves back into the game as Farrell raced clear, but he was denied by a superb sliding tackle by Carl Tremarco, who would have been heading down the tunnel if he'd mistimed it.
York were struggling to regain a foothald in the game and shot themselves spectacularly in the foot soon afterwards when substitute Richard Brodie's kamikaze campaign to get himself sent off bore fruit. On as a substitute, he immediately ought to have been booked for impeding Ward, then picked up a yellow for blatantly throwing the ball away before securing a swift departure by sliding in from behind on Wes Baynes after the ball was gone. It was a cast-iron booking and an idiotic challenge to make by a player who was on his last warning; magnificently he took just six minutes to earn his dismissal!
City were now chasing shadows and leaving gaps at the back as they tried in vain to push on. Within the space of three minutes two remarkably similar moves could have led to a second goal.; both Marc Williams and Andy Fleming were teed up by Louis with shooting opportunities from the edge of the box which they drove narrowly wide of the top right corner.
Another goal was inevitable though, and it came as a result of the sort of neat approach play which has been absent for so long at The Racecouse. Marc Williams cut in from the right wing then played a fine reverse pass to send substitute Levi in Mackin round the back of the defence. He pulled the ball back to Taylor fifteen yards out and although the ball arrived slightly behind him he stretched back and dug out a firm shot which, with the aid of a deflection, made its way into the top right corner, the teenage skipper's first career goal.
The game seemed to be over, but as the ninety minutes ended some sloppy defending meant Gavin Ward was again denied a clean sheet as Wilkinson worked a slick one-two with McBreen to cut through a static defence and slot the ball into the bottom left corner.
It briefly seemed as if Saunders' dream start could be wrecked, but the tension didn't last too long. Wrexham's next attack saw a long ball held up well on the edge of the area by Louis, and when he laid it off for Marc Williams the young striker lashed in a fine shot on the half volley which whistled across Ingham and nestled in the bottom left corner.
Saunders appears to be a fortunate manager, but there was no luck about it, just good preparation and good decision-making. Long may it continue.
