Marketing Problem

Keith Scott reflects on Season 2000-1

Another season bites the dust! And the last one was more bizarre than the last. At least in 2000 we knew what we had to do - avoid relegation - and that was achieved in style. Last season we never, apart from a short spell after Christmas when we appeared to have suspended the normal league programme in favour of celebrity games against Premiership teams, been close to the danger zone. But at the same time we never really shone either. Every time we looked like creating something special (ie. the brilliant run of wins around the Walsall scalp) we blew it by a silly run of one-goal margin defeats against the likes of Brentford and Bury.

Mention of Brentford leads me on to the extraordinary bad luck Wrexham have had where fixtures against the West London side are concerned. As I live only ten miles down the road from Griffin Park and have a weakness for Fullers beers (Brentford FC have a Fuller's pub on each corner of the ground), I have seen most of Wrexham's away fixtures there since 1982. Whether or not the memory of the biggest away defeat still lingers in the Wrexham FC subconscious I don't know, but the fact remains we have not yet, despite two or three home wins, broken the Brentford bogie.

I saw what proved to be Wrexham's last league away fixture between the clubs for more than a decade on a cold December day in 1982. Wrexham had started to come good under Bobby Roberts and the talented young goalkeeper Eddie Niedzwiecki was shoring up the defence. What happened that day? Eddie was injured and Wrexham had to make do with a goalkeeper they appeared to have dredged up from a local pub team who made a great contribution to the 5-1 defeat. And a few months later when Wrexham were fighting for their lives to stay in the old Division 3, which team started the rot with a 3-2 away win? You've guessed it - Brentford.

The only good thing about Wrexham's long spell in the Fourth Division was the fact they didn't have to play Brentford again until they finally won promotion to the new Second Division in 1993. And of course in that first season, 1993-4, it was mandatory that Brentford stole six points from the Reds.

I usually go to the Wrexham fixture at Griffin Park with a non-Wrexham supporting friend who is not convinced that we can actually score goals as they are so rare there. To be fair we missed the 2-0 victory in 2000 but if my memory served me right, my sceptical friend has seen Wrexham score one goal (Owen's in 1997) in about five matches. This year I told him that Trundle would do it. But even Lee could not break the bogie. There is more about Brentford but I won't bore the punters. I just hope the 2-1 win at the Racecourse last December is the beginning of better things.

I saw some good things last season: the away win at Oxford, the brilliant performance of Dearden against Port Vale and the impressive debut of Walsh against Luton, and I hope this present team can progress during the coming season (and not give so many goals away - only seven league clean sheets!) The worrying thing must be the gates at home. When Shrewsbury get similar or bigger gates for what they dish up, then either Wrexham are charging too much or Wrexham people have too high expectations. I saw Shrewsbury fail to get in more than one shot against a very average Scunthorpe side on Easter Saturday, then on the Monday went to the Racecourse. I don't want to upset Shrewsbury or Scunthorpe fans but their teams were very poor on skills, on a different planet from Wrexham and Luton who both played some good stuff. So maybe Wrexham have a marketing problem which a more aggressive sales pitch may overcome. Let's hope the poor gates this year for what has been a reasonable season performance-wise are only a blip.