Peterborough United 0

 

Wrexham 0

 

Saturday 09 February 2008

 

Kick Off @ 15:00

Wrexham
Starting XI:
12 Gavin Ward
02 Simon Spender
28 Phil Bolland
05 Steve Evans
15 Mike Williams
25 Neil Taylor
09 Neil Roberts
34 Danny Sonner 88'
11 Chris Llewellyn
39 Drewe Broughton 90'
35 Stuart Nicholson 68'
Substitutes:
01 Anthony Williams (GK)
10 Michael Proctor 68'
29 Sam Aiston
37 Jeff Whitley 88'
38 Rob Duffy 90'
Stats:
8 Shots on Goal
4 Shots on Target
4 Shots off Target
45% Possession
15 Fouls Conceded
7 Corners
3 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Peterborough United
Starting XI:
32 Joe Lewis 76'
27 Claude Gnakpa
04 Craig Morgan
05 Chris Westwood
17 Jamie Day
07 Adam Newton 68'
06 Charlie Lee
11 Dean Keates
10 George Boyd
09 Aaron Mclean
12 Craig MacKail-Smith
Substitutes:
14 Scott Micthell 68'
20 Alfie Potter
26 Liam Hatch
29 Tom Williams
31 James McKeown (GK) 76'
Stats:
14 Shots on Goal
6 Shots on Target
8 Shots off Target
55% Possession
10 Fouls Conceded
4 Corners
4 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: London Road
Attendance: 5,505
Half Time: Peterboro 0 Wrexham 0
Referee: Graham Horwood

Match Incidents
23' Claude Gnakpa (Peterboro)
74' Steve Evans (Wexham)
74' Chris Westwood (Peterboro)
74' Drewe Broughton (Wexham)
80' Neil Roberts (Wexham)
83'

Charlie Lee (Peterboro)
89'

Craig Morgan (Peterboro)

Match Reports

WSA: Final Whistle Podcast

BBC: Peterborough 0-0 Wrexham

Peterborough United FC: Posh Frustrated By Resolute Wrexham

TEAMtalk: Brave Dragons earn away point

Wales on Sunday: Furious battle casts shadow

Wrexham FC: Peterborough 0 Wrexham 0

Wrexham MAD: Peterborough United 0 Wrexham 0

League Two Results
Bradford 1 Bury 2
Brentford 1 Shrewsbury 1
Chester 2 Accrington Stanley 3
Darlington 1 Barnet 0
Grimsby 4 Chesterfield 2
Hereford 4 Dag & Red 1
Lincoln City 2 Rochdale 1
MK Dons 1 Rotherham 1
Morecambe 0 Macclesfield 1
Peterborough 0 Wrexham 0
Stockport 1 Notts County 1
Wycombe 1 Mansfield 2

League Two Table
    PLD GD PTS
1 MK Dons 31 29 62
2 Darlington 29 28 56
3 Hereford 29 18 55
4 Rotherham 30 15 54
5 Peterborough 29 23 53
6 Wycombe 31 8 50
7 Chesterfield 31 14 48
8 Rochdale 28 8 47
9 Stockport 30 5 47
10 Morecambe 31 1 47
11 Grimsby 31 -4 42
12 Brentford 29 -8 40
13 Shrewsbury 31 -1 39
14 Bradford 29 1 38
15 Chester 30 -5 37
16 Accrington 30 -19 36
17 Barnet 27 -6 35
18 Lincoln City 31 -13 34
19 Macclesfield 31 -14 31
20 Notts County 30 -12 30
21 Bury 29 -12 28
22 Mansfield 28 -10 25
23 Dag & Red 30 -25 25
24 Wrexham 29 -21 24

Next Five Games

Sat 16 Feb: MK Dons (a) 15:00

Tue 19 Feb: Hereford (a) 19:45

Sat 23 Feb: Grimsby (h) 15:00

Tue 26 Feb: Peterborough (h) 19:45

Sat 01 Mar: Mansfield (h) 15:00

Match Report
Wrexham picked up a valuable point at London Road but the goalless draw was not enough to keep us off the bottom of the Football League.

It was another encouraging display from the men in Red and the fact that we have failed to concede a goal against three of the current top five in recent weeks demonstrates that we have finally become a hard team to defeat.

Another positive from today is that we looked dangerous at the other end of the pitch and were unlucky not to be heading in a goal up at half time after we had the better of the first half.

The second period was far more even but Peterborough only looked dangerous after an incident after seventy minutes that ended up in three players booked and Posh’s keeper, Joe Lewis, a £400,000 recent signing from Norwich, leaving the pitch on a stretcher.

The build up to the incident came after Lewis collided with his fellow defender Chris Westwood that left the keeper requiring lengthy treatment and it was surprising that he stayed on to face the resulting Wrexham corner.

Danny Sonner used all his experience to float the ball into the six yard box that an in rushing Steve Evans went to head and left Lewis in a heap on the ground.

This sparked a twenty man brawl in the Peterborough penalty area which ended up with Evans in the book for the initial challenge and a booking either side for Drewe Broughton and Posh’s Chris Westwood.

The two incidents resulted in seven minutes of injury time and Peterborough did have the ball in the net towards the end of added time when Craig Mackail-Smith converted Craig Morgan’s knock down but the former Wrexham player was penalised for climbing over wingback Neil Taylor.

Brian Little made no changes to the side that defeated second placed Darlington last weekend and there was also no place on the bench for Richard Hope and Shaun Pejic as goalkeeper Anthony Williams was recalled into the matchday squad.

It was Peterborough who made the brighter starts with the front pairing of Mackail-Smith and top scorer Aaron Mclean using their pace to stretch the Wrexham defence without ever troubling Gavin Ward.

Wrexham slowly edged themselves back into the game with Danny Sonner starting to pull the strings in the middle of the park.

This resulted in three corners in quick succession and from the final one, Peterborough struggled to clear the ball and Broughton’s cross back in the box was cleared against a Wrexham player by Claude Gnakpa with Lewis forced into making the first real save of the game.

The chances were all coming Wrexham’s way and from another corner after twenty minutes, Phil Bolland saw his header end up on the roof of the net and Chris Llewellyn tested Lewis with a well struck shot two minutes later.

Wrexham continued to keep the pressure up on the Peterborough defence who were also lucky to have Gnakpa still on the pitch when he was only penalised with a booking after catching Broughton with his elbow when both players challenged from the ball.

The resulting free kick was cleared for a corner, which was again delivered by the quality boot of Sonner and as Nicholson did well to head back across goal, Peterborough escaped when their attempted clearance rebounding back off the woodwork.

It took towards the end of the half for Peterborough to threaten the Wrexham goal and Mclean should have done better after Boyd picked him out in pace in the box but the striker could only fire straight at Ward in the Wrexham goal.

Peterborough clearly upped their game in the second half and after a quiet opening Wrexham finally tested Lewis after fifteen minutes when a flowing Wrexham move created space for Simon Spender inside of the area but he shot straight at Lewis when a cross would have been the better option.

Despite the much improved performance from Peterborough after the break, Gavin Ward was never at full stretch but it did take a good headed clearance from Phil Bolland to prevent Mackail-Smith reaching a through ball.

The resulting corner came to nothing and Mclean had clearly left his hooting boots at home when he fired high and wide on the volley after the ball dropped to him on the edge of the area.

Both sides made changes midway through the second half with Michael Proctor replacing the hardworking Stuart Nicholson and two minutes later Peterborough were forced into another change after keeper Lewis left the pitch following the clash with Steve Evans.

The whole incident just upped the volume from the home crowd and the Peterborough players responded for their only real spell of pressure in the game.

Neil Roberts was lucky to escape without a booking for a foul minutes later but his reprieve was short lived as he ended up in the book for persistent infringement as the game got stretched in the final ten minutes of normal time.

Gavin Ward was finally forced into making saves as he took two attempts to gather a rasping shot from Boyd and Steve Evans almost sparked uproar in the home stands when he turned on a lose ball in the area to volley narrowly over the bar.

Wrexham wound down the clock with the introduction of Jeff Whitely for the superb Sonner and later Rob Duffy replaced Drewe Broughton.

Due to the double injury to Lewis there were seven minutes of injury time to be played with the only incident to note was a disallowed goal for Mackail-Smith after Morgan was penalised for a push, but the final whistle signified a fifth game unbeaten for an improving Wrexham side.

Match Reaction
Brian Little: "I think that was a point gained, for while they had probably the better of the clear cut chances, not that there were many, I thought we acquitted ourselves well. There were a few scary moments, but overall I thought we were very competitive, in another top versus bottom situation for us. So I was pleased. I thought the system which we have adopted in the last week or two, stifled them, which was important. Generally, we felt comfortable, although there were moments, but you are going to get that against a team like them. A good side that gets the ball down quickly, and plays very well." [Source: Wrexham FC]