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Match Report |
The curse of Darren Drysdale struck again as
nine-man Wrexham went out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at the first
round stage following a controversial second half penalty awarded by the
referee.
By this stage, Wrexham had already lost three players to injury and our
woes were further compounded with red cards to Chris Llewellyn and
Michael Proctor but the overall performance was a marked improvement on
our last two games.
Wrexham had the chances to have won this game twice over but our main
problem so far this season reoccurred as we failed to test Jonny Brain
in the Macclesfield goal on enough occasions.
Brian Carey made changes to the starting line up with Simon Spender
sitting out in defence as Mike Williams came in at left back and Ryan
Valentine switched to the right.
Matty Done was the only midfielder to survive from the weekend with
Silvio Spann and Matt Crowell starting in the middle and Michael Carvill
playing on the right.
There was a new strike force of Chris Llewellyn and Eifion Williams up
front and both players had early chances as Wrexham made a positive
start to what turned out to be an incident packed game.
It was Matty Done who supplied the eventual cross for Llewellyn's chance
and moments later, Eifion Williams turned his man on the edge of the
area and he drew the first save from Brain with a well struck shot.
Michael Carvill impressed throughout and he was assisted when
Macclesfield’s full back, James Jennings, picked up the first booking of
the game after only six minutes for a late foul on the Wrexham winger.
Macclesfield went close when they had a header that shaved the far post
from a free kick but Wrexham responded when Michael Carvill saw his
testing cross strike the far post but the linesman had flagged a Wrexham
player offside in the middle.
Wrexham continued to enjoy the better chances in the game and the
Macclesfield defence were having to throw themselves at the ball to
block long range shots.
The visitors were not helping themselves when they gifted the ball to
Matty Done but his pass was slightly over hit and Llewellyn saw his hot
blocked by Brain who had rushed off his line to narrow down the angle.
Macclesfield’s two best chances came when they forced their way in down
the left channel but Anthony Williams was quickly off his line on both
occasions and Michael Husbands ended in the book for diving for the
second chance after Williams saved at the feet of the Macclesfield
striker.
Wrexham were then forced into making a change after Mike Williams had
failed to recover from an earlier injury and he was replaced by Shaun
Pejic who went to right back with Valentine switching flanks.
This position was now becoming a jinx as Valentine was to leave the
field within six minutes after a Macclesfield player had skipped past
him down the left with Marc Williams coming on as his replacement.
There was some confusion on what formation Wrexham were playing for the
remaining minutes of the first half and it looked as if we switched to
3-5-2 with Marc Williams playing in midfield.
There was still one chance left for Wrexham on the stroke of half time
but Macclesfield managed to clear from their line after Carvill did well
to cross from the right.
There were no changes at half time but Marc Williams swapped positions
with Chris Llewellyn as Wrexham made another encouraging start to the
half but Brain, along with Anthony Williams in the Wrexham goal,
remained under worked.
Wrexham were forced into their final change of the game when Eifion
Williams limped off to be replaced by Michael Proctor but we almost fell
behind following a comical incident just after the hour mark.
Wrexham cleared a Macclesfield corner well and an opposition player
miscued a lift back over his head and fired the ball against the head of
a team mate.
The ball broke kindly for Macclesfield and Anthony Williams was forced
to claim the ball diving backwards following a scramble in the Wrexham
box.
Matty Done again impressed with his approach play down the left and for
once almost delivered an end product when his shot rebounded down off
the cross bar but referee Drysdale waived play on as Michael Proctor
appeared to be impeded as he went for the loose ball. The ball did end
at the feet of Chris Llewellyn but his shot landed on the roof of the
Kop!
Macclesfield then forced a free kick on the left with Silvio Spann
ending up in the book for kicking the ball away and after Anthony
Williams turned the ball behind for a corner, the clown of a referee
awarded a penalty when Marc Williams was adjudged to have handled the
ball despite the Macclesfield player climbing all over him
Michael Husbands made no mistake from the spot midway through the second
half, despatching low down the middle after Williams had dived to his
left.
Wrexham still had it all to go for but were not helped when Chris
Llewellyn joined the Wrexham fans in abusing the referee after he was
booked for a foul and it was no real surprise he was sent off for foul
and abusive language.
Wrexham continued to press and at some points you could not tell we were
a man down and Spann went close to opening his account with a rasping
twenty five yard drive which was deflected behind for a corner.
Another good run and cross from Carvill almost brought about the
equaliser but Michael Proctor could not convert the teasing ball in from
the right but Macclesfield fired a warning shot when Simon Wiles curled
a free kick narrowly over the near post.
A delightful turn by Marc Williams should have resulted in the equaliser
for Wrexham but he fired across the face of goal and the same player
went close soon after with a left footed shot that just dipped over the
bar.
Wrexham had another header cleared off the line and Drysalde then turned
down Proctor’s second appeal for a penalty despite an obvious shirt pull
when he went for Done’s cross, but Proctor’s night got worse when he was
the second Wrexham player to be shown red in injury time.
The ball had already gone dead when he landed on top of Jennings with
his foot but the incident appeared to be accidental rather than
malicious, but Drysdale was having none of it and infuriated the home
crowd to boiling point by sending off Proctor for stamping, which was
the last act of an action packed game. |
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Match Reaction |
| Brian Carey: "I think that at this stage it
was very difficult to sum that match up. The really disappointing thing
though is that we have lost the game. I think that everybody that was
here tonight, and everyone that witnessed it, would agree that it was a
great improvement in the performance and would have been pleased with
the amount of chances we created. We should have won the game in the
first twenty minutes when we had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper on
numerous occasions. I just think that he, the referee, kind of lost the
run of the game. I think that from one instance at one end where Matty
Done hit the crossbar, we are shouting for a penalty, and they go to the
other end and from a very, very innocuous challenge they get one. His
performance tonight is all that we will be talking about and he has cost
us." [Source:
Wrexham FC - click here for more] |
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