Stockport County 2

Anthony Elding 29' Dominic Blizzard 65'

Wrexham 1

Marc Williams 26'

Saturday 22 September 2007

 

Kick Off @ 15:00

Wrexham
Starting XI:
01 Anthony Williams
02 Simon Spender
05 Steve Evans
06 Richard Hope
25 Neil Taylor 63'
23 Michael Carvill
08 Danny Williams
17 Mark Jones
16 Silvio Spann 46'
20 Matty Done 69'
21 Marc Williams
Substitutes:
04 Shaun Pejic 63'
09 Neil Roberts
12 Matt Crowell 46'
13 Michael Jones (GK)
30 Juan Ugarte 69'
Stats:
7 Shots on Goal
2 Shots on Target
5 Shots off Target
49% Possession
10 Fouls Conceded
6 Corners
2 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Stockport County
Starting XI:
26 Conrad Logan
32 James Smith
05 Gareth Owen
06 Ashley Williams
19 Paul Tierney
31 Adam Proudlock 75'
04 Jason Taylor
30 Dominic Blizzard
11 Adam Griffin 90'
09 Anthony Elding
10 Matty McNeil
Substitutes:
07 David Poole 75'
08 Gary Dicker
18 Greg Tansley
21 Tommy Rowe 90'
22 Zac Jones (GK)
Stats:
9 Shots on Goal
4 Shots on Target
5 Shots off Target
51% Possession
8 Fouls Conceded
5 Corners
0 Yellow Cards
0 Red Cards

Match Notes
Venue: Edgeley Park
Attendance: 5,513
Half Time: Stockport 1 Wrexham 1
Referee: Colin Webster

Match Incidents
26' Marc Williams (Wrexham)
29' Anthony Elding (Stockport)
65' Dominic Blizzard (Stockport)
67' Mark Jones (Wrexham)
83' Richard Hope (Wrexham)

Match Reports

Wrexham Dragons Podcast

BBC: Stockport 2-1 Wrexham

Stockport County FC: County 2 Wrexham 1

TEAMtalk: Blizzard goal hands Hatters win

Wales on Sunday: Wrexham hit rock bottom

Wrexham FC: Stockport County 2 Wrexham 1

Wrexham MAD: Stockport County 2 Wrexham 1

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

League Two Table
    PLD GD PTS
1 Darlington 7 8 14
2 Hereford 7 7 14
3 Chesterfield 7 6 14
4 Shrewsbury 7 5 14
5 Milton Keynes Dons 7 8 13
6 Chester 7 4 11
7 Brentford 7 0 11
8 Wycombe 7 0 11
9 Peterborough 7 2 10
10 Rotherham 7 1 10
11 Stockport 7 0 10
12 Bradford 7 -1 10
13 Barnet 7 0 9
14 Morecambe 7 -1 9
15 Accrington Stanley 7 -4 9
16 Macclesfield 7 0 8
17 Notts County 7 -2 8
18 Grimsby 7 -3 7
19 Rochdale 6 -3 6
20 Lincoln City 7 -5 6
21 Dag & Red 7 -5 6
22 Bury 7 -5 5
23 Mansfield 7 -6 4
24 Wrexham 6 -6 3

Next Five Games

Sat 29 Sep: Lincoln (h) 15:00

Tue 02 Oct: Chesterfield (h) 17:45

Fri 05 Oct: Accrington (a) 19:45

Sat 13 Oct: Macclesfield (a) 15:00

Sat 20 Oct: Barnet (h) 15:00

Match Report
Wrexham remain bottom of the Football League following our fifth defeat of the season but we did end a goal drought that had passed seven hours when Marc Williams headed us into a first half lead.

This joy was short lived as more defensive mistakes let Stockport back into the game within three minutes and the Hatters collected all three points when we failed to deal with a second half corner.

It was difficult to see how both teams were going to score with chances at a premium in a poor quality game that was contested by two poor teams.

There was little between the sides and the only difference at the final whistle was that Stockport punished us for our two mistakes where as we could only take advantage of bad goalkeeping for our opening goal.

Injuries and suspensions restricted Brian Carey’s options and it was left back and up front the problem area as teenager Neil Taylor made his debut at left back but there were changes in formation as well as personnel ahead of him.

Wrexham reverted to one man up front and rather surprisingly Marc Williams was picked to play this role with club captain, Neil Roberts, sitting on the bench. Mark Jones and Danny Williams returned to midfield alongside Silvio Spann with Michael Carvill and Matty Done on the flanks.

There was an early warning for Wrexham when County skipper, Anthony Elding, was given a free header inside of the area but he somehow missed the target from close range.

Our goal when it came was not against the run of play but it was a surprise when Marc Williams had got to Neil Taylor’s hopeful ball forward to beat Stockport keeper, Conrad Logan, and Williams headed into the empty net from the edge of the area after Logan had rashly rushed from his line.

This was a gift of a goal from the Stockport keeper and was the confidence boost our team needed but we did not have to repay the compliment as the home side equalised three minutes later when a simple long ball down the middle opened up the Wrexham defence.

Matty McNeil managed to flick the ball into the path of strike partner, Anthony Elding, and he was given the time to measure his volley from twenty yards that gave Anthony Williams no chance in the Wrexham goal

Elding should have doubled his tally moments later but he miscued from close range after being picked out by Tierney at the back post.

The first half ended with a player on each side on the ground injured but Silvio Spann failed to recover during the fifteen minute break and was replaced with Matt Crowell at the start of the second half.

Both of Wrexham wingers struggled to get past their man but this was largely down to a lack of supply as Wrexham’s midfield struggled to exert any control on the game.

When Carvill did receive the ball out wide, he supplied a superb cross that Logan misjudged but Marc Williams failed to hit the target.

Wrexham continued their encouraging start to the half with Marc Williams working hard on his own up front and it was his effort alone that created our only other shot on target.

Williams chased what looked a lost cause into the corner but managed to recover the ball before it went out of play. He then went on the outside of Stockport defender and into the box but he this time Logan managed to parry his shot away and a lack of a second striker meant there was no Wrexham player on hand for the rebound.

Teenager Neil Taylor did not look out of place at left back but his debut was cut short after an hour when he suffered cramp and had to be replaced by Shaun Pejic.

With both sides not struggling to create any chances, it was Stockport who scored what proved to be the winner twenty minutes into the second half.

Poor defending was again Wrexham’s problem as we allowed Stockport two unchallenged headers from Tierney’s right wing corner and Blizzard converted with the second of these at the back post.

This forced Brian Carey into making his final substitution of the afternoon but Matty Done was not pleased by being taken off and booted the ball into the stand before being replaced by Juan Ugarte.

Ugarte went to join Marc Williams up front but Wrexham lacked any balance to the side with no natural left footer on the team and the Spaniard, who scored a hat trick in his last visit to Edgeley Park, rarely got a touch in the twenty minutes he was on the pitch.

His only contribution was to lay the ball back for Crowell from a cross by Marc Williams but Crowell’s twenty yard shot carried just over the bar.

Our only other chance fell to Steve Evans after the ball dropped to him from a corner but his attempted left foot shot curled narrowly wide of the bar post.

The final chance fell to County when Elding was picked out unmarked in the box by Griffin but the number nine was unable to keep his header down and the ball sailed harmlessly over the bar.

Although the performance was again improved, we have to start winning games against sides that were not much better than us. Otherwise, we could be in for another long hard season.

Match Reaction
Brian Carey: ""While this was a good display, I'm passed talking about performances. This is a results business and we have lost again - it's as simple as that! We can hide away from the facts and talk about incidents during the game - but we have lost again. At least we took the lead, but then we gave it away all too easily very quickly afterwards. We were under a bit a pressure early on, but you would expect that coming here and playing a decent side. But you can't give away goals as we did, and the first one was particularly annoying - we have to do better." [Source: Wrexham FC]

Jim Gannon: "We knew we had a performance in us and we knew we just needed a few things to click. The league table looks a lot healthier now and I know it's early days but we're only four points off the top. This was a big, big win for us." [Source: Stockport County FC]