Part 35: Chapter the Fourth: From the bottom up.

Chapter the Fourth: From the bottom up.
October 18, 2015-November 25, 2015

Part of the problem with a last place team is that you're in last place because no one on your team is performing well.




We have just six players averaging above a 6.7, and none above Simpson at 6.76. Our players have also been erratic, those with decent ratings over their last five games have them because of one strong game surrounded by middling showings. It makes it very hard to put together a team of in-form players when no one is actually playing well. Especially disappointing is Luke Reid, who based upon his stats should easily be our best defender. Instead, he's been awful. Nasser Al-Beloushi has also been mediocre, a real disappointment considering my hopes that he could keep us from conceding on his own. But they're merely the tip of the iceberg. Every player has disappointed, from new additions like Matthew Ashton to players who were excellent last year like Ibrahima Bah. It could be that they'll just take longer to gel, but my coaches are reporting that no one is sticking out like a sore thumb trying to blend with their teammates.



One thing we certainly need to do is improve our offense. With only ten goals we're last in the league, three back from the second to last team and sixteen behind the league leaders. Part of that has been our inability to score from corners, something we were doing regularly last season. I change up our strategy slightly. I've noticed quite often that our centerbacks are getting the ball at their feet when they attack the near post and often failing to take a good first touch or get off a decent shot when they're not heading the ball. I move the striker to that position, as they'll still be decent at heading the ball while being able to take better shots when they get the ball on the ground. The centerback moves to the near post flick-on position, and the offensive-minded midfielder rotates over to attack the far post.



I've also noticed that the goals we've given up on corners are from our failure to mark a player as he charges into the six yard box. I've taken our defensive midfielder and changed his task to mark the six yard box to counter those intrusions, rather than his man-marking responsibilities previously.



When we're using this tactic we've been able to get a decent amount of control but fail to take many shots. I modify it a bit, dropping the high line and removing the instruction for the wingers to cross the ball from the byline. Hopefully it'll result in more shots. It's not going to be used until we play a team that's demonstrably worse than us on our own turf, which could be a while.



Wrexham's newest restaurant is a Taco Bell, apparently.

vs. Bristol Rovers, October 20, 2015
League Two


The pregame blurb said that Bristol has been in a run of bad form, but they're still 11th in the league. I don't know how bad a slump they can be in if they're just a few points from the promotion playoffs.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Underwood, Reid, Poole, Don-Duncan, Kadhim, Simpson, Clarke, Toms, Cooper, Bah.
Subs: Higgs, Thomas, Todd, McGuinness, O'Hanlon, Price, Harrison.

Our tweaked corner tactic pays off within minutes, as Poole gets his head on the ball and sends it into the net near the very start of the game. It's defensive counterpart coughs up the lead in the 36th minute, however, on Bristol's own corner. Bah's poor form continues, he misses an open net from range and then can't take a shot when the ball falls before him from another corner late in the second half. We get a point, and move up to 22nd place.



Wrexham 1-1 Bristol Rovers



If he can't improve by January, he's gone.

vs. Colchester, October 24, 2015
League Two


Our pitch condition is still good, but we're underdogs against 12th placed Colchester.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Underwood, Poole, Todd, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Cooper, Bah.
Subs: Higgs, Don-Duncan, Reid, McGuinness, Clarke, Watts, Harrison.

The first goal comes in the 16th minute, when Bah makes a perfect cross to a late arriving Cooper on a counter attack. Just minutes later, however, Bah is forced off with an injury. He hasn't been great this year, but losing him for an extended period could really hurt us. Our 4-5-1 is built to let the opposition take low percentage shots, and Colchester plays into our game. They have twice as many shots as we do, yet we have four chances to their one. We win the game, but it's frustrating to see us still failing to convert on our chances.



Wrexham 1-0 Colchester



Our offensive problems are now going to be even worse. I hope Harrison can really up his game, and I'm very glad I added Coulson, who can handle the striker role in a pinch.



The bad news continues with our FA Cup draw, instead of some regional league pushover we're up against a League One side. Not a very good League One side, but we've proven a not very good League Two side so far.



Down to an OK pitch. Only Poor and Very Poor to go before we're at Terrible again. I've got everyone's votes on record, first up is Rizzen on November 24th.

vs. Accrington Stanley, October 31, 2015
League Two


Accrington Stanley is currently in third place. We've come all the way up to 19th. It's a mismatch, but crazier things have happened. We just need the luck to bounce our way.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Underwood, Martin, Poole, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Cooper, Harrison.
Subs: Higgs, Thomas, Todd, McGuinness, Clarke, Tom, Baker.

This team doesn't do much right, but one good thing the players have gotten into the habit of is scoring early. That's certainly true in this game, where Coulson pounces on a rebound from a free kick in the 3rd minute to give us the lead. It seems like when this happens we play well until about 20 minutes are left in the game, and then give up the equalizer, and then sometimes give up another to lose the game. This time we change our fortunes, when Bailey takes a throw in and hits a delightful shot across the goal into the top right corner of the net from outside of the area.

We don't keep our 2-0 lead for long, as Accrington responds with a well earned goal after patiently working the ball into the box in the 29th minute. The first half's excitement isn't over until we score an astonishing third goal on a free kick cross by Bailey that Martin hammers home. We go into halftime up 3-1, and while the rest of the game is strongly in Accrington's favor they're unable to score two goals. For once we're not the side that wastes a ton of chances. We beat the third placed team in the league, and earned seven points from our last three games. Justin Bailey is to be especially commended, not only did he assist on two of the goals but he scored the third on a great shot of his own.

Man of the Match: Justin Bailey



Wrexham 3-2 Accrington



I'm irritated at Norwich for refusing our friendly offer earlier this year, but glad to have the extra 33,000 quid.

vs. Stevenage, November 7, 2015
FA Cup, First Round


We're slight favorites against a Stevenage team in poor form. Even so, we're going to need some luck to reach the next round of the FA Cup. I very much want to avoid a draw today to prevent fixture congestion in the latter half of the month and avoid needing to win away at Stevenage to advance.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Underwood, Martin, Poole, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Cooper, Harrison.
Subs: Higgs, Thomas, Todd, McGuinness, Clarke, Azille-Moore, Baker.

The game sees some good back and forth soccer at the start, with both sides pressuring the other in the first ten minutes. Stevenage is limited to shots from long range, but Al-Beloushi is required to make a couple saves, while Harrison just misses the net on a cross from the byline by Coulson. Our testudo-esque defense makes sure that Stevenage can't get close all game, and despite letting them get off a score of shots they only create two real chances. We have the advantage in that respect, but Harrison fails to make them count, missing on the previously mentioned header and then failing to beat the keeper one on one in the waning minutes. We earn a draw, in large part thanks to stout defensive work by Poole and Martin, but that only means that we now have to beat Stevenage in their house, and will be playing two games a week until December.

Man of the Match: Matthew Poole



Wrexham 0-0 Stevenage



The match does make us a good bit of money, while we have to split the total with Stevenage we're a good £60,000 in the black on the match day.



If we manage to top Stevenage in the replay we get to face minnows Gateshead for the second round. We're very likely to win that, we beat them twice last year by a combined score of 3-0.



The media and fan pressure on Harrison is building now that he's our primary striker while Bah is out. We need to have faith, the kid is just 19 and has so much more to show us.



Luckily, he's got strong self-belief, I think he'll be fine.



My coaches want me to put the boot to his ass, but I have a different idea.



At his age what he needs to know is that I'm behind him, and willing to take the heat from the media and fans so he can focus on his football.



Kadhim, Al-Beloushi, Todd, and Harrison are all with their international squads right now. Harrison scores for Northern Ireland's U21 team, which hopefully presages a run of goal scoring when he gets back to the club. Kadhim and Al-Beloushi are also in fine form for their national sides. This means, of course, that four of our first team players won't be available for the next week or more while they play internationally.



Coventry looks like it's in horrible shape. Not only is their field in terrible shape, but there's barely 900 fans in the stands on a rainy but relatively warm day.

At Coventry, November 14, 2015
League Two


Coventry has fallen a very long way from the Premier League side they were at the turn of the millennium. They spent over 30 years in the top division until 2001, and today their stadium is empty and their fans discouraged.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Underwood, Martin, Poole, Ashton, Simpson, Clarke, Bailey, Azille-Moore, Cooper, Coulson.
Subs: Hanley, Don-Duncan, Reid, McGuinness, O'Hanlon, Price, Baker.

Our squad, weakened by international team callups, goes behind one minute and eight seconds into the match off of a poorly defended corner. We get battered for nearly the entire first half, giving up multiple chances, and in the 28th minute Daniel Clarke is called for a penalty on one of Coventry's eight corners. Coventry's midfielder Adam Khan converts, and while I explode at the team to show me some sign of life in my halftime speech, I privately have no hope that we can fight our way back into the match.

They prove me wrong. Coventry continues to hammer away at our defense, but we hold them off. In the 52nd minute Coulson scores our first goal of the match on a corner of our own. Coulson continues his superb game on a brilliant counter-attacking run, pulling the entire Coventry defense to him before a sublime pass to a late arriving Justin Bailey. We're tied at two with ten minutes left to play, and we're going to take a point from a match that we have no business getting a result from. Or that would have been the case had Coventry not scored the winner two minutes into stoppage time on a defensive lapse. I'm disappointed, naturally, but given how poorly we played overall we did not deserve a point from this match.



Coventry 3-2 Wrexham



Higgs joins the casualty ward with exceptionally poor timing. Al-Beloushi is on international duty right now, and our emergency goalie is an absolutely worthless youth squad player who I wouldn't trust to keep a clean sheet at a Klan rally. Higgs is going to get injections to get through the next match, the FA Cup replay at Stevenage. Al-Beloushi should return after that and give Higgs a chance to heal up.

At Stevenage, November 18, 2015
FA Cup, First Round Replay


If I was playing a defensive strategy at home against this opponent, I'm straight up parking the bus this time around. We're going to need some serious luck to come out with a victory. Harrison has just returned from his time with the Northern Ireland U21 squad, but Al-Beloushi, Todd, and Kadhim are all still in transit back to us.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Underwood, Reid, Martin, Ashton, Simpson, McGuinness, Bailey, Coulson, Cooper, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Thomas, Petit, Clarke, O'Hanlon, Azille-Moore, Price.

Our players are up for this game! Both sides create numerous opportunities upon the opening whistle, but we draw first blood when an on fire Harrison beats the keeper in the 29th minute to give us the lead. The first half is not flawless, Justin Bailey needs to be taken off after just 10 minutes due to a painful looking injury earned while fighting for the ball. After the mid-game encouragements we continue to press for a second goal and getting several good looks at the net, but it's Stevenage who scores in the 64th minute.

Stuart Martin is taken off ten minutes later after a poor game made worse by an injury he sustained in the first half, and while each team earns chances the game looks headed to extra time and a potential penalty kick shootout until 89 minutes and 56 seconds have elapsed. This time the late game heroics belong to our side, as Harrison makes a brilliant breakaway into a goal, putting us 2-1. He tweaks something, and has to come off, but he's put us ahead. It's a lead we don't squander. We're advancing to the second round of the FA Cup.

Man of the Match: William “Billy the Kid” Harrison



Stevenage 1-2 Wrexham





The butchers bill comes due from our last match. Martin avoids any missed time, but Higgs can't continue even with injections while Harrison is going to be out until mid-December and Bailey will be lucky to make it back by the start of the new year. An expensive victory, considering that Bah is already on the shelf and that Bailey has been one of our most consistent players since I took over the team.

At Bradford, November 21, 2015
League Two


Coming just three days after the Stevenage rematch and three days before the Tackleford match, and with several of our players injured, Bradford is not going to face our best lineup. I'm hoping that our defense can earn us a draw, but that's a big ask even against a slumping team like Bradford.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Martin, Don-Duncan, McGuinness, Clarke, O'Hanlon, Azille-Moore, Cooper, Coulson.
Subs: Taylor, Underwood, Todd, Simpson, Toms, Price, Hopkins

The game is played in a 35 degree Fahrenheit/2 degree Celsius hailstorm. Bradford still has a near capacity crowd of 9,500 fans braving the weather to wish us ill, but for the first half the weather inhibits play and while Bradford clearly has the better of it neither side can do much offensively. After halftime is a whole other story, the opposition comes out from their locker room and plays like a team possessed. They start by crunching Aidan Cooper after the whistle's peep.

It's all we can do to keep them off the scoreboard, and I'm praying to every deity I know of as well as a few that I'm pretty sure I'm creating whole cloth that we can hang on for a draw. As the game enters stoppage time, I breathe a sigh of relief that despite giving up nine total chances we're still going to earn a draw. The match is not fated to finish in a draw, though, as for the third game in a row late heroics send one team home unhappy. One of the Gods I was praying to clearly heard me, and invested Don-Duncan with their blessing and a perfect free kick from the edge of the area to put us ahead after 92 minutes. We pull off a shocking win, and are now 6 points up from the relegation zone.

Man of the Match: Femi Don-Duncan



Bradford 0-1 Wrexham



The first manager of the season gets sacked. I'm not amongst the favorites to be fired next, which gives me some comfort.



Cooper will only be out a week, but still joins the growing list of walking wounded at the team facilities.



The Tackleford match is fast approaching, and they're catching us when we're weak.



Hopkins uses this moment to interrupt my game-planning and ask for a transfer. As I had previously listed him, I grunt yes and get the Director of Football to handle it for me.



He should have asked for more money. Hopkins will be leaving when the transfer window opens in January.



I'm tempted to collect a whole bunch of ex-Tackleford players just to make the matches that much more intriguing.



This means war!

Press Conference
12:15pm November 23, 2015
The Racecourse Grounds


: Connor Watkin, WalesOnline. You're up against your old team today, you must be looking forward to that.

: (Assertively) Any chance to shove them in the mud after how they disrespected me is eagerly anticipated.

: You and Philips have locked horns memorably in the past year, how keen are you to get one over on him?

: (Imperiously) As keen as Pippa's fiancee is to lock that fine lady down. All of us at the club want to show Tackleford what a real manager can do, even without a billionaire's backing. That's especially true given what a petulant child Ed was after we showed him what was what last spring.

: Given your responses, it seems like Philips has gotten under your skin. Does that give him an advantage in the mind games before and during the match?

: (Dismissively) Of course not. It just means that our victory will be all the sweeter.


: Coach Brown, Tony Briggs for the Football League Paper. Tackleford is dominating the league so far. They're in first place and have 38 points from 14 matches. Do you really think you can beat them?

: (Cautiously) I think we have to acknowledge that it's difficult for any team at this level of professional football to match a squad that's flagrantly in excess of the financial fair play regulations. It's going to be tough for us to match all those mercenaries that Tackleford has brought in to fulfill the syphilitic dreams of the heir to the Cadbury fortune.


: You could make a real statement by going out there and attacking from the start, am I right?

: (Scoffingly) Yes, and I could also steal Prince William from Kates. We're going to grind out our result.

: Daniel Clarke is looking worn down by the recent fixture congestion, will he be in your lineup tomorrow?

: (Belichickesquely) We'll have to wait and see. Last question.

: How important has Scott Walters been to Tackleford this season?

: (Magnificently) Any League Two team would be better with him, but Tackleford has so many players that it would take a train crash to keep them from fielding a competitive side. Thanks, I'll see you all tomorrow afternoon.



The pitch is still in OK shape. Rizzen will not be winning the “guess when our pitch becomes a safety hazard” contest.



For some reason both the media and the betting public think we have a good chance in this match. I'm not sure why, though we have been on a pretty good run of form.

vs. Tackleford, November 24, 2015
League Two


We're in early days of our rivalry with Tackleford, but the games against them are already the games I care most about on the schedule. Our fans don't seem to feel the same way quite yet, only 3,200 came out to watch the game, but they'll get there over time.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Underwood, Reid, Todd, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Clarke, Azille-Moore, Price, Coulson.
Subs: Taylor, Don-Duncan, Martin, McGuinness, O'Hanlon, Watts, Baker.

It's a slow start to the game, and our defense does exactly what's intended for the first half. We get five shots off, the best of which comes from Coulson inside the six yard box, while Tackleford has seven. They're able to put themselves ahead on a floated cross that gets to the far post and a waiting Scott Walters, but it's the only chance we've allowed compared to the two that we've had. I tell the team to get out there and show what they're made of, and they react as intended.

The restart sees Callum Williams squeezing himself between two of our defenders to score on what wasn't even a half-chance. They make it three to nil on a free kick from well outside the penalty area, and despite having one measly half-chance are beating us soundly. We cannot forge our own chances despite multiple shots and some good attacking movement. We're going to lose this game through sheer bad luck, and I can accept even a 3-0 loss given that we've taken as many shots and created more chances than our opponents.

Then it all goes horribly wrong. Kadhim gives Tackleford a penalty in the 79th minute which Adam Johnson converts. 4-0. A throw in sees our defense forget their marking assignments less than two minutes later. 5-0. In the 87th minute Callum Williams hits a cross on the volley. 6-0. Tackleford goes from having a single half-chance at the 76th minute to earning four clear cut chances in less than fifteen minutes. We played well for over 75% of the game, regardless of what the scoreline said, and then came completely unglued in every way possible. It's a stunning and demoralizing loss, and the Tackleford fans are singing in jubilation as they exit the stadium.



Wrexham 0-6 Tackleford



What a depressing way to end an otherwise strong stretch for the team. We were hurt by injuries and too many matches in a short period of time, and Tackleford was lucky to score three goals on one half chance before that horrifying final ten minutes, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to get beaten so thoroughly. The good news is that we're up four spots on the league table and are likely to make the third round of the FA Cup. The team is coming together, and I've got a good idea of what the team strengths and weaknesses are now. With five more league matches before the new year I think we can move up to the mid-table and put more space between us and the risk of relegation.