Part 83: Chapter the Ninth: The Gauntlet, part 1

Chapter the Ninth: The Gauntlet, part 1.
March 18, 2019-April 18, 2019

The first part of this update will be sedate. Mostly just looking for more young players that might be willing to come to our little corner of paradise if I offer them a sheep as a signing bonus. The second part will be the first four of our final nine games, and they will come one after another with very little time in between.



No rest for the wicked. Or our scouts. I don't know how much overlap there is between those two groups.



The players who aren't tired are allowed to head off to their international matches.



You think Mujkic will be available to play for you, Australia?



Suffer the same pain you caused me, wretches! Suffer it a thousandfold!



I may be going a touch overboard. Holland and Spain still have their academy graduates to bring in.





A trio of Italians will be joining us. The bastard son of New York City mayor Bill De Blasio might be the best of them. At this rate we're going to be able to have our own Model EU, having signed players from Italy, France, and Austria to go with players from the UK.




These are the last two nations of note to bring in youth players during the spring, so after them I'll be finished. Until next September rolls around and the Scandinavian countries bring in their recruits.



Gorman gets named to the team but doesn't get into the game to earn his first cap.



Maybe things would have gone better if you'd had Mujkic, eh, Australia?



Coulson's got a cabinet full of these now.



Ok, that's the last new player. I promise. That makes eleven youth signings, from seven different nations, to go along with the three youth players from our own academy that are worth giving youth deals to. The total price was just under half a million pounds in transfer fees, and they'll earn a smidgen less than £5,000 a week in wages. A good bit of business, one sale in the future will turn us a profit and we've now got an incredible youth team that should be spinning off galaxies of talent for a half-decade.



I don't know how they're determining profit, maybe certain categories of expense are excluded from the calculation, but we're not in the black right now. I'd wager if we make the playoffs we'll still finish in the red despite the payday of playoff match-day income. Our current deficit arises from my dropping half a million on youth players, so I'm not too concerned about it.




Good on yer, Billy. Now go score a whole bunch for us in the league.



Great timing, Gareth. This puts him out for at least three games, possibly as many as five.

At Brentford, April 6, 2019
Championship


Brentford is similar to us. They're the 9th ranked defense while we're the 10th. They're the 2nd ranked offense, we're the 5th. Essentially, they're a better version of us, though they don't play the same bombs away, possession don't get ya points style that we do. They're in second place, and if we want to have any shot at automatic promotion we need to get at least a point. In their house. There will be goals.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Simpson (c), Bailey, Shirra, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Love, Peters, Vaillant, Holland, Tedesco, Coulson, Pym.

I realize in short order that attacking won't work, and after a quarter hour of being thrown back repeatedly I switch us to a counter attack. It doesn't help much, they keep us off balance and in precarious situations. We concede shortly before halftime when our attack leaves us out of position, and Brentford catches us on the break. The second half is, if anything, worse. I'm forced to pull the team all the way back in order to try and lure Brentford in, but our offense is doing nothing with the space created. We're only in the game because Higgs has made multiple spectacular saves, but with time running out the only thing I can do is try a last gasp offensive. In stoppage time we finally earn our third corner of the day. Mujkic's corner finds Scott Shirra, who plays hero with the dramatic goal, his first ever in competitive play. We walk away with a very, very lucky draw.

Man of the Match: Danny Higgs




Brentford 1-1 Wrexham




He didn't get vacation time thanks to being called up by Scotland's U21 team. We're deep enough at central mid that I can send him on a break now, but I'm going to see if we can get by on just regular rest.

At Wigan Athletic, April 9, 2019
Championship


I'd really appreciate it if the next few teams rolled over for us. Wigan isn't a bad club, but they're four points back of the promotion playoffs with six games left for them to play. They're not going to make it given how many teams are between them and sixth. So what's the difference between finishing 10th and 11th?

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Vaillant, Lewis, Poole, Garuti, Troelsen, Bailey, Djurovic, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison (c).
Subs: Love, Peters, Holland, Simpson, Tedesco, Gorman, Pym.

The Meteor comes crashing down on Wigan in the 8th minute on a lucky strike from a narrow angle and miles away from the goal. It's the only goal we score, as Wigan forces us to play defense for the latter half of the game. Still, Wigan can't get past our defense, and it's the third minute of extra time when they have a last gasp corner. We knock it out of play, and they get another corner. This one finds the head of a Wigan player, gets over the goal line, and we drop two points at the death. Now we know how Brentford feels.




Wigan 1-1 Wrexham



Our Ass Man is shaping up quite nicely. He's at 19/19 in Judge Ability and Judge Potential now.

vs. Wolverhampton Wanderers, April 13, 2019
Championship


This is an absolute must win. Wolverhampton have been dreadful and could get relegated. We're at home. We've got two games in hand on Brentford, and one on QPR. Two wins in those games would put us in the drivers seat for automatic promotion. This has to be one of them.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Simpson (c), Shirra, Tedesco, Gorman, Mujkic, Pym.
Subs: Love, Peters, Poole, Troelsen, Bailey, Coulson, Harrison.

This game was infuriating to watch. Pym is starting in place of Harrison, who needs a rest. The move doesn't pay off as I watch Pym miss three good chances in the first half alone, and it appears he's been cored of his confidence given how he plays to start the second. It forces me to pull him for Harrison, who was supposed to be resting this game. Harrison quickly sees a clear cut chance of his own, which he doesn't convert into a goal. Our defense holds Wolves mostly harmless, allowing only a couple real moments of worry, but this could easily have been a game where they scored on a fluke while we found every way to not score. The man of the match is the Wolves keeper, who deserved it after keeping our players from scoring when we had five clear cut chances. His heroic effort wasn't enough to keep us from winning, however. The only goal comes from a panicked clearance by a Wolves player that found net for us. I'll take it, but you'll excuse me if I give it some serious side-eye.




Wrexham 1-0 Wolves



I'm going to hope he heals quickly, the next game is only three days off and he wouldn't be starting that match anyways.

vs. West Ham United, April 16, 2019
Championship


Hello, West Ham. I see you want my spot in the promotion playoffs. Come and take it, if you dare. I mean, not from me, we're too far up the table. But from the team in sixth. Oh, and check out that little thing about us having mathematically avoided relegation. A bit late to notice that we're not in a relegation fight, media.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Peters, Vaillant, Poole, Garuti, Troelsen, Bailey, Djurovic, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison (c).
Subs: Love, Siegrist, Lewis, Holland, Tedesco, Gorman, Pym.

Harrison goes down in a crumpled heap in the third minute, hammered by an opposing centerback. The tackle should have drawn a straight red, instead the ref keeps the cards pocketed. Pym comes on, just three short days after his nightmare game against Wolves, and shows why good strikers have a short memory, scoring in the the 10th minute. West Ham ties it after halftime, though, and for the third time in four games the outcome is determined in stoppage time. We get nothing from the match when our players lose focus and don't see the game out to it's final second. It's a bitter loss, and one that deeply hurts our chances to avoid the playoff. The larger concern is Harrison's injury, however. I can only hope it's not serious.




Wrexham 1-2 West Ham



It turns out I shouldn't have been worried about Harrison. He's as right as rain. Bailey, on the other hand, is getting a course of painkillers for that groin strain. If we left him to the trainers he'd miss the rest of the season.



Our fate is out of our hands, at least when it comes to automatic promotion. We can't catch either Brentford or QPR anymore, but if we were to win out we could still take second if either of them dropped points. More likely we're going to be in the promotion playoffs, a huge achievement for this club. We're guaranteed Wrexham's best ever finish in league play, the highest the club has ever gotten before is a 15th place finish back in 1979. Next up are two games at home, against Chesterfield and Sheffield United, and then three more on the road at Birmingham, Burnley, and Sunderland. Sunderland are our only opponents in the playoff hunt, but we've shown we can lose to anyone this season. Taking anything for granted would be unwise.