Part 32: Chapter the Second: Mammalian dive reflex.

Chapter the Second: Mammalian dive reflex.
August 1, 2015- September 1, 2015

We pick up right at the start of the season, an away trip to play Plymouth Argyle.



It took me a moment to realize what the weather symbol was. I hadn't seen it before now.



Now that we're in League Two, we can finally pick seven bench players per game. This is so much better than the non-League divisions, having five players makes it very difficult to cover all your bases in case of injuries. You end up picking subs based on how many positions they can handle, not how good they are.

At Plymouth, August 1, 2015
League Two


We play decently in the first half, but are let down again by our finishing. After several minutes of battering at Plymouth's door they come back at us and score the first goal of the match when Stuart Martin fails to mark his man. Plymouth continues to take the game to us after the break, and finally score again in the 65th minute when Martin watches a cross go right by him and to the waiting striker. I send Daniel Thomas in to try to give us an offensive spark and to try and salvage a result, but minutes after he enters the game Harrison, who had come on previously due to an injury to Bah, goes down and has to be taken out. We're out of substitutions, and down to 10 men. It's time to park the bus and wait out the rest of the match.

Top Ratings:
Stuart Simpson, 6.8
Daniel Clarke, 6.8

Plymouth 2-0 Wrexham



Senior signs with Blackburn Rovers, and our short lived goalkeeper glut is ended.



Huh. I'd have expected a boost considering that we won promotion. We actually made 90,000 pounds more from season tickets compared to last season, I guess we hiked the prices.



Finally. They're paying half his salary, so we're essentially giving them £40,000 to take him off our hands.



Y'all crazy. Sheffield is likely to play a squad with several youth players in it, but they're still well up the football pyramid from us, just one step shy of the Premiership. Their players all grade out to at least 4.5 stars when compared with ours, our best player is only 4 stars.




Our third choice centerback agrees to sign with us, but as he's out with a long term injury (torn calf muscle, out for 2 to 5 more weeks) your ingame dopplegangers nix the deal.

vs. Sheffield Wednesday, August 4, 2015
Capital One Cup, Round One


It doesn't take long for us to go behind, but it's not because we made a mistake. A Sheffield Wednesday player drove the ball into the top left corner from a million miles away, and there was nothing we could do about it. We actually have the better of the game from thereon and finally pull level in the 69th minute when Bah finds some space to take a header. The upset is not to be, though, as Sheffield Wednesday scores again in the 83rd minute. Still, playing a Championship side this well is a good sign for our team, and I tell the players that they should recognize what they accomplished.

Top Ratings:
Ibrahima Bah, 7.1
Stuart Simpson, 7.0

Wrexham 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday



When you're newly promoted and expected to be the 3rd worst of the 92 team draw you probably shouldn't get your heart set on advancing very far.



Holtham is now our 3rd right back option and our 5th centerback option. If he were to stay here he'd never get playing time. So I'll see what I can do for him.



And now we don't have a replacement for Tierney, at least until Evans is healthy enough to pass muster with the board. Still, four centerbacks is enough to get by.



Bon voyage.

vs. AFC Wimbledon
League Two


We're at home, we're favored, and I want a win. Out comes the 4-2-3-1. It works very well in the first half, we pile on several chances and with our fullbacks playing carefully Wimbledon can only muster one lonely shot on target. Things go further our way when their left back goes in hard on Aiden Cooper in the 44th minute and draws a red card, putting us up a man. I tell the boys that the game is there for the taking, and urge them on. We still can't break through despite several closes misses, and in the 60th minute I put on Raymond Wright to help push our offensive advantage. We're not the ones to score, though, as Wimbledon puts one in off of a poorly cleared corner. I'm fulminating on the sideline, and am only mildly appeased when Harrison equalizes late in the game. We had no business only getting a draw from this match, and it's simply unacceptable to drop these points when we might need every one to stay up this year.

Top Ratings:
Stuart Simpson, 7.3
William Harrison 7.3
Matthew Poole 7.3

Wrexham 1-1 AFC Wimbledon



Still shopping for a centerback, and again the contract offer leaks. Argh.

At Scunthorpe, August 15, 2015
League Two


This game was pretty exciting. Scunthorpe played a lot of long passes and were wasteful with their possession, so despite our defensive posture we ended up having the ball half the time. Scunthorpe took the lead in the first half, and Ibrahima Bah continued his poor start by missing an easy shot. We equalized on a goal that should have been called offsides, as Harrison was a good step beyond the last defender when the ball was passed to him on the edge of the six yard box in the 72nd minute. We managed to hold out after that, and the scoreline reflects the statistics, it was a dead even game away against a side picked to finish in the top 10. These are the types of results we need to get if we're to avoid relegation.

Man of the Match: Femi Don-Duncan

Top Ratings:
Femi Don-Duncan, 7.3
Stuart Simpson: 7.1

Scunthorpe 1-1 Wrexham





That's it, I'm upping my offer to him. No more getting bigfooted.



Bumping up the salary by 400/wk got him to sign immediately.

Luke Reid
Centerback


I hope this makes it clear that you shouldn't trust me when I say I'm done bringing in players. In the press conference introducing him a reporter pointed out that this is our 23rd signing of the window. Reid is definitely our best centerback, and despite being 30 years old is still exceptionally fast. I signed him to a three year contract because his speed can drop many points before it becomes an issue, and because he's now the second best player on the team after Al-Beloushi. He, Martin, and Poole will be our primary centerbacks, with phenom Chris Todd as the fourth man.



This was my first interaction with him after he signed with us. Tutoring is very useful, when it works very well it gives a boost to the student's technical and mental stats, and even when it doesn't pan out the student will usually at least get some increases in mental stats from it. It's also the only way for players to learn certain preferred moves (e.g. “likes to arrive late in the area,” where the player has a knack for flying into the penalty area at just the right time, making him much harder to mark and increasing his chance at a good goal scoring opportunity), and those tend to be the most effective preferred moves. Of course, the tutor can also impart bad preferred moves, such as “argues with the refs,” so you should check on those before assigning tutors.



Aww, Todd's as giddy as a schoolboy. Which I guess he still is, since he's 16.

vs. Southend, August 22, 2015
League Two


Ibrahima Bah gets off to a hot start, scoring before the second minute has elapsed. In the seventh minute Southend centerback William McGavin, who you might recall I tried to sign for us earlier this chapter, gets a yellow card. His second. We're a man up with over 80 minutes to play. That doesn't help us in the 10th minute, when Al-Beloushi and Underwood combine to give the ball to Southend with no one nearby, and Southend gets a shorthanded goal thanks to their idiocy. We control the match, which is no surprise since we're playing 11 vs. 10, but despite some pretty passing can't get any good opportunities.

In the 34th minute the Southend right winger makes an absolutely amazing run that leaves his marker skinned and left for dead, launches a perfect cross to his waiting teammate, and we've now given up two goals despite a man advantage. Southend adds another, and I think this is the most grating loss I've ever had. The game ticker stated that the “Wrexham fans have had enough, and are heading for the exits. Who could blame them.” Al-Beloushi, the guy I said was going to win us games on his own, has a 5.7 rating and cost us at the very least a draw with his repeated mistakes. Reid, the guy who I said was our second best player after Al-Beloushi, finished his debut being subbed off after earning a 6.1 rating. We were a goddamned man up with a goal already scored at 8 minutes in, and we lost 3-1 despite having 61% possession.



I scream at the players for a good half an hour after the game; I don't care if it's not helping their morale. They need to fear me more than they fear defeat. If support and love won't get results, my rage will.

Top Ratings:
Aidan Cooper, 7.5
Ibrahima Bah, 7.0

Wrexham 1-3 Southend



Our first team has 26 players, and I prefer to have a couple less than that. I put the players we're least likely to use, McGuinness and Hopkins, up for transfer or loan. There's only a week left in the transfer window so I'm unsure if there will be any interest before it closes, but it's worth a shot. I feel bad about Hopkins, he provided a spark every time he came on last season but he's absolutely buried on the depth chart, he's our 4th option at striker and somewhere around 7th at midfield. McGuinness has been made surplus to requirements by the arrival of Kadhim, the institution of the 4-2-3-1, and the fact that Simpson is going to be playing in every game where his starting condition is above 90%.




All these sponsorships are eventually going to add up to something. A small something, covering the cost of our youth setup or a backup player, but something.

At Northampton, August 29, 2015
League Two


We do a good job through the first 25 minutes playing disciplined football. It pays off when Bah bisects the defense on a long ball and finds Cooper with a perfect ball into the box to put us up 1-0. Northampton answer immediately to bring the match to one-all. We have the better of the remaining time before break, but can't make anything of it. The second half is much similar, we give Northampton nothing to take advantage of, and at the end of the game we've gained another point away from the Racecourse Grounds.

Top Ratings:
Stuart Martin, 7.4
Aidan Cooper, 7.3
Daniel Thomas 7.0

Northampton 1-1 Wrexham



We really should have two wins, two draws, and a loss right now. That would put us in the top half of the table. We don't, because we've drawn and lost games where we had a man advantage. It's going to take some time for the new players to gel with the team, so things should get better over time. Until then, though, I'm hoping we can keep our head above water.