Part 67: Chapter the Eighth: The unstoppable force.
Chapter the Eighth: The unstoppable force.February 1, 2018-March 11, 2018
We're on a heck of a streak right now. We're unbeaten in our last twelve league matches, and that's catapulted us to second place. We did have two draws to close out January, the important thing is to not have a late slump that forces us into the promotion playoffs.
Still lookin' good.
Hey, I was backing you up! Us managers have to stick together against the
At Stevenage, February 3, 2018
League One
We can beat the bottom team on the table, right? This is a match between the hottest team in League One and the coldest, we're unbeaten for thirteen games now and Stevenage hasn't won in fourteen. All evidence augers for a big victory for our dragons.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Todd, Lewis, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Peters, Curran, Harper, Rainey, Gorman, Price.
Our Dragons like quick goals. Once again it's Mateo Mujkic with a goal in the opening minutes, this specimen coming just 70 seconds into the game. We continue to press our advantage in the pouring rain, and Harrison earns a penalty when he's hacked down in front of the goal. Mujkic scores from the spot, and we're up two-nil. We continue to earn opportunities, but can't score for a third time, while our defense stifles Stevenage and holds them to just one shot through 70 minutes. They attempt to atone for their terrible play late in the second half, but it's too little, too late, and we walk away with a well earned victory.
Man of the Match: Meteor Mujkic.
Stevenage 0-2 Wrexham
Actually, if we beat Sunderland we're clear at the top of the table by a point. If we'd had gotten the draw we deserved when we played them last fall, and hadn't gotten screwed with our pants on by the ref, we'd currently be atop the table on goal differential.
And Harrison gets even more dangerous. He's got a limited skillset, but he's brilliant at what he does.
Thanks to our strong run of play since November we've seldom gone a week without at least one player earning team of the week honors. This time it's Mujkic. He's at 11 goals and 8 assists in 24 league games, and is in a dogfight with Bailey and Harrison to be considered our player of the year.
Yes, let the hate flow through you.
vs. Sunderland, February 10, 2018
League One
We win this game, and we're a point ahead of Sunderland in the league. We lose, and we're four points down. Let's not lose.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Todd, Lewis, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Peters, Poole, Harper, Gorman, Rainey, Price.
We have our chances, and fail to convert them. William Harrison and Michael Coulson are our biggest goats, missing easy chances. Our defense plays very well and holds Sunderland to just four shots, only one of which is on target. In the end we draw. It's not a horrible result but disappointing given how much better a team we were today. It also means that we don't pick up precious points on the Black Cats in our best chance to hurt them while helping us.
Wrexham 0-0 Sunderland
How are we not expected to challenge for the title? We're two points off with fifteen games to play.
We haven't lost a match since we crashed out of the JPT to Rochdale on December 13th. We haven't lost a league match since losing to Bournemouth on November 18th. We've drawn three of our last four matches, though, against the 1st, 5th, and 19th placed teams.
You're a backup. Knock it off.
Someone's not getting their contract renewed.
Unacceptable.
If it happens again, I'm cutting you from the squad.
There's a decent chance he leaves this next transfer window, he's been more insistent about leaving since Tottenham made their offer.
It's that time again. Can we sweep the season series with Tackleford?
I also pointed out that despite their massive wages, Phillips still hasn't delivered anything since the guys I brought into their team were replaced by his signings.
At Tackleford City, February 17, 2018
League One
It's always fun to watch your rivals struggle. Tackleford's got a -5 goal differential and are in 16th place. Ed Phillips is finally coming under fire for underachieving. Let's go rub some salt into those wounds.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense
Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Lewis, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Peters, Curran, Harper, Price, Rainey, Coulson.
Tackleford scores a goal in the 16th minute and beats us around for most of the game. William Harrison shows why he's not in the running for my favorite Dragon by missing several chances to pull us level, and I'm forced to pull him for Coulson. That saves the match for us, Coulson scores six minutes after being subbed on, but it still ends in a draw where we passed up multiple opportunities to win. It's far better than losing, and it must gall the Tackleford fans that they can't beat us on their home turf, but it doesn't help our position in the league.
Tackleford 1-1 Wrexham
We've played on worse, there's just no excuse for our failure to win that match.
Nope. You signed that contract, you can live with it.
vs. Swindon, February 24, 2018
League One
We haven't lost the last few games, but we certainly haven't been playing well. It's time to get back to the form that made us promotion favorites. Swindon is featuring Luke Reid, hopefully he's in one of his regular slumps and allows us several goals.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Lewis, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Rainey, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Harper, Price, Gorman, Coulson.
Mark Holland gets hammered a dozen minutes in, his day is done. William Harrison opens scoring when he finds the net for the first time in several games in 18th minute. We can't knock in a companion to Harrison's goal, but we do limit Swindon to a single shot after 45 minutes. It's not a bad start to the game, but my desire for more goals is sated when we get a double salvo from Rainey and Mujkic to put us up three-nil before ten minutes pass in the second half. Our captain Simpson takes a knock, and we're in trouble if both he and Holland miss significant time, but other than a consolation goal we see the match out and win handily. Luke Reid puts forth his most Luke Reid performance, and earns a 6.0 rating. We're now one point back of Sunderland, and six up on Bournemouth.
Man of the Match: Billy “the Kid” Harrison.
Wrexham 3-1 Swindon
Not the worst injury, and Simpson's only out for a handful of days with a dead leg. That could have been much worse.
I don't think you guys would be that satisfied if I crashed out of the promotion playoffs at this point.
Good to see Bailey get back into the Team of the Week, our “slump” coincided with him being unspectacular, his average rating is all the way down to 7.35.
He's not had a good season, but I still appreciate the boost he gave us in getting promoted last year.
At Rotherham, March 3, 2018
League One
A battle between the teams at the penultimate ends of the table. Rotherham has the home field advantage, but we should be keeping pace with Sunderland and taking all three points here.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Peters, Todd, Poole, Smissen, Harper, Shirra, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison (c).
Subs: Taylor, Tench, Lewis, Simpson, Price, Rainey, Coulson.
Justin Bailey puts us on top with his fifth goal of the season. Shortly thereafter Billy the Kid has a miss that leaves him shamefaced. Rotherham embarrass themselves on an opportunity to equalize, and when it comes back around to Harrison he does not miss. Bailey is back to being a boss, and we're back to dominating the games we're supposed to.
Man of the Match: Justin Bailey
Rotherham 0-2 Wrexham
We were playing in New York City?! Oh... wait.
We're unstoppable! Sure we're not winning games a ton of games, but we're not losing any.
vs. Burton Albion, March 10, 2018
League One
One more win keeps us undefeated for two updates in a row! Burton's a decent team, but if we play well we should once again win.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack.
Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Lewis, Poole, Thomas, Harper, Simpson (c), Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Shirra, Price, Rainey, Gorman.
Burton has two great chances out of the gate, but Tench gets the and Harrison makes them pay on the break. Instead of being down, we're ahead. Poor Daniel Thomas has been glued to the bench most of the season, and in his first start in months he goes down injured in 35th minute. The Brewers equalize in the 65th minute, and I bring Price and Shirra on. We have gobs of chances at the end of the game, but none of them result in a goal, and we've got yet another draw to show for our poor finishing.
Wrexham 1-1 Burton
Poor Thomas. He finally gets into a game again and gets knocked out for most of the rest of the season.
We went undefeated again, so I can't complain that much. Still, I really hope we're not missing those points when the season ends. I don't think we will. We might not win the league title, but we're six points up on third with 11 games to go. Before we reach the end of the season, though, it's youth intake time. I've got a 1.7 million pound transfer kitty, and I'm looking for the very best talent in the British Isles to come to our club. We're down to just six real prospects in our youth team right now, and I'm going to fix that problem.
