Wrexham 1 Woking 2

A game in which too many small factors turned against Wrexham; you can cope with that sometimes, but Woking were too well drilled not to capitalise on their marginal gains.

The flow of events against Wrexham went from a borderline disallowed equaliser (above), which was beyond their control, to a badly-mistimed Andy Bishop header in injury time which certainly wasn’t. Then there was a big call by Kevin Wilkin, opting to drop Mark Carrington and bring in Ross White. Carrington has looked a little exposed by the 4-2-3-1 system, although not as much as Neil Ashton on the other flank, but his axing was a surprise. White did admirably and certainly appears to have a future, but young lads make errors and twice in the second half he was left exposed to the pacey and experienced Dean Morgan and beaten. The first time a dangerous driven cross was well cleared under the bar;the second led to the winning goal as a powerful shot went through Dan Bachmann.

Perhaps the major factor against Wrexham was the canny approach of Garry Hill in the Woking dug out though. Despite taking the lead through a magnificent Scott Rendell strike, Woking were outplayed in the first half hour as The Dragons enjoyed their customary fast start.Hill’s response was a switch from three at the back to a 4-4-2 which nullified our domination of midfield and allowed the wide men to take advantage of the space behind Wes York and Connor Jennings.

Still,Wrexham ought to have capitalised on their strong first half further than the fine Louis Moult strike which sent them in level at the break. The second half was a different proposition. Woking held us comfortably at bay and hit us dangerously at pace going forwards. It was a clear illustration of why we need to tighten up at the back:at the moment we’re essentially conceding two a game, so there’s great pressure on our exciting forward line to score and paper the cracks. When they have a half like this where they can’t get things going, which is inevitably going to happen in the course of a season, we’re relying on the defence to earn us some reward, which is not a percentage gamble.

Wrexham (4-2-3-1): Bachmann; White (Carrington 83), Smith, Hudson, Ashton; Clarke, Evans; Jennings, Durrell (Bailey-Jones 76), York (Bishop 76); Moult. UNUSED SUBS: Coughlin, Stephens, .

Woking (3-4-1-2): Howe; Clarke, Ricketts,, McNerney; Newton (Lewis 35), Murtagh (Jones 78), Payne, Arthur; Morgan; Sole (Goddard 84), Rendell. UNUSED SUBS: Little,Cestor.

Referee: Ian Hussin

Attendance: 3,154 Away: 68

Wrexham Player Man of the Match: Robbie Evans

Miscelleneous: Neil Ashton’s one hundred and fiftieth Wrexham appearance; Louis Moult’s hundredth league appearance.

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