Day 182

With today’s match just two days after the victory against Barrow, I was forced to make changes. Robson, Kanouté, and Park came in at the back, with Nutter dropping to the bench and Bore and Gowling rested. Woods looked tired but was kept in an unchanged midfield. I rested Koroma, with Laurent starting alongside Barnes-Homer in attack. New boy Ben May took his place on the bench.

Wrexham are a strong team, so I told the team to defend in numbers and attack quickly. We’re usually good on the break and defensively suspect against quality opposition. I thought this approach would be a nice balance between our usual open and free-flowing attacking play and the need to be tighter at the back.

Shuker went down injured on the eight-minute mark. He didn’t get back up, and had to be stretchered off the pitch. Trying to put my worries aside about the extent of the injury, I told Laurent to drop back to the midfield and substituted Ben May in to the attack for his debut appearance.

May got right into the thick of things, laying off passes and headers for Barnes-Homer and Woods. He looked comfortable out there, and a one-two with Laurent led to his first chance. The striker rose well to meet Laurent’s cross, but he couldn’t keep the header on target.

The first clear-cut chance of the game went to Wrexham in the 25th minute. Putnins could only parry a powerful long-range shot, and Wrexham striker Andy Morrell should have scored the rebound. Putnins did well to save both that and a chance from the resultant corner. Less than a third of the way through the match, Wrexham had already given us more trouble than any other team in the past several matches.

In the 29th minute they made us feel it. Morrell flicked Ryan Blake’s corner across the face of the goal, and Mark Creighton climbed above Kanouté to head past Putnins. One-nil behind for the first time in a while, I hoped my players would react well.

Barnes-Homer should have converted Olembé’s cross three minutes later for an equaliser, but he snatched at the chance. At the other end, Marques cleared off the line and Kanouté threw his body in front of the ball to prevent Wrexham’s second.

Neither of them could do anything to stop Morrell on 40 minutes. The Wrexham striker turned with the ball on the edge of the box and hit a thunderous drive into the top corner, doubling his team’s lead.

Disaster struck on the brink of half-time when my star player Salomon Olembé had to come off injured. He landed awkwardly after a tackle from Daniel Alfei. Wrexham weren’t taking any prisoners, and now my two best players had left the field with injuries. We looked powerless to get anything from the game.

Needing to try something drastic, I switched to a three-man defence for the second half. Paul Robson came off for Alan Power, who slotted in alongside Woods in central midfield. Richardson got defensive midfield duties, with Laurent and Russell manning the wings. If we were going to lose, we’d lose in style and we’d lose attacking.

The players responded immediately. Laurent crossed from deep in the 49th minute to Barnes-Homer, who was loitering with intent around the penalty spot. The striker powered his header past Maxwell for our lifeline back into the game.

Desperation and a little luck were all that stood between us and a spirit-shattering two-goal deficit for the following 20 minutes. Wrexham repeatedly went close, and looked certain to score on two separate occasions, but somehow we held on.

Kanouté hurt himself in a challenge on 87 minutes and had to come off, leaving my exhausted players to fight for a last-minute equaliser with ten men.

Of course it was too great a task. Wrexham held out for the 2-1 win. Credit goes to player/manager and former Coventry star Andy Morrell for a big game right when it mattered. He was the difference between the two sides, and without Olembé and Shuker to pull the strings we simply had no answer to him.

Our unbeaten away run finally ended, we worried more about the health of the team and the impact this draining defeat would have on their morale. Mansfield were held to a draw, so we’re still top of the league, but our position is now in jeopardy.

The physio reported that Kanouté is fine but Shuker will be out for six to seven weeks with a groin strain and Olembé will sit the next two weeks on the sidelines. The good news is that our next match is not until the 14th, which is nearly two weeks from now, and it’s only an FA Trophy tie with York.

Olembé could potentially return just in time for the league game that follows four days later against Newport County. Shuker’s likely to miss at least eight games. I’ll have to consider bringing someone in on loan to replace him, although Russell and Laurent could both possibly handle the job.