MICK’S BARMY FOR HIS ARMY
Afourth successive win saw Tranmere Rovers briefly ascend the summit of the National League, and manager Micky Mellon believes the race for automatic promotion will be nip and tuck to the very last day of the campaign.
The Rovers boss said: “There’s no better place to be, but we know it’s going to go right to the wire, we are prepared for that and we just keep trying to move forward.
“We’ve done great to get into this situation and we have to enjoy it as much as we can. Momentum is all about winning games and we have to keep doing that.
“Today we have done what we had to, and we now move on to another tough game on Tuesday.”
Roared on by more than 1,200 travelling supporters, Rovers were a class above the hapless Dragons, who failed to muster a single shot on target and were probably helped by a rain-soaked pitch that nullified Tranmere’s passing game.
Praising the club’s fans, Mellon said: “The atmosphere they created today was topdrawer, they were magnificent and they roared us on when we needed them.
“It was frustrating the number of times we broke on Wrexham and the pitch took the momentum away and stopped the ball. It never quite went through, but we defended fantastic today.
“It takes different things to win games of football and we did enough in the end to get the result.”
For all their superiority during the game, Rovers needed an own-goal from defender Olly Marx to claim the three points, the teenager deflecting Lee Vaughan’s offtarget effort into his own net after 10 minutes.
Vaughan went close again shortly afterwards – home keeper Chris Dunn stretching to parry another fierce effort, and former Racecourse favourite Jay Harris also tested the Wrexham keeper before seeing his goalbound header cleared off the line by Marx.
Wrexham were out early after the break to be soaked by a heavy shower, a hint perhaps of some harsh words in the dressing room – and there was a spell when for the first time the visitors were pushed back into their own half.
But the goalmouth action stayed at the other end, Dunn being forced into another fine save after James Norwood made space inside the box, and the keeper also denied Liam Ridehalgh before substitute Izale McLeod spurned a rare opportunity four minutes from time to give Wrexham a share of the spoils.
Dragons boss Dean Keates did his best to strike a positive tone, saying: “It was a better performance than last week and we showed a lot of passion and desire.
“We pushed them right back in the second half and had a good go.
“We maybe didn’t ask enough questions of their defence, but we were getting balls in the right areas without making their keeper work.
“But even with our halfchances we weren’t getting anywhere near, so over the next five games that is something that is going to need to be addressed.”