KEATES HAS DRAGONS BREATHING NEW FIRE
WREXHAM came from behind to notch a vital three points in Saturday’s televised Racecourse encounter with Eastleigh.
The Dragons trailed at the break but delivered a fine second half performance that earned the praise of their manager Dean Keates.
Admitting that the first half was something a damp squib, he said: “We needed to be brighter and sharper and when we did create opportunities, no-one wanted to take a shot and decided instead to go for the pass.
“In the second half the players showed a bit of character and proved they are a good team. In the first half the urgency and the tempo just wasn’t there, but they were on the front foot after the break.”
The early pressure came from the visitors with Ben Williamson bringing a fine save at the expense of a corner from Luke Coddington after only four minutes before Craig McAllister fired wide from a promising position.
But when the home side hit back through Paul Rutherford his cross was met by Marcus Kelly, whose low drive rebounded off the foot of a post with keeper Ross Flitney beaten.
Unfortunately much of the remainder of the first half was a litany of hefty, mindless clearances, poor passing and mediocrity in abundance and things took a turn for the worse when the visitors somehow manged to break the deadlock a minute before the break, Williamson converting Gary McSheffrey’s low cross at the near post. Wrexham’s revival owed much to the introduction of substitute Jack Mackreth on 57 minutes – the tricky winger almost immediately setting up Scott Boden for a shot that was deflected behind for a corner. The equaliser came in the 73rd minute thanks to skipper Shaun Pearson, who headed home Marcus Kelly’s corner to register his first goal of the campaign. Better was to come as the Dragons pressed again and Chris Holroyd typified the new –found spirit with a fine challenge to win the ball before driving a deflected shot past Flitney and into the net. Spitfires’ boss Richard Hill was not happy with the outcome, saying: “We were not good enough in the second half, it’s as simple as that. “We knew Wrexham would come at us after the break and we didn’t do our jobs.”