DRAGONS ARE QUITE FOND OF DISPELLING A HOODOO
Boss Sam gets off to a flyer
WREXHAM fans are now very used to two things – playing National League football and not beating Dover.
However, Mike Fondop’s spectacular overhead kick on the half-hour mark put paid to the latter trend and sent 312 visiting fans back to North Wales believing that promotion just might be a realistic target this season
And it was also a great beginning to management for former Wales international Sam Ricketts, who took up the reins at the Racecourse Ground back in May.
“It was a perfect start in terms of the result,” revealed the new boss afterwards.
“I didn’t know we had never beaten Dover, so it was nice to put that one to bed in what was a really hard game.
“It was a really tough test but defensively, we were strong and resolute.”
Ricketts was also more than pleased with his summer signing’s match-winner, even if he didn’t necessarily believe that it was as acrobatic as Fondop claimed post-match.
“I’m not sure if it was high enough to be an overhead kick but that is what Mike is saying it was and it’s still a special goal that won us a game of football,” said the Wrexham manager.
“Ultimately, his job is to score but his game has probably improved a significant amount in the last six weeks since he's been with us.
“We gave everything physically but there are a lot of things to improve on and I don’t want to be scrapping for the last 20 minutes like we were this time.”
Earlier, Paul Rutherford was the first to try his luck, firing wide from the edge of the box.
And Jamie Allen went even closer moments later, striking the top of the crossbar from 20 yards with a dipping effort.
Dover’s Effiong had a great chance to level matters just after the break.
After being felled in the area, the burly striker could only watch in horror as reds stopper Rob Lainton guessed correctly, diving to his left to tip the ball around the post.
Livewire Allen could only send his diving header wide after the restart and Walker had to react smartly to stop Luke Summerfield’s swirling free-kick from heading straight in.
The home pressure continued and Kevin Lokko couldn’t quite convert after Lainton was unable hold on to Jack
Connors’ deep cross.
The away side almost doubled their lead late on through Shaun Pearson’s goalbound header from a corner but Nortei Nortey was on hand to clear away the danger.
And Lainton almost went from hero to zero in the dying moments when jumping for a routine high ball, only to collide with his own defender Pearson and gift possession to Allen, who fired in only to see his effort chalked off for a foul on the defender.
Dover boss Chris Kinnear felt his side were thoroughly unlucky not to snatch a share of the spoils on the day.
The Whites chief was also far from impressed with referee David Rock’s decision to disallow Allen’s second half goal.
“[I’m] very disappointed with the result but saying that, we missed a penalty and we scored what we thought was a perfectly good goal at the end,” he said.
“Their goalkeeper appeared to hit his own player but for some reason, the referee did not give it and other than the goal, our keeper never had a thing to do.
“I’ve seen lots of first games of the season over the years and you don’t win or lose the league now. We have got a lot of young lads to work with, which we have done before and we will do again.
“We have certainly got a lot to look forward to and hopefully, we can turn this team into a winning machine.”