NO MOOR TO GIVE AS DRAGONS DELVE DEEP

Happy Christmas for water-tight Wrexham

WREXHAM notched up a second successive festive victory against a promotion rival to move within a point of National League frontrunners Leyton Orient.

The only goal of a rugged clash came early in the second half courtesy of a close-range finish by Paul Rutherford before the Dragons were subjected to a late onslaught by in-form Solihull.

And Racecourse boss Graham Barrow was full of praise for the defensive prowess of his players.

“Everyone knew what to expect today,” the new Dragons boss said. “It was great to win 5-1 the other day [against Salford] but Solihull are a team that don’t go away and while their style is not particularly my cup of tea they are good at it.

took a lot of concentration and energy to get the three points and our team is built on the strength at the back as we saw today. The defence gives us the platform to go on and win the game and that’s what we did.”

The first chance fell to Moors after only three minutes, Darren Carter firing the rebound over the bar after his freekick was blocked, but the home side really should have gone ahead in the 11th minute through Akil Wright, who steered free header wide from eight yards following good work down the left by James Jennings. Thereafter, though, Wrexham were kept at arm’s length by the visitors’ no-frills approach and both Nathan Blissett and Carter might have punished the Dragons in an absorbing contest of contrasting styles. It needed a goalline clearance in first-half added time by Jennings to prevent Carter from breaking the deadlock, but the Wrexham defender then made an even more decisive con“It

tribution four minutes into the second period with a low cross from the byline that Rutherford turned past Moors ’keeper Ryan Boot for the opening goal.

The reverse spurred on the visitors to even greater effort and Wrexham’s much-vaunted defence was severely stretched at times, but they dug in and rode their luck in the 75th minute when Alex Gudger headed wide of a gaping goal.

The Moors centre-back had another excellent chance minutes later, but his drive flew wide of the far post, and substitute Matt Stenson’s effort also failed to test home keeper Rob Lainton as the clock ran down on five added minutes.

Bemoaning those missed opportunities, Solihull manager Tim Flowers said: “On another day we have six or seven chances and we score five but that’s the way it goes.

“I thought we were terrific and I was delighted with the performance. We’re a bit unfortunate to be going away with nothing.

“They didn’t throw a lot at us apart from the first 20 minutes but I wasn’t unduly flustered and in the second half I thought we completely bossed it.

“After their goal the game was played in their half but we didn’t convert our chances.”