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WREXHAM are in a mini slump following their second defeat of the week – and the fans are not happy!
A chorus of boos greeting the final whistle at the Racecourse yesterday where Stockport County moved into the top six with victory, courtesy of firsthalf goals from Ash Palmer and Sam Minihan.
And County boss Jim Gannon was delighted to get the result at one of his favourite grounds.
“Wrexham’s home form has been tremendous,” he said. “I love coming here, Wrexham are a fantastic club with a great tradition and I really want to see them back in the league – along with us.
“We worked extremely hard and took our goals well, but we needed them because they threw everything at us in the second half to try and get back into the game.”
Without a win in three matches, the Dragons could have done with a morale-boosting performance in front of another excellent crowd of 5,777, but despite enjoying more than their fair share of the play, they found themselves 2-0 down at the interval.
A schoolboy error by Christian Dibble gifted the visitors an opening goal on 19 minutes, the keeper allowing Palmer’s close-range header to slip through his hands, and County’s second six minutes before the break was equally calamitous.
Again Palmer was involved and when his header from Sam Walker’s free kick was parried by Dibble the ball pinged around in the six-yard box for what seemed ages until Minihan made a firm connection to score through a crowd of players.
In between, Wrexham made most of the running
but were unable to capitalise. Skipper Shaun Pearson twice headed wide from corners and County keeper Ben Hinchliffe produced an excellent save to turn Luke Summerfield’s effort onto a post.
There was more frustration for the Dragons on 53 minutes when Bobby Grant’s fierce effort proved too good for the keeper, only to be kept out by Jordan Keane’s goal-line clearance.
Indeed the long-suffering home fans had to wait until five minutes from the end to cheer what proved nothing more than a consolation – Leighton McIntosh beating Hinchliffe to a through ball and steering it from an acute angle into an empty net.
It was, as Dragons’ boss Bryan Hughes acknowledged, too little too late. “We did enough to have won the game and the players are devastated,” he said. “It just gives us more determination to turn it around. We want to be successful so it’s difficult to take.”