Don’t rule us out of promotion picture, says Dragons’ star
LUKE Young was steadfast in his summation of Wrexham’s credentials to lift the National League crown as he stated: “We are far from out of the title race”.
Wrexham bounced back from successive defeats with a 1-0 win last weekend at home against relegation candidates Maidstone United; Ben Tollitt scoring the only goal in the final game of his loan spell from Tranmere.
Heading into today’s clash at Hartlepool United (3pm), Wrexham sit third in the National League standings, just one point behind leaders Leyton Orient and Solihull Moors, but having played more games.
“After the disappointment of the Orient game and then the defeat on the Tuesday which was a bit of a kick in the teeth, it was just a case of picking ourselves up on Saturday against Maidstone and trying to come away with the three points, however we went about it,” said Young.
“It was nice to get over the line with a 1-0 win, a clean sheet and we’ve put the rot of Tuesday behind us and we are back on the winning track.
“We showed quality at times and the bit of quality to open them up for the goal was something that we’ve got in the team and throughout the whole squad.
“We know that we can keep them out at the other end with bodies on the line and Rob (Lainton) in goal making saves.”
Wrexham dropped off the top of the table following their 1-0 loss at Orient nearly a fortnight ago, a result made even worse following their dismal midweek defeat at home against Barrow.
The Dragons closed the gap to Orient, who were playing the first leg of their FA Trophy semifinal last weekend and will complete their tie this Saturday, to a solitary point following the win over the Stones, albeit having now played two games more.
That will increase following today’s clash as Orient play their Trophy second leg, and Young acknowledged the importance of getting points on the board rather than having games in hand.
He added: “We knew how important a win was going to be and it keeps us in the mix, it keeps us right where we need to be.
“Everyone will be looking at the table and everyone else’s results at this stage of the season, you’d be silly if you didn’t.
“Teams around us have games in hand but they have to win them games, so you’d rather have the points on the board than the games in hand.
“We can’t worry about what other teams do, we know they’ve got games in hand, we know the teams around us play each other too, so that plays into our hands a little bit because they both can’t gain on us, they both can’t win.
“I will take seven 1-0 wins like Saturday (against Maidstone) from now to the end of the season and see where it takes us. Hopefully you never know, it might be good enough to win the league.
“We are not out of the title race, we are far from out of the title race, because there is only a point in it. Yeah they have got games in hand but they’ve still got to win them to stay clear of us.
“We have just got to concentrate on what we do and as long as we keep winning games, the other teams have got to try to win to catch us, that is all we can do. We’ve just got to worry about ourselves and see where it takes us.”