Wrexham’s perfect home record rolls on after Hayden’s towering header
Wrexham 1, Maidenhead United 0 Maidenhead United were unable to disrupt Wrexham's perfect home record this season as a first half header from Aaron Hayden sent them to a narrow defeat. United travelled to the Racecourse Ground hoping to continue their impressive run of results against the Dragons in the National League, having taken four points off them last season.
Although they displayed the resilience and defensive grit of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Bromley, they weren’t able to muster too many dangerous
moments – or any attempts on Wrexham’s goal.
The home side took the lead on the half hour when Hayden's thumping header from a corner beat the otherwise excellent Alexis Andre Jnr in the Magpies' goal. It was the central defender's eight goal of the season and his fifth in as many games.
That sent the home side on the way to a ninth straight win at the Racecourse Ground and helped them narrow the gap to leaders Notts County to just a point. In truth, Wrexham probably should have won the game more handsomely.
The Magpies survived an incredible goalmouth scramble with Andre Jnr somehow managing to hook the ball off the goal line with his trailing leg, while Hayden may well have added to his tally in the second half when he was foiled by Andre Jnr and saw his follow up attempt deflected over the bar by an alert Sam Barratt.
Despite their relatively healthy league position (16th and six points off the bottom four) scoring goals has been an issue for Maidenhead all season, especially away from home and they once again struggled to carve out clear chances against one of the league's meanest defences.
Wrexham passed up an excellent chance to make it 2-0 seven minutes from time when the home side were awarded a penalty, however, with Andre Jnr playing mind games in the Maidenhead goal, striker Paul Mullin blasted his spot kick well wide. United's ninth defeat of the season sees them slip back a place to 16th in the table ahead of their next league game at Yeovil Town on Tuesday. Before that they'll host Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday for a place in the FA Cup second round.