DRAGONS HITTING ALL NEW HEIGHTS
KEEP it to yourself but Wrexham have never made such a good start in Non-League over the first ten games.
Captain Shaun Pearson’s powerful header secured the win to take the Welsh side to second in the National League table.
It puts them onto 21 points, surpassing the previous best ten-match yardstick of 20 they chalked up back in 2011-12 – a season they finished second on 98 points to a Jamie Vardypowered Fleetwood Town.
Red Dragons fans probably thought they’d be well shot of this level of football by now.
But their opening to the season – their tenth outside the Football League making them the National League’s longestserving club – under new boss Sam Ricketts at least gives them reason to, whisper it, hope.
“Started okay, there’s plenty I want to work on and plenty I want to get better at,” Ricketts said when asked to self-assess his own start at Wrexham.
“I can’t fault the players’ efforts and, listen, I’m not going to hide behind anything; I’m delighted with the start. We’ve averaged just over two points a game which is an unbelievable start but we have to get better.
“We have to keep moving on and, as I’ve said many times, it matters where we are in April, not now.”
Pearson’s goal, his first of the season, came on 67 minutes and brought some much needed life to a game that had failed to spark. If you were trying to be clever the firsthalf could be described as intriguing. Drab would be a better assessment, although there was the odd chance. Wrexham keeper Rob Lainton, who had twice needed treatment for challenges Ricketts felt were “naughty” but received no punishment from the officials, got down well to keep out Justin Amaluzar. At the other end, Jordan Maguire-Drew got on the end of a Luke Summerfield free-
kick but Iron keeper Ben Killip snaffled up the squared-ball before comfortably holding Stuart Beavon’s dipping volley.
Bradley Quinton’s Braintree are yet to win a game this season following their promotion through the National League South play-offs. Nor have they been hammered, perhaps showing the fine margins at Step 1 and at times they made Wrexham defend well.
Maguire-Drew tried to catch Killip off his line from distance early in the second half but it wasn’t until Ricketts introduced Rekeil Pyke and Paul Rutherford to “add more pace and power” from the bench that Wrexham really began to push.
Quinton can’t fault his young side’s effort but he acknowledged the corner that led to the goal came from their own doing as they overplayed.
Summerfield whipped the ball in and Pearson arrived on cue to crash home with his head to send the travelling support, including his own young daughter, wild.
“If you’re going to be successful you need to win games like this,” Ricketts added. “We certainly weren’t head and shoulders better in the game. It came down to a set-piece. If you look at teams who are successful they will win games by a set-piece when you haven’t played well. Not saying we haven’t but we didn’t play how I wanted.”
For Braintree, who saw Mo Bettamer blaze wide soon after the goal, it’s a sharp learning curve.
“You’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror,” Quinton said. “The players are making errors that are costing a point or three points.
“It’s a cruel world, the opposition are organised, they get a set piece and they come alive. That’s where we get punished.”