ANGLE OF WREXHAM
Why, it seems like we were playing cup tie at the Stok Cae Ras only yesterday, and now we’re back!
Given how closely the results of Sunday’s victory over Yeovil and this Bristol Street Motors Trophy encounter are related, Phil Parkinson will undoubtedly stick to his strategy of rotating his team throughout the competition. He changed his starting lineup for the last two group stage games eleven times (we changed it for the match against Newcastle United U21 by just nine changes!). Parkinson may need to rearrange his starting lineup due to Aaron Hayden’s early injury. James Jones filled in for Hayden for 75 minutes, thus the manager may need to change the midfield trio he had in mind.
Although the team chosen for this match is probably very different from one who won the FA Cup on Sunday handily against Yeovil Town, it will have helped allay some of the squad’s frustrations following their midweek loss of a 2-0 lead at Harrogate.
THE CONTRARYING OPINION
The Brewers got last Saturday off to prepare for this game after losing to Port Vale in an FA Cup first-round replay. Manager Dino Maamria has pledged not to rotate his team because Burton has to win again.
The best way to characterise Albion’s form is as streaky. Their current campaign can be broken down into three extremely extreme segments: they lost six of their first eight games and drew two; they then remarkably turned around, winning six and drawing two; they have only played one game since, in the Britol Street Motors Trophy, losing six and drawing two!
The Brewers are currently in 17th place, 4 points ahead of the relegation zone thanks to their October winning streak. Their statistics show that they are generally in poor form, with a few outstanding outliers. While they haven’t scored in 13 of their 25 games, they have four goals against Bristol Rovers, who are chasing the playoffs. At Port Vale, they also scored three.
The unfortunate 2-0 home loss to promotion-chasing Portsmouth was Albion’s most recent match. They gave it their all until Pompey took the lead through a penalty kick in the 37th minute. They then had a great start to the second half, but it was cut short as they fell behind 2-0 eighteen minutes in. Despite receiving a second yellow card, Steve Seddon is eligible to play in this match since the Bristol Street Motors Trophy has its own set of rules on discipline.
According to Maamria’s club website, “We were severely hit with the outcome.” We controlled the game for 37 minutes, asking them questions and forcing their keeper to make an incredible save from Kwadwo Baah. However, we made a mistake and awarded them a penalty.
That altered the course of the match, and it is extremely challenging to give a side like Portsmouth an advantage.
Then, we parked in their half to start the second half on the attack, but we were unable to score, and they scored on a breakaway. When you give these teams goals, as we have done tonight, it’s game over. However, I can’t hold it against the performance—it was outstanding.
We accidentally shot ourselves in the foot twice, which is the tale of the evening. That was one of those evenings when we failed, but not for lack of trying. We weren’t clinical enough in the latter third, but we needed a goal. They did a good job of defending their goal, but we need to have probed their goalie more.
Burton-on-Having two teams in the Football League in the 1890s, Trent was a prominent location on the map of football in its early years. Being a long-standing club, Wrexham came up against a few of its clubs at the beginning of the 1900s when they played Burton Swifts in the Combination League and Burton All Saints in the FA Cup. All we have against Albion, though, is a single National League season and a 1970s cup tie.
One of our most famous cup runs in history began with our first match. The incredible journey to the FA Cup quarterfinals in the 1977–1978 season started with a home match against Albion, who were three divisions below us in the Southern League Division One at the time of the first round. The Sports Argus was shockingly dismissive of Albion’s chances, stating that “the best they can hope for is a big crowd to boost their share of the cash receipts” against such powerful competition, even though we were leading the Third Division.
Burton proved to be a formidable opponent, putting up a strong fight, but in the 33rd minute, Bobby Shinton converted a penalty awarded to Graham Whittle. Four minutes later, Dixie McNeil completed the scoring, starting his incredible run of scoring in every round of the competition.
Assistant manager Sutton praised his squad, saying to the Sunday Mercury, “They made it very tough going for us.” Albion keeper Barry Alcock produced a number of outstanding saves. We were happy to win in the end even though we were not permitted to play our typical game.”
Our next meetings with The Brewers occurred during our inaugural National League season in 2008–09. Shaun Harrad, a future Red Dragon, scored the game’s only goal to give The Brewers a 1-0 victory in September at the Stok Cae Ras. Albion was leading the table going into the return match, but if we could win the games we had left, Wrexham would still have a chance to challenge for the championship. It was a crucial, high-stakes encounter.
With 14 games remaining, we could cut the deficit to 7 points if we could steal victory at Pirelli Stadium and win our three additional games. The Brewers had a commanding 19-point advantage over Histon, who was in second place. However, Wrexham was riding high after winning three of their last four games.
The striking return of Andrew Crofts, who was on loan with the Wales team, added to the optimism. Halfway through the first half, Jeff Louis opened the score wonderfully with his 14th goal of the season, making his debut at Burton even more exhilarating. But Martin Butler, who had entered the game as a halftime substitution, tied the score with a crisp finish in the 57th minute, and Lee Morris scored the winning goal with 11 minutes remaining before getting sent off for a reckless challenge on Ashley Westwood.
While Wrexham collapsed horribly, winning just one of our following twelve games, Albion went on to win the championship. With our collapse to finish in 10th position, the Burton loss would be the first of 11 losses in our previous 20 games.
