Wrexham 1 - 1 Derby County

A well-earned and deserved point at a difficult place. The first half lacked incident and quality being notable only for poor, over-fussy refereeing. He gave us so little throughout and CM nothing.

Agyemang should have scored in the 10th second of the first half but he went on to be both frustrating and effective in equal measure. Again there was a lack of quality in possession and in my view Wrexham were there for the taking as they looked pretty ordinary. One player to stand out throughout was Sanderson - what a signing he is proving to be. Moore barely got a look-in. The change in formation did actually make us look more positive and proactive but landing on second balls proved elusive.

Ebou played well enough in typical fashion but was rightly substituted as a second yellow looked increasingly likely. Ozoh came on and made an immediate difference with his strength and effectiveness on the ball. He played a huge part in creating BBD's goal and what a goal! - contender for goal of the season.

Defensively we were excellent with Clarke and Fozzie doing really well but not quite as well as Sanderson. Choice of MOM difficult but I'm going for CM who was everywhere, winning headers, getting crosses in which he had no right to do and earning (or not) what should have been a penalty but of course the ref chickened out when it mattered. CM was constantly battered but the ref gave him nowt.

Basically most played well with just a few not quite at the races. Good enough for a point, however.

I share your frustration Chicago

Ladies rugby now!

Like he says.

Morris is a much better and flexible player than I expected. He is a lot more than just a target man. His movement around the pitch was very good today and he also filled in defensively when needed with good awareness and discipline

If anyone hasn't seen it


https://x.com/Goals360hub/status/1971923149529956576?t=R-MZcgg12rIcvomELlaR9A&s=19

https://x.com/dcfcofficial/status/1971971846183497921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1971971846183497921%7Ctwgr%5Ed601a99ea34688bdbca7b1b9229ef6ff9e3f9e2c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSmUvSh6oOQ

Looking back at the highlights, I do wonder if we’d have been better off starting with two solid CFs in Salvesen and Morris to really give Wrexham’s defence a proper kicking. And what about Lewis O’Brien — did anyone even lay a glove on him after that filthy tackle?

Maybe Ward instead of Weimann from the start to get some decent crosses into the box, then unleash Weimann or Clark and Agyemang’s pace second half to really stretch them.

It is probably time to sacrifice Adams vs the lower half (recently promoted sides) and go for something a little more attacking. Does Ozoh offer more if played alongside Travis or a CM pairing of Travis and Clark?

Clark is too lightweight to play as one of a pair. As soon as Ozoh came on he started demanding the ball at the base of the midfield. Adams covers really well but you can tell from his body language that he does not want the ball if under any kind of pressure. The opposition know it too. Travis and Ozoh seems ideal to me with this formation. I think Morris and the Viking are a bit similar, only Morris is better, but Agyemang offers something a bit different for defenders to worry about. No reason not to mix it up a bit occasionally though and Morris has shown he is a bit more than just an old-fashioned battering ram so Im sure he and Salvesen could also work.

Great summary. I do wonder about the comment "does not want the ball if under any kind of pressure". It's a basic requirement at any level - so presumably Adams is now in over his depth?

I think there are plenty of players below the top flight who get a bit flustered if they are pressed. Mainly defenders of course who, the lower down the leagues you go, just want to head it or kick it away from their goal rather than indulge in the fancy stuff. Im not saying Ebou can’t control the ball but he is out of his comfort zone receiving the ball facing his own goal and it shows. It’s a technical skill to control the ball, shield it and use it effectively and it’s to do with balance more than size. Hughes has it, Bannan has it for example but Ebou doesn’t.