Well there I was 16th December 2008 at the Victoria Stadium at kick off time. I must have been the only Wrexham fan there though because of the vagaries of the Cheshire Police we were not allowed to play Northwich yet strangely York City were at only 3 (THREE) days notice. I guess it's academic in the end as FA Trophy replays would take precedence and even if our constabulary friends had allowed the clubs to rearrange for 16th December it would have been postponed due to Northwich v York in the trophy.

As to the match it was pretty dire fayre in front of 393 hardy souls (no wonder Vics as a club is dying on it's feet) in torrential rain. Ingham and Foyle v Crowell and despite Matty being Vics best player the Yorkie boys came out on top and sent Northwich crashing out and looking like certain relegation fodder unless Steve King can work a miracle.

Steve

This is more of a rant than a blog - just what planet was Mr Simpson on last night? OK Steve's red card was a given but as for Williamson and their guy what game was he watching?
As a result the paying public witnessed an extra time period where to be honest 9v10 was a complete lottery. The worst tackle of the night was given a yellow card as Mr.Simpson lost the plot.

The officials have a big part to play and this one spoiled the game. Football, however is all about opinions and I'm sure someone somewhere thought he did a good job. They are entitled to their opinion as I am to mine.

What an amazing 120 minutes at The Racecourse last night! The match aside coupled with the Reserve match at Wolves earlier in the day Deano is obviously assessing everyone in his squad prior to the January transfer window. Anthony Williams, Steve Evans, Tom Kearney, Levi Mackin all started against Southport whilst it was interesting to note that Chris Maxwell and Chris Marriott played at Wolves. Maxwell and Marriott have been on loan at Connahs Quay and Cefn Druids respectively and Saunders was obviously running his eye over them at a higher level.

So who will stay and who will go, who will come in and can Dean wheel and deal and put together a squad capable of closing the gap on leaders Burton Albion. Let's face it the Setanta shield was useful for giving fringe players game time but the real business starts again a week on Satrurday when we entertain Ebbsfleet. We must get out of this League but only time will tell

Steve

Two matches away from home against Kidderminster and Stevenage, one good performance, one not so good, one win and one loss and it goes to show what a great game association football is as we lost the one we played well in and won the one when we didn't. The difference - that elusive lady luck. At Kiddy we hit the frame of the goal three times and met a goalkeeper in great form and at Stevenage we had a goal allowed when Jon Brown looked offside when he crossed, another one that took a deflection after Jeff Louis could easily have been penalised for backing in, whilst our bar was struck and Gavin Ward was in sensational form to deny the home strikers on several occasions. There are many rational reasons for the above but just in case let's pray Lady Luck stays with us for the rest of the season!!

Steve

Well as someone once said "You can't win anything with kids". "Saunders' Saplings" set out tomorrow at Stevenage to prove Mr.Hansen wrong once again as we could potentially have 9 players under the age of 21 in the starting line up. Allowing for the fact that the 6 loan players (although only 5 can be in the squad) plus Baynes, Mike and Marc Williams and Neil Taylor are still under that age. Only the dinosaur that is Gavin Ward and father figure Ashley Westwood are likely to start tomorrow as Saunders continues his quest, promised after the Eastwood defeat, to bring talent to the club. An interesting point to note is that four of the loan players were born in the month of October; Tslakis, Woolfe, Fairhurst and Williamson. Does success as a professional footballer improve if born under the sign of Libra? Let's hope so for the next month or so anyway!

Well despite a decent performance the Deano revolution stuttered a bit yesterday with a defeat at Kidderminster. In my view the two sides on show at Aggborough yesterday will be there or thereabouts in the promotion shake up as although Kiddy won the game Wrexham had more than enough chances to have taken the points back to North Wales. From the way the home side celebrated their victory I suspect they felt the same way and with three strikes of the woodwork and at least two fantastic saves from a quality keeper any of which on another day could have gone in, I think Wrexham will play worse than this and win games, whilst if Kiddy can keep their main players fit they will certainly test most teams in this league. My only concern for them is do they have the strength in depth in their squad. On a slightly different topic the cottage pie and famous Aggborough soup is certainly well above the normal fayre you find on football grounds and certainly went down well with the members of the press box. I had an interesting conversation with Peter Bodak, the ex Coventry and Swansea player, who was working for PA sports reminiscing about the days when we used to play in the Welsh cup and qualify for Europe. So in summary apart from the result we had a decent performance, excellent food and some good company to make the trip a good one, the only thing missing was a goal and some points.

Steve

I'm beginning to get a little concerned about the fixture pile up we are already heading for in the middle of November. We have already called off Histon and Forest Green and with Northwich needing to be rearranged after the Setanta Shield game against Southport has been moved we are likely to be three games behind before the worst of the winter weather arrives. Whilst The Racecourse has a good record of getting games on we will be visiting some lesser grounds during the winter months and a bit of frost or rain could again result in postponements. Games in hand are not as useful as points on the board.

Well the first weekend that Wrexham have not been involved in First Round FA Cup action since I started following them 30 years ago. What did I do with my time, well I took in a tie at Crewe where Ebbsfleet were the visitors and whilst it was nice not to have an emotional tie to either team the fayre on offer was pretty poor and it got me thinking about the great cup ties over the years.....Arsenal (twice), Newcastle, Middlesbrough, West Ham and on and on. Then it was home to read about any potential signings Patrick Suffo looks a good one of he is fit and another combatitive midfielder from Stoke. Dean certainly appears to be getting some backing from Geoff Moss and seems to be bringing in some quality. At least when the next cup competition starts the FA Trophy it will be primarily Saunders team playing Saunders way..........dreams of Wembley suddenly come flooding back........Come on you Reds!

Steve

Well another three points and Deano continues his 100% record in the league. I wonder if Mike remembers this goal!! I thought the two new loan signings showed promise in a side with five changes it was always going to take a while to gel but as the second half progressed De Laet had made one or two good runs and the signs were that with Baynes as well down the right they could form a potent attacking force. Tslakias not quite as positive but plenty to come from him I think.

A special mention to the 11 hardy souls who travelled up from Lewes - they have had a season of turmoil and whilst 11 is a pathetic away following at this level the ones who did travel deserve praise for their efforts so well done guys.

Mark made an interesting point in commentary that 6 of the 10 league goals Wrexham have scored under Saunders have come from the Williams' brothers amazing turn around seeing as neither of them featured regularly under Brian Little - makes you wonder what other little nuggets Deano can find in the squad.

Finally for this blog looking forward to Altrincham away - with any luck as we do not have a game on Saturday we will see a strong Wrexham line up and we can put rest to the nightmare of a performance we gave in the league game there. Come on you Reds!!!!

Steve

Thirty years of supporting the mighty Reds means I have seen many ups and even more downs but this is my first blog and I feel that as I post this we are on an up. Ok yesterday wasn't the greatest performance against Eastwood but you only have to listen to Dean Saunders interview and immediately you start thinking we should have won that game. The guy exudes positivity and this can only be good for our beloved club because the previous incumbent, whatever your views, certainly in my own personal view didn't.

So onwards and upwards three league wins on the spin and still in the FA Cup there are many reasons to be cheerful but to me the main one is our new manager. Strength to your elbow Deano because I really believe you are going to take us back where we belong - The Football League.

Steve