Grimsby v Wrexham Preview

By: Alex Green
Date: 28/09/2010

WELL here it is let's all pile into the fun bus for another 90 minutes of sensational entertainment against Wrexham - let's hope we don't lose again.

Their History

Wrexham is in Wales you know. So are Swansea and Cardiff and Carlisle well not Carlisle but the others are. According to Wikipedia which everyone trusts with their lives. Well not everyone just journalists and broadcasters, Wrexham was formed in 1872 so cricketers had something to do over the winter. This was in the time before satellite television so they couldn't watch the Ashes in Australia if it had been around, football may never have taken off. Anyway the club was formed in The Turf Hotel in 1872 even though it says 1873 on the badge, those crazy Welsh bastards always up for a laugh. They won the first Welsh cup against the Druids, which is all a bit too Merlin and Excalibur for my liking, just seems one step away from playing in a Dungeons and Dragons league in their mums attic. The team being Welsh has had lots of opportunity in Europe the club have played in the Cup Winners Cup on several occasions and reached the Quarter finals in 1976 and have won the Third Division two seasons later. The team also play at the Racecourse Ground the oldest international stadium in the world and also boasts the largest terrace left in Britain.

Last Season

Ever since the club finished rock bottom of League Two in 2008. The team have spent the last two seasons wallowing in mid-table of the Conference trying to regroup and push back to where they belong in the Football League. Last season the club finished 11th, 20 points off the last play off spot and too close to comfort to relegation at times. An indifferent start to the season meant Wrexham were always playing catch up. The club managed to make it to the 2nd round of the FA Cup losing to Swindon. The club went 8 games without a win at one point from February to March yet never managed to drop a league position throughout the entire run. It was Wrexham’s destiny to stay mid-table throughout the season and they filled that brilliantly.

This Season

The club again had a start no one would be bothered to write home about. An opening day win against Cambridge was a good start but it took another 4 matches for them to record another which was followed up by 3 1-1 draws and then followed up with wins against Southport and most recently Histon. In fact aside from 2 early defeats against Forest Green and Eastbourne. Wrexham have gone 8 games without defeat slowly pushing up the league table. Experienced Marvin Andrews was brought into protect the backline over the summer, with over 97 international caps for Trinidad and Tobago under his belt manager Dean Saunders will hope his history and expertise could give the club a different edge come the crunch time.

Key Player. Dean Keates

Though not the clubs main scorer so far this season Keates has the experience and the skills to become a huge threat in any game Wrexham use him for. Now getting to the twilight of his career Keates will be familiar to many as he passed through Walsall, Hull Kidderminster, Lincoln, Peterborough and most recently Wycombe. He is the current captain of Wrexham and scored most recently from midfield against Histon on Saturday.

Prediction

The stakes couldn't be higher for Woods the club is in its lowest ever position and while many at the start of the season talked of midtable finishes they didn't expect them to fall to the likes of Altringham and Tamworth. Not to mention it’s nearly October and Fenty of Fentyland starts to get twitchy this time of the year. Must be something to do with the colours of the leaves.

Grimsby Town 1-1 Wrexham

1 Scott Shearer Goalkeeper
2 Curtis Obeng
3 Neil Ashton
4 Marvin Andrews
5 Chris Blackburn
6 Jay Harris
7 Gareth Taylor
8 David Brown
9 Andy Mangan
10 Marc Williams
11 Andrew Morrell
12 Dean Keates
14 Christian Smith
15 Frank Sinclair
16 Johnny Hunt
17 Adrian Cieslewicz
18 Wes Baynes
18 Jamie Tolley
19 Kevin Gall
20 Nathaniel Knight-Percival
21 Chris Maxwell Goalkeeper
22 Declan Walker

1 Kenny Arthur
2 Peter Bore
3 Lee Ridley
4 Mark Hudson
5 Darran Kempson
6 Scott Garner
7 Lewis Gobern
8 Michael Cummins
9 Charles Ademeno
10 Lee Peacock
11 Michael Coulson
13 Nick Colgan
14 Michael Leary
15 Dwayne Samuels
16 Steven Watt
17 Alan Connell
19 Bradley Wood
22 Mark Gray
24 Nathan Dixon
25 Robert Atkinson
28 Josh Fuller
29 Robert Eagle
38 Richard O'Donnell
40 Rob Peet

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