Since our last report, Blues have continued our form through two cups and the league, and went into arguably the toughest away game of the season 14 games unbeaten.
Lincoln were the first visitors to St Andrews in front of a reduced crowd for the FA Cup 3rd Round. Blues featured a heavily rotated side following an intense schedule, and a Dykes worldie resulted in passage to the 4th round, where Blues will now host Premier League side Newcastle in a couple of weeks. A trip to Swindon followed in the Vertu Trophy Round of 16, with a similarly rotated 11 securing back to back 2-1 victories; this time in the dying seconds from a Cochrane corner, setting us up for an away trip to Stevenage in the Quarter Final. We returned to league action to host Exeter, and came out 1-0 winners at St Andrews in a game that will not live long in the memory, courtesy of Ethan Laird’s first goal in Royal Blue.
Our next trip took us to Wrexham, who boast the best home record in League One – 9 points ahead of Blues, but with 3 further games played. The Welsh side are the only other undefeated team at home in League One this season, and have turned the Racecourse into a fortress throughout their climbing of the football league since their Hollywood takeover.
It would be a tough test for Blues. Nobody can knock our results, but recent games have featured narrow scorelines, and although it’s a good sign that we’re not losing when suffering from poor form, questions have been raised about the performance levels of the side. And Davies has had to contend with numerous injuries picked up throughout the festive period. Paik and Iwata, ever present with their high quality, haven’t been seen in the matchday squad since our 3-0 victory over Wigan due to injury. Willumsson is also on the sideline, meaning we’ve missed our starting 3 midfielders. Hansson, Buchanan and Anderson are also out, although the latter returned to the bench for our trip to north Wales.
Davies lined up in his typical 4-2-3-1 shape, featuring Allsop, Laird, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane, Leonard, Gardner-Hickman, Wright, Dykes, Stansfield and May.
The game started with intensity, as both sides rose to the occasion hyped up by the media. But it was Wrexham who would take the lead early, as they did in the reverse fixture. Ollie Palmer challenged Gardner-Hickman just inside the Blues third, which the referee deemed fair, and Rathbone came away with it. He ran into the space left by our midfield pairing following the tackle and struck early, with a lovely curling effort which beat Allsop at his far post. Credit where credit is due – it was a great strike.
Blues responded well, settling into our rhythm on the ball and playing at a decent tempo. There were a couple of penalty shouts for Blues in the first half, including numerous handball claims and a push on Gardner-Hickman – but none were given, and none were stonewall in my opinion. We picked up several corners, and they were mostly aimed at the far post with one player peeling away from the crowd. This tactic would return dividends on the 19th minute, when Dykes met the ball with a free header and it deflected off the back of Dobson and into his own net to bring Blues level.
We dominated possession for the rest of the half, but were unable to break down the league’s 2nd best defence to create a chance. Wrexham had a late free kick seconds before half time which fell for Rathbone, but he couldn’t direct his shot on target.
Half time: Wrexham 1-1 Blues (Dykes?)
The second half would start in similar vein to how the first did, with both sides battling to wrestle control of the game for the first 20 minutes. Scott Wright was replaced by Keshi Anderson, returning from his injury on the 65th minute. He would have an immediate impact after being introduced, flashing a low ball across to Alfie May who couldn’t sort his feet out in time to convert.
But in rare fashion this season, it was our opponents Wrexham who won the battle for control of the 2nd half. They had pot shots from distance and cross-shots which Allsop had to be alert for, and then on the 70th minute introduced Steven Fletcher and Paul Mullins to give the Blues defence fresh legs to contend with for the final 20 minutes.
McClean went close from a corner delivered to the near post which Allsop scrambled away, Fletcher found himself in space from a wide free kick and forced Allsop into another save before Gardner-Hickman scrambled away, and Fletcher again picked the ball up just inside the Blues third but couldn’t fashion a chance past Klarer and Davies.
The second half from 65-70 minutes onwards was full of Wrexham pressure. Balls into the box from wide positions and set pieces were headed away by a strong Blues backline, and long shots were dealt with by Allsop, but we failed to regain control and couldn’t get out and hit Wrexham on the counter with regularity.
Our best chance of the half came from Gardner-Hickman, driving forwards from midfield straight at the heart of the Wrexham defence, but his shot was dragged wide. He might’ve been better playing in Anderson in space on the right – but hindsight is 20/20.
Wrexham have a propensity to score late goals, particularly at home, so the final minutes were nervy. But Blues held on and dug in, seeing out the final minutes and securing a point on the road. It was certainly the sort of game you don’t want to lose, and despite not being at our best, we showed character and fight to defend our box and come away with something, and extend our unbeaten run to 15 games across all competitions.
Blues were forced into fielding a weaker side in midfield and had both Scott Wright and Jay Stansfield not looking at their best following returns from injury. Our next game won’t be much easier either, with a trip to Huddersfield coming next Tuesday. The Terriers are on a great run themselves, 16 games unbeaten in league football since being defeated at St Andrews in early October. They have been bolstered with January additions to their strike force, in the form of £3m man Joe Taylor from Luton and Dion Charles from promotion rivals Bolton. Michael Helik has gone the other way to Oxford, and will be missed at the back, but Huddersfield will fancy their chances at home.
Credit to Wrexham for their performance in the 2nd half, certainly if you were to pick a winner in the dying moments it would’ve been the hosts. But we take a point and move on, looking to keep our run intact as we move into February.
Keep Right On.
Full time: Wrexham 1-1 Blues (Dykes?)