FINAL WHISTLE | Wrexham v Salford City

final score rexen 2 sford City one I'm Mark griffus from Rex FC and that was fun it was uh great to see the players who aren't getting that much pitch time in the league showing what they can do and a number of them certainly didn't do themselves any harm in terms of their prospects to get picked for the league side a word for sford though because they like us rotated their team heavily they got good strength and depth looking at that because they played a nice brand of passing football they were very patient and he made more chances against us than shy this a fairly even game but rexam coming through in the end so I can say rexam completely changed the entire side 11 changes second time that Phil Parks well third I suppose that Parks has done this season um and Salford actually with Rexel maybe not quite jelling uh had the better of the opening exchanges I suppose that was the patent until the last 20 minutes or so that sua dominated possession and made some chances the beauty of Rex's deep Squad of course is that if we are under pressure we know that just one decent ball into a good striker one of the many we've got can lead to a goal that was kind of the story of the first 20 minutes s for the moving it around well Kelly and Ma on the right was looking very Liv the left and was giving problems to Luke Bolton and yeah their best chance came after a quarter of an hour of in the opening stages really good spell of possession ended of Taylor who was also good down the right hand side although Jacob meny had a very good game up against him managing to rip it a tempting ball across the face of goal ma slid in with the defender and couldn't quite make contact at the far post almost immediately rexon went close and I thought this was an indication really of how the game was going at that point Mullen picking the ball up and out of nothing hitting a speculative shot from 25 yards but it was a good one it looped Beyond The Keeper but went wide to the post but it was a it I think a sign of Mullin the skipper saying mall and I are not getting enough service up here let's let's get this going and indeed within three minutes Mullin had his first goal of the Season it was a cracking goal although it was born out of an era by S and shepher trying to get down the right hand side squaring the ball really sloppily and picking up Seb Reven and ren carried the ball sensibly as far as he could before feeding the ball into Mullen right of Center And he as he often looks to do just cut inside set himself and curled a delicious shot with his left foot around the keeper and into the top Corner finishing of the highest quality and rexam had the lead sford responded well though they stuck with their game plan they continued to control play in Midfield it was a strange looking Midfield at Rex and picks I mean we looked at the team everybody was just trying to work out exactly how it would work because there were four Wing blacks in there uh and what it was was that Anthony Ford and Jacob meny both making welcome returns from injury uh came in Mendy was the left wing back the right wing back was Bolton and then Ford played as a right-sided midfielder in the three something he's done a lot in his career and ren played as the left-sided midfielder in the three something which as far as I'm aware he's never done in his career and then in the middle of the allall was James Jones who of course is a midfielder but he's a box to boxman Fielder isn't he we've never used him in a central controlling position like that um the trio had a bed in and once they did did a good job I thought but anyway sford like I said responded well to going behind they made a chance when a free kick was whipped into the round of penalty spot and kassi well no B closer than that was about six yards out and kassi got up between his men had a free head and put it over I've got to say I you know often you think oh the balls come a bit High it looks bad that you've missed from fairly close in but you know it was difficult to get to didn't think so on this occasion I think kaasi just misjudged it and and put a really good chance well over but they continues as halftime got closer Garbus had a free kick from about 25 yards out maybe a bit less which the wall deflected just wide I suspect it would have really tested Burton had it been on Target and not taken that clip and then five minutes before the break londs who worked hard in Midfield and was always done to offer angles hit a shot from 25 yards he went for placement didn't quite get it right but still it was a testing shot and Burton did well to come across and palm it over the bar the second half similar pattern and then in the 63rd minute came The Equalizer ma breaking down left beats Bolton Bolton thought the ball had gone out of play but I don't think it had and my having done that fed in a good ball to the halftime substitute as of that who popped her off nicely to his strike partner melany and he was very calm in the Box he just took it on and slaughtered the ball pass a helpless Burton so sord were back in it but rexon responded well there was an opportunity five minutes after that goal Bolton breaking in and cutting inside hitting a really powerful cross shot Mullen lunging into the six-yard box in front of an open goal just couldn't get a proper contact on it he put it over it was a difficult chance this is what I'm talking about before he was absolute full stretch in fact he had to stretch so much to reach it he actually turned his back on the balls it came in and just tried to strain himself as close to goal and he made contacts but he just couldn't keep it down um but rexon responding well and then came substitutions and I've got to say we used all five of our subs and the substitutions really worked I mean we had a very strong bench of players who played last Saturday plus Harry Ashfield and Aaron James and yeah the substitutions freshened us up and raised our quality I thought so basically Mullen Ford and Mendy the three players going back from injury made way in the 68th minute and we're replaced by OE bmer oie Rathbone and Max kth kth going into a holding Midfield role with James Jones stepping up to his more usual box tobox role and immediately we looked good immediately we got on top and the last 20 minutes belonged to us rthb doing well to find F who in turn helped her on and ren breaking down the left hand side threateningly burst past his men with his Pace but from a tight angle tried to drive it in and drove it into the side netting half the ground thought it was in but it wasn't then Ren with an excellent free kick from Deep swept into the goal mouth fou dived for it glancing contact when he needed something a bit further and it went wide to the post he was really disappointed with himself at not hitting the target you can see that by his body language and then he got subbed just to rub salt in the wounds and this double sub also made a difference bares coming on for Bolton and Harry asheld coming on for his second appearance of his professional career for fall so Ashfield playing off Palmer and oh my word what a de what a home debut for him he was effervescent terrific really live the running at Defenders wanting to get involved in everything um he did ever so well 83rd minute rexam got the winner Ren again with quality this time from the corner sweeping it in the keeper got blocked off and Bo was able to rise at the far post only a couple of yards out and head it into the empty net and rexam had that lead uh Ren I've got to say his delivery was very very good that was his second assist of the match and rexam yeah looked to be enjoying themselves then it became a bit end to end but we were deci side it looked like we had something to to offer as the game got stretched um Ashfield feeding the ball then clu doing brilliantly to poke a return pass when he was under pressure and Asheville driving on from about 30 yards to the edge of the box and hitting a rasping shot that went just over the bar in added time there was one last chance for sulfas they brought on Cole Stockton who of course had a pretty Anonymous loone spell with us but since then has gone on to score loads of goals um he came on up front and he had a chance first minute of four added on Tom Edwards ripping in a terrific cross in the air post Stockton got there first but it was hard to tell if he got a poor contact or no contact but the wall whizzed across the face of goal and it was a goal kick in fact it was Rex had the last effort on goal bares feeding a high diagonal Palmer knocking it down adroitly and Ashfield on the edge of the area back to goal taking a touch spinning and hitting a fine shot which again just whistled Over the Bar a a fun match an enjoyable game to watch we saw some players on the fringes really impressed and with Dobson and Lee you know carrying injuries at the moment you hope they're fit for Birmingham Cannon might be as well you would hope but certainly some of these players didn't do themselves any harm so looking at the performances Burton had nothing to do really he had one difficult say to make which and he well he made it well ping it over the bar and the goal he had no chance for which that be a terrific to stop that the three center backs yeah didn't do themselves any harm I thought Dan scar particularly was terrific he's you know he could really see we didn't see as much at Sheffield united we didn't this his physicality you he dominates the penalty area this guy's brought in as a major signing and he's not able to break in yet but you could see those qualities there he was a a really strong central defender in that three um to his left boiled a good game not just with the goal he looked very solid and likewise brunt who had some fun charges down the right hand side during the first half as well he's got a decent range of passing I think brunt too you can see how he fits into that rexon profile of having wide center backs who want to join in and steping into Midfield the wing backs uh Bolton didn't have the happiest time defensively against his old team and Mai was lightning and Bolton picked up a yellow quite early on as well and so it was a little bit of a challenge for him Mendy looked excellent really strong defensively as I said Taylor was trying to take him on around the outside constantly and rarely got across it Mendy was very good defensively and linked up nicely in attack too uh in the middle of Midfield like I said that rather unorthodox Midfield but they did well Ford I like Ford he's he's a good technical player and I hope he gets to show his F and and get that registration I think this would have been a decent step towards that but he was yeah he he did a good solid job on the like I saying they one of the flank positions in the Midfield three and used the ball intelligently I thought Jones was good played a real discipline like I said he wants to drive up and down but you know he knew that wasn't what they were using him for on this occasion and he was nice and tight in that defensive role a little bit more of a defensive midfielder maybe than we usually have in our team you know he was sitting off and protecting the back three quite a lot made some good interventions used the ball well and then Ren was terrific I mean two assists constantly fting him with his Pace had a couple of good efforts and goal as I said and used the ball intelligently good stuff from r i really really liked him and when he went out to left back left wing back where halfway through the second half and Mendy came off he again was still a constant threat and getting around the outside and causing issues up front but Mullen great to see him get good minutes under his Bel great to see him get that goal what beauty it was and path B chasing everything trying to make things happen far had an interesting debut he TR he was really trying to link up and uh some of the things he tried were cute and worked some didn't so he was a little bit up bit of a cur EG performance but uh he did all right he did all right didn't threaten the keeper really though that's the next stage you want to step on to but you can see what we've identified there he's quick and he's strong he wins a decent amount of headers and yeah I think it's going to be an interesting acquisition the substitutes like I said I think really turned the game uh they fresh legs R bone working like crazy got a decent Turner Pace on him as well driving on in Midfield kwth was tremendous uh as a defensive midfielder he's done it before I remember him being the best Rex and player by a Distance on the pitch at I broos when we played in the tonic car caramel wafer cup um and he was excellent in that role he was really good his interceptions were terrific kept stepping in his passing was excellent wow you know we got he's such a prospect at Center back but frankly he's such a prospected central defensive midfielder as well wow um Ashfield came on he was terrific I've said what I want to say about him really but he was Lively he liked to drop off he could play alongside Palmer two nice Striker Instinct with that second eff when he turns on headset he just was so sharp and you could see he was enjoying himself out there he looked looks technical he wants to join in with moves and and interact with players and find little angles for passes he very very exciting home debut Palmer came on up front and again did really well uh set up a couple of chances for Ashfield the two of them linked together in fact in a way i' would have been interested to see far alongside Palmer for longer than the 10 minutes they got because yeah I think we seeing a lot this season and the end of last season just how easy it is to link up with Palmer you know mullen's got a great com combination with him now Marius is combining brilliantly with him and would have been interesting to see a foul could have fed off him a little bit but Ashfield again certainly did and then Barnett didn't have that much time really to do anything on the rise hand side but did break forwards a couple of times using his Pace got a couple of balls into the box too so that was fun we're in a very strong position in that group now and I've only played one game uh off the top of my head I'm thinking right and saying we beat Wolves At Home in our next game they're under 21s we're through with the game to spare so yeah good stuff and a lot of players got minutes in their legs some may be used at Birmingham who knows but that was a very enjoyable uh match our fourth biggest ever LDV crowd too that's quite something when you think about it you know it's you see it you see the stadium sort of two-thirds full and you think oh my gosh that's a that's a shock we get sellouts now listen to me what am I saying it's it's unbelievable isn't it but yeah it was uh a fourth biggest ever crowd in this tournament not bad so very good the final score of rexam 2 sford City one I'm Mark Griff from Rex AFC