Wrexham manager Dean Keates. Pic: Wrexham FC.

‘Chorley’ Dragons Can Earn National League Safety

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Wrexham FC are down in the Vanarama National League dumps, but they are far from out. The Dragons have a major recovery plan for 2020.

Their 2-0 defeat at Maidenhead United was a body blow which kept them in the relegation zone, but most of their fellow strugglers also lost.

Maidenhead were the only team in the bottom seven to win – and that alone is a positive for Wrexham.

The next match for manager Dean Keates and his team is against Chorley away when they aim to complete a double, heaving beaten the bottom club 3-1 at home on Boxing Day.

Wrexham make the 150 miles round trip to play Lancashire club Chorley on New Year’s Day and that is a massive fixture for the Welsh club.

“We go again and we’ll have big numbers in terms of fans travelling to Chorley,” says Keates. “We have to go and earn three points. It’s a huge match.

“It’s going to be a scrap to get out of the situation we’re in. We’ve picked up nine points out of a possible 15. If you talk about it at the beginning of a season; 10 points out of a possible 15 gives you 90 points so we’re not a million miles away.

“The only frustrating thing for me is one minute we’re picking up decent points and producing good performances and then we don’t. We’re either black or white, we aren’t finding a grey patch. 

“If we’re not winning, we need to grind something out and make sure it finishes 0-0 or 1-1.

“We are on a performance roller coaster. An emotional roller coaster. We are inconsistent at being consistent.

“Is it a mentality thing or confidence?  We won three out of four and that should have given us momentum, but our performances are polar opposites.”

The next task for Keates is to go head-to-head with Chorley manager Jamie Vermiglio, who is headteacher of a Warrington primary school. 

Danny Whitehall scored twice for Maidenhead, after 23 and 53 minutes, and condemned Wrexham to a damaging defeat.

Now Wrexham travel to Chorley on New Year’s Day before back-to-back home fixtures against Aldershot on Saturday and then Woking.

Maidenhead United: Dunn, Clerima, Ellul, Fenelon (Kelly 42), Comley, Whitehall (Cassidy 82), Twumasi, Sheckleford, Akintunde (Steer 90), Upward, Massey. Subs not used: Mensah, Smile.

Wrexham: Lainton, Reid (Rutherford 55), Kennedy, Lawlor (Carrington 78), Pearson, Jennings, Redmond (Patrick 55), Summerfield, Young, Grant, Hooper. Subs not used: Dibble, Harris

Referee: Steven Copeland (Merseyside)

Attendance: 1,472 (away 200)

Vanarama National League

Team P GD Pts
1 Barrow 26 19 49
2 Yeovil 28 16 48
3 Bromley 28 11 47
4 Harrogate 28 8 46
5 Stockport 28 0 44
6 Notts County 27 14 42
7 Solihull Moors 26 11 41
8 Boreham Wood 27 9 41
9 Woking 27 1 41
10 Halifax 27 -3 41
11 Dover 26 1 39
12 Barnet 26 6 38
13 Eastleigh 26 -1 37
14 Torquay 28 -4 37
15 Hartlepool 27 1 36
16 Sutton United 28 0 36
17 Maidenhead United 28 -7 34
18 Dag & Red 28 -7 31
19 Aldershot 27 -9 31
20 Fylde 27 -10 30
21 Wrexham 28 -7 29
22 Chesterfield 28 -12 27
23 Ebbsfleet 27 -13 24
24 Chorley 28 -24 24

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