Good memories of the Racecourse

Last updated : 17 July 2007 By Tony Scholes

Wrexham looked to be heading out of the Football League last May but survived on the last day of the season with a home win against Boston, their fourth win in five games. Defeat against Boston would have seen them relegated.

I for one was delighted they survived for a number of reasons. One was that there were clubs I preferred to take the drop, the other being that Wrexham would probably still be playing their football in League One had they not fell into the wrong ownership a few years ago in Alex Hamilton.

The fact that they are still playing football, and definitely playing football at the Racecourse, is something of a miracle given that Hamilton had managed to secure the ground for himself and was ready to sell it. Well done to the Wrexham fans for winning their fight, and well done on still being in the league.

Forcing him out meant going into administration, and the subsequent ten point deduction cost them a relegation two years ago. They were the first club to drop ten points under the new rule but it was a decision they had to take for the whole future of the club.

So it is good to be back there tonight against a side now managed by former player Brian Carey who took over in January of this year from Denis Smith as they struggled at the bottom of the league.

Carey's task now is to rebuild the club. He released a couple of players at the end of the season including former Claret Lee Roche and has so far added four players to his squad who are:

Anthony Williams from Carlisle
Michael Proctor from Hartlepool
Richard Hope from Shrewsbury
Eifion Williams from Hartlepool


The first of those two were with Wrexham on loan at the end of last season and Carey has decided to make the moves permanent whilst the second two are new signings. They've all featured in their pre-season games to date, the first against Liverpool and the second against Blackburn Rovers, both of which ended in one goal defeats.

After the Burnley game the Wrexham squad will continue their build up to the new season in Ireland.


One to Watch

Michael Proctor - whilst with Bradford City
Do you remember that embarrassing game at Bradford City almost five years ago, the one when we managed to lose two points in the last minute against a side that had been reduced to nine men?

It's one that sticks in my mind - and tonight three of the four scorers from that game will be on view, the one missing is Gareth Taylor. Robbie Blake got our second and our goals were sandwiched between two from the home side, the first from Andy Gray and that stoppage time equaliser from Michael Proctor.

Proctor was on loan at the time from Sunderland. He was still to make his Premiership bow but Peter Reid had sent him out for his third loan spell, previously he'd been to Halifax and York. His goal against the Clarets was his third in six games for Bradford City.

One his return to the Stadium of Light he was straight into the squad under the management of Howard Wilkinson and Steve Cotterill and made his debut in a surprise 3-2 win at Arsenal. Probably his most memorable game in Sunderland colours, for all the wrong reasons, came three months later against Charlton when in the space of eight first half minutes they conceded three own goals, Proctor getting the second and third.

A year later he was away from his home town club permanently, moving to Rotherham in a swap deal that saw Darren Byfield move the other way, and since then he's played for both Swindon and Hartlepool before joining Wrexham last March on loan.

He's scored twice for the Welsh club, and how important they both were. His first was the only goal of the game at Shrewsbury and his second was the last goal in the 3-1 win over Boston on the final day of the season to make absolutely sure they would still be in the league.


Team News

The home side have some injury problems ahead of the game and a number of players won't feature. Simon Spender is the latest to be ruled out after going over on an ankle and he joins Neil Roberts (unwell) and Andy Fleming on the list of absentees. Also out are long term injury victims Juan Ugarte, Alex Darlington and Matt Crowell.

Wrexham are expected to select from: Mike Jones, Neil Taylor, Gareth Evans, Richard Hope, Danny Williams, Mark Jones, Chris Llewellyn, Chris Simms, Marc Williams, Robyn Kanaclic, Anthony Williams, Ryan Valentine, Mike Williams, Shaun Pejic, Steve Evans, Levi Mackin, Conall Murtagh, Mike Carvill, Kiad Mohamed, Matty Done.

Click HERE to see the full Wrexham squad

It will be the same again for the Clarets with Steve Cotterill probably wanting to give all his squad a run out although much will depend on player availability. Both Joey Gudjonsson and Wayne Thomas missed out on Saturday with knee and back injuries respectively and Chris McCann was forced off during the first half with an ankle knock.

To add to that Steve Jones was absent due to a family bereavement. There will be one new name added with Stephen Jordan, signed yesterday, expected to make his first appearance in Burnley colours.

The squad is: Gabor Kiraly, Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Steven Caldwell, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Ade Akinbiyi, Andy Gray, Wade Elliott, Brian Jensen, John Spicer, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Alan Mahon, Jay Rodriguez, Robbie Blake, Steve Jones, Besart Berisha, Stephen Jordan.


Last Time Round

Andy Payton - the Natural Born Claret
We've had some good times over the years at the Racecourse and a number of visits are easy to recall. There was an outstanding performance there in 1988 in a 3-1 win with goals from George Oghani, Ashley Hoskin and an own goal.

Three seasons later and we went one better, winning 4-2 with goals the goals this time scored by Joe Jakub, John Francis and two from Peter Mumby, and just one year after that came the sensational hat trick from Graham Lancashire in the 6-2 win under caretaker boss Jimmy Mullen.

When we were in desperate need of a win in 1996 as we faced the drop where better to go, this time Kurt Nogan and Liam Robinson got the goals, with Robinson's a sensational finish.

And then there was our last visit in 2000, at a time when we'd lost our two previous games, the only time we lost successive games all season. Both had been at home, to Preston and Luton, and we'd failed to score in either so Stan Ternent recalled Andy Payton for this game and left out Ian Wright. We could never have known at the time but Wright was not to start another game for Burnley.

Payton was to return in the only way Payton could, it took him all of six minutes to score and this was the day the 'Natural Born Claret' was born. It was his 200th goal and he celebrated in front of the Burnley crowd displaying that message on a white t-shirt under his shirt. From that day he was known as the Natural Born Claret.

It didn't lead to an exciting expansive game of football, in fact for the next 84 minutes we defended solidly and at times so deep I thought two of our central defenders were behind me in the stand. It worked, we got the points, and moved on towards promotion.

The teams were;

Wrexham: Kevin Dearden, Mark McGregor, Phil Hardy (Martyn Chalk 82), Gareth Owen, Brian Carey, Kevin Russell, Karl Connolly, David Ridler, Robin Gibson, Andy Morrell (Craig Faulconbridge 63), Darren Ferguson. Subs not used: Danny Williams, Kevin Hannon, Kristian Rodgers.

Burnley: Paul Crichton, Glen Little (Dean West 82), Ian Cox, Steve Davis, Mitchell Thomas, Paul Smith, Micky Mellon, Paul Cook (Ronnie Jepson 72), Lenny Johnrose, Andy Cooke (Ian Wright 74), Andy Payton. Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, John Mullin.