Racecourse Ground Monday, April 17th, 2006   League Two Attendance: 3,749       Wrexham 1-0 Bristol Rovers       Derbyshire 5
2005 /06

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WREXHAM 1-0 BRISTOL ROVERS Derbyshire 5 ATTENDANCE: 3,749 WREXHAM: Mark Jones, Shaun Pejic, Dennis Lawrence, Simon Spender, Danny Williams, Matthew Crowell, Darren Ferguson (Dean Bennett 82), Andy Holt (Alex Smith 45), Sam Williams, Matt Derbyshire, Lee McEvilly (Jonathan Walters 67) Unused Substitutes: Matt Done, Mike Williams BRISTOL ROVERS: Scott Shearer, Aaron Lescott, Steve Elliott, Craig Hinton, Chris Carruthers, Stuart Campbell (Chris Lines 85), James Hunt, Craig Disley, Lewis Haldane (Ali Gibb 62), Richard Walker, Junior Agogo Substitutes: Martin Horsell, Christian Edwards, Darren Mullings REFEREE: L Mason A persistent second half bombardment proved fruitless at the Racecourse Ground this afternoon as Wrexham hammered perhaps the final nail into the coffin of Rovers' play-off dreams. The Welsh side won the game thanks to a fifth minute strike from Matt Derbyshire, and although there was plenty of gusto and pressure from the visitors after the break, Mark Jones saw his goal live a charmed life as Wrexham held on for all three points. The first half performance from Rovers left little to write home about, with a sluggish start and minimal creativity being rewarded with virtually nothing in the final third of the pitch. And it was some woeful defending from virtually the first attack of the game that saw Wrexham score what proved to be the only goal of the match, as Derbyshire latched on to a superb through-ball from Darren Ferguson before calmly slotting home past Scott Shearer. Rovers conjured up a couple of half-hearted attacks which saw a James Hunt effort strike a defender and Craig Disley fire wide, before Wrexham went close to scoring a second as Lee McEvilly aimed his free-kick from the edge of the box just over the crossbar. The rest of the first half was pretty much a non-event, and from the performance of both sets of players it would have been hard to tell that a play-off place was potentially up for grabs. The second half was a different story, and although ultimately it was too little too late from Rovers, at least the travelling army of 481 Gasheads would have felt they got some value for their time, effort and money. Junior Agogo directed a Chris Carruthers ball just wide of the target, before Stuart Campbell sent a rasping drive just over the angle after good hold-up play from Richard Walker in the penalty box. Sam Williams skied high and wide as Wrexham enjoyed a rare forage forward, before Campbell just failed to get his foot to a low Agogo cross that would almost certainly have resulted in an equaliser. The away side continued to force Wrexham back, and it needed some fantastic last-gasp defending from Ferguson to scoop the ball over the crossbar following a superb delivery across the six-yard box from Ali Gibb that was on its way to two unmarked Rovers players. Campbell saw a shot blocked, with Disley's effort from the loose ball then somehow deflected wide of the target for a corner and then Craig Hinton was next to be denied as his flick crept just wide of the target. Agogo was less than a yard away from making contact with a Walker cross after some great play in the build-up from Chris Lines, Walker deflected a Carruthers drive straight into the arms of Jones from eight yards, and then Agogo should really have done better from ten yards out as he failed to test the goalkeeper with a poor effort. Dean Bennett produced a save from Shearer on the counter-attack as Wrexham managed to break out of their own half, and then two decent late efforts from Lines could only produce corners as Wrexham somehow managed to hold out. It would be hard to argue that Rovers didn't deserve at least a point from this game, but as has been seen on far too many occasions this season, it takes going a goal down or something significant happening on the pitch to jolt the players into action. Wrexham were off-form and there for the taking today, but a drab start and an unmotivated look about the team set this one up from the outset. The play-offs are almost certainly out of reach now, and come the end of the season, it will be one-goal defeats such as this, that could and possibly should never have been allowed to happen, that will ultimately have proved the most costly.